Tents and Marquees

2010 September 2
by squadron

marquees-pavillion-3Event Tents, such as wedding tents are used when you want to make a fabulous outdoor scene. They are generally structures installed at a location for a period of time.

Why A Tent?
Commercial Tents are used as protection from the sun, rain or a gathering place. They can make a stunning and creative atmosphere for any event.

Tent Rentals
Tents can be rented or leased for a day, a weekend, weeks, months, etc. For one or two day events, the Tents are usually installed a few days before the event, depending on scheduling and weather, and remain until a few days after the event. Many rentals are quoted for the entire week, allowing for time to set up and design the interior and exterior. Some Tents are built for exceedingly long-term events and have been installed and remain installed for years.

What Kind of Tent Should I Rent?
Tent rental companies come in all sizes – from small-sized companies with just a few Tents to exceedingly large-sized companies – carrying dozens of several sizes and styles of Tents. Some general rental companies rent from tent rental companies to accommodate their client’s needs.

You may know you want to use a standard Tent for your event, or your event planner may already have in mind to use a Tent. You have options! There are lots of other remarkable
structures and Tent styles out there. Some are unique and make a statement of their own. Ask the rental company you’re working with for a list of the type styles they have on hand.

Usually, the different types of Tents available in most companies are (the names vary depending of the company):

Folding Tents Easy and fast to use and always in demand. Very popular, because usually is the less expensive tent. Fast, flexible, cost effective and long lasting.

They are used by:

  • Corporate brands across most industries
  • Government & Council buyers
  • SME business marketers
  • Franchisees
  • Agricultural exhibitors
  • Emergency services & community groups
  • Folding Tents create brand exposure opportunities.
  • You can reach your audience at the right time, in the right place with the right message.

Inflatable Tents An exciting and entertaining alternative Tent. Easy & fast to set up. Be sure they have removable printed roof because in that way you can share the investment with other licences.

What Size Tent Will I Need?

The size of Tent depends on a few factors:

1. The number of guests you expect
2. Layout or seating arrangements or the style of event:

* Reception with what type of tables?
* Speaker engagement with what type of seating?
* Will you need a dance floor?
* Will you need display areas for your products?

If you are interested in a Tent, you can expect to need about 2,000 – 2,500 square feet for 200-seated guests. That could mean a 40 x 60 size Tent (Always ask the Tent rental vendor directly and they’ll give you the best informationabout the size of Tent you’ll need).

Therefore, the key rule is; know what you are going to use your tent for. The choice of tents is amazing, almost on par with the choice of cars that you can buy.

So if you need a tent for the family BBQ, for example, your needs are fairly fundamental
and your budget may be tight. Look for cheap tents that offers a waterproof Polyester roof and a good warranty for under $600.

If you need a tent for a school or sports club you will need a selection of sizes, and colours. Most plain colour Tents s range between $995- $2900. If you are keen to advertise yourself, you can have your names printed for around $150-$300. Printing logos usually cost a little more.

In the last 5 years, portable Tents have become important to businesses for their marketing. The key need for these buyers is a prominent and quality reproduction of their logo. Sign written or printed Tents can be as boring as a website address or they can be a design extravaganza.

Remember, if it is for commercial purposes, the aim is to build recognition of your company with your printed Tent. Printed corporate Tents range in price from $1500- $4000. Good ones will really catch your eye.

Once you have decided on what sort of buyer you are and how you are going to use your Tents, a good Tents company will offer you a choice of frames, a warranty of between 3-5 years and help with designing the printing-if you need it.

For more information about tents, contact Extreme Marquees. We have a range of cheap tents, for all sorts of home and business applications.

New Zealand’s Top Holiday Cities

2010 August 23

New Zealand has a brilliant array of breathtaking landscapes. Like imposing mountain ranges, endless coastlines, abundant rainforests, deep fiords, snow capped mountains and steaming volcanoes. These picturesque wonders have all made New Zealand an appealing destination for all kinds of holidays.

Awesome travel packages and holiday specials are available on quality accommodation in modern city hotels and luxurious wilderness lodges at slashed prices. Among the top holiday destinations in New Zealand, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland would definitely be there. Travel Online is a celebrated online specialist travel operator and provides wonderful tourist services for New Zealand. Travel Online provides an instant quote and booking service for accommodation in cities right across the country.

Queenstown
The international resort town of Queenstown is situated on the shoreline of Wakatipu Lake. This beautiful region is among the most scenic locations on the globe. Throughout the year adventurous and stimulating sports like jet boating, bungy jumping, and white water rafting take place. This town is the epicentre of the entire world’s bungy jumping activities too. With the advent of winter, the town gets transformed to an alpine wonderland with snowboarders and skiers from all corners of the world assembling at the annual Winter Festival.

