As the Dutch came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and then by the burghers on the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, borne from private matches. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English throne in 1660, the city of Amsterdam sent him a 20-metre (66-foot) leisure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), built additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting became fashionable with the affluent and royalty, but after that time the fashion did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and held large naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club endured, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when joining with other clubs, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some organized fashion on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to the throne in 1820, it was then called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association had been initiated at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal patronage made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continued location of British racing. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. Each member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for large bets were held, and the society life was superlative. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English gained power. Sailing was mostly for leisure and reached its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and established a benchmark of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts followed the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the later half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was first heavily affected by the win of America, which was created by George Steers for a group led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its win at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and crafted in a contemporary sense, with merely a model being used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the use of the science of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what such science had earlier done for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats had to be individually manufactured, there arose a desire for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which is found in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the fastest growing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to single requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for those boats can be had on an even keel with no handicapping required. A prime example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting was an activity mostly for the nobility and the rich, money was no problem, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The rise and desire of smaller craft occurred in the latter half of the 19th century in the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A journey around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the hardiness of small boats. Later in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and recreational yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, during which steam began to replace sail power in commercial craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in personal yachts. Large power yachts were developed to a high element, and long-distance sailing became a fond pastime of the well off. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to those powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht archetype for several years. By the later half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were solely power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.
In the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the design of large steam yachts. Conspicuous within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned by a crew of at least 150. The Mayflower, purchased by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and gave active service in World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were developed, many bigger boats started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, advanced in World War I. During the decade following that, bigger power-yacht manufacture grew, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the best auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of large power yachts fell away in 1932, and the trend after that was for smaller, less costly yachts. From World War II, lots of small naval craft were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a widespread loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually owning and upkeeping their own small recreational boats. The amount of yachts and sailors is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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