There is constant request for Queenstown Accommodation all round the year and Travel Online offers a select group of hotels best suited for New Zealand holidays. 1, 2, 3 or 4 bedroom apartments, with modern facilities, gyms, spas and fantastic views are available at various holiday retreats across the city. Larger apartments with more bedrooms, tennis courts, private jetties and fitness centres are also available at a higher price. Luxury complexes with studio rooms in the vicinity of cafes, bars, and restaurants are also found in Travel Online’ Queenstown Accommodation selection.

Christchurch
When choosing a place to stay in Christchurch look for hotels that give views over the beautiful Victoria Square, across the transfixing Avon River or towards the epochal Anglican Cathedral. Situated on New Zealand’s South Island, this cosmopolitan city is always abuzz with fantastic festivals, shopping spots, theaters and art galleries. Hotels overlooking Victoria Square provide visitors with an insight in to the city’s English history.

Individuals accommodated in the vicinity of the Christchurch Cathedral will find hotel rooms with a Manhattan-style feel. Tradition and elegance are everywhere in these hotels along with a keen eye on service excellence. Spacious bedrooms with full-fledged kitchen facilities are common, along with hi-tech conference facilities, resort-like leisure features like spas, saunas, gyms, and swimming pools. Many of these hotels provided by Travel Online are located in the vicinity of the Technology Park, the International Antarctic Centre, and the airport. Travelers who want to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the cosmopolitan life will find suitable accommodation in the magnificentcountryside surrounding the city.

Auckland
Auckland, also known as the City of Sails, is located in between 2 harbors and has more boats per person than anywhere on the planet. Within minutes a person has the choice of sailing away on yachts to isolated nearby islands, living the high life in the casino, surfing at winding beaches or tasting the exotic wines at local vineyards. Hotels come in stylish and comfortable studios, and luxurious executive / marina suites. Travel Online caters to the tastes of corporate and business tourists and can beat any price seen on Auckland accommodation advertised. Auckland harbor is splendid, and is seen perfectly from atop Sky City and the surrounding accommodation.

Affordable and comfortable apartments are available for casual tourists, equipped with kitchens, laundries, and balconies to provide a memorable holidaying experience. Visitors to Auckland adore visiting the Antarctic Encounter, which showcases the only penguins present in the sub-Antarctic region. More adventures include cage-bereft shark dives, scuba expeditions and snorkel safaris. New Zealand is waiting.

Travel Online has a wide range of Queenstown accommodation close to all the snow action and cosmopolitan Christchurch accommodation surrounded by all that theatre and art. For holidays in and around the water, Auckland accommodation is as good as anywhere in the world.

Repairing Flooded Carpet: A cheap job is a good job right? Wrong….

2010 August 18
by squadron

Don’t have a novice 24 hour carpet cleaner try to repair your water damaged carpets. These are the worries you must be careful of:

Overcharging. An inexperienced water restoration cleaner may build the job up with unnecessary inclusions. E.g. using dehumidification on the damaged carpets isn’t always needed.

Correct equipment. They can borrow equipment from hire businesses for drying the carpet. This is all right, but an established water damage technician will possess all their equipment so they offer a quicker response and hopefully a better value job.

Does not have a proper moisture metre. If they don’t have the choice moisture meter, they will not be able to see whether the carpet is fixed. This enhances the risk of mould in future. Mould removal may be required in the future.

Specialised. There are a whole lot of “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do repair jobs on the “side.” i.e. they do not deal with this type of repair every day. Be careful of this. Fixing carpet water damage is an art. Taking carpet off the gripper strips then reinstalling them is best to be taken on by a professional, otherwise carpets can be permanently damaged.

You could be thinking, how do I find a proper Flood Restoration techinician? Below I have listed some things to look for when you hunt around for a carpet flood damage business:

How large is their Yellow Pages advertisement: This can signify how much business they are doing already. A full-size Yellow Pages advertisement can cost about $50 000. So if they have got a large ad, you can at least have some expectation that they are professionals.

Where do they rank in Google? The higher their rank in Google, the more “online votes” there has been for the business.

What Qualifications do they have? The base qualification required is a IICRC qualification for Applied Structural Drying and Water Damage Restoration.

Do Insurance companies source them for their own water damage jobs? This is a better indicator. If insurance companies hire them, the business is probably going to be good at their skill. Insurance companies tend to use the companies that give them the better value for money.

What kind of Equipment do they have? They should own at least 100 Air movers. If they own this many, this is a good indicator that they have been running for a good while. We took 8 years to build up that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What type of commitment can you get out of them over the phone? Try to pin them down to a set rate for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they can’t give you a price for this in the least, you know they are not interested in serving you, so go with someone else.

Response Time – Our Water Damage business based in Brisbane operates to a 59 minute response time to water damage emergency. The repair needs to be responded to ASAP. Mould can develop within a 24 hour period.

If you stick to these tips you are sure to locate a Flood Damage Restoration technician who knows how to do the job.

If you have carpet water damage Brisbane, call us for flooded wet carpet drying. Brisbane storm season is approaching and you may need storm damage carpet cleaning. Brisbane and surrounding areas serviced.

Podiatry as a Career in Australia

2010 August 13

As a practicing podiatrist in Brisbane, Australia, I am often asked by patients if podiatry would be a good career for a school leaver to enter. There are many things to recommend a career in podiatry including:

  • You can be self employed: This is a opportunity that is increasingly being denied to other health care providers such as optometrists and even GPs . Big Business controls a lot of health practices. Consider how often you see an independent optometrist these days – can they compete on price with the multinational chains?
  • Legal Issues: In Australia (unlike the USA where things are very different), podiatrists very, very rarely face litigation . The nature of podiatry practice does not lend itself to accidentally harming one’s patients. Also, you never have to give your patients the bad news that their condition will be terminal.
  • Working Hours: Emergency call outs are very unlikely. This is welcome news for those among us who like their sleep uninterrupted.
  • Financial Reward: Whilst it is true that podiatry doesn’t pay as well as being a doctor or dentist , the salary is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
  • Instant Gratification: One of the most rewarding facets of a career as a podiatrist is the instant gratification! People come in with pain and leave happy. You will experience a plethora of bite-sized jobs each day, many with a cure you can provide immediately. From someone that has worked with unanimously grumpy customers in a past career, believe me when I tell you, it makes the day much more rewarding when people leave you smiling.
  • Philanthropy: Podiatry will allow you a lot of opportunity to help relieve the suffering of your fellow human beings.
  • Self – Determination: Podiatryallows a clinician the power to determine their own course of action for the benefit of their patients. This is unlike a career in nursing for instance where one works under the instruction of a doctor.
  • Clear Job roles: The only people who can hold themselves out to be a podiatrist are those with a podiatry qualification. The clear roles that this defines relieves the requirement to find your ‘niche’ after university – as someone with a more generic Bachelor of Science degree might need to do.
  • Like to travel? There are many places in the world that do not train their own podiatrists including Tasmania, the Northern Territory, all of Asia and all of the Middle East. If you want to see the world, Australian podiatrists can gain employment in any Commonwealth country and are particularly in demand in Singapore, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and other far flung fields.
  • Variety: In any given day, a podiatrist will see a huge range of complaints. There may be an ingrown toenail or two, an excruciating corn, a sports injury, some back pain and at least a couple of painful plantar fascias. The primary skill required in being a good podiatrist is to be an effective problem solver. Each patient is an individual with a unique problem requiring a well considered solution.

How do you become a qualified as a podiatrist ?

To qualify as a podiatrist requires six Australian Universities:

  • Curtin University
  • La Trobe University
  • Charles Sturt University
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • University of South Australia
  • University of Western Sydney.

Last year, the entry score for the QUT was OP 8.

Stephanie Cosgrove graduated as a podiatrist from QUT in 1990 and with a Master’s degree in Applied Science (Podiatry) in 1996. Since 1991, she has worked in private practice as a Podiatrist Brisbane. She received three university prizes during her studies, including the award for excellence in design and manufacture of orthotics. Brisbane has been the site of her private practice since 1991 which has grown to four locations and eleven staff. If you want to Walk Without Pain consider a visit to Brisbane’s most innovative podiatry practice today. Call for an appointment now on 1300 A1 Feet.

Eight Steps to Great Web Design

2010 August 7
by squadron

Take control of getting your site produced by a developer and comprehend the process it will save you money and attain you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Comprehending your business and how you are currently positioned in your market.
In order to create a site that truly meets your requirements; you first need to have a full understanding of your business including your products, and/or services and more importantly their market position. You then have to examine how you want to explain your business and what it offers in 7 seconds or less. Sounds impossible? Well that is the average time that a user will consider the point “is this site I searched for?”.

2. Budget and estimation
Have a budget in mind and don’t be afraid to let the developers know what it is. In saying this: BE REALISTIC, $500 will never see a great web site created, nor will they be anything left in the bank to market it.

3. The creative process
Be armed with example sites and more importantly the elements of the site you like so they can accomplish an understanding of what you would like to see on your site and also what you find frustrating about other sites. This will build a good profile and analyze not only what type of site to actualize for you but your tolerance to colours, animations, layouts etc. for your requirements which will allow for efficient development. The more interaction and information you give them in the beginning the more time you will save everybody in the long run by getting what you want 1st time round. Check with the designers on how many rounds of changes come with the contract, most will allow for a total conceptual redesign only once and 2 rounds of changes after that.

4. Production and Content
After the home page design is made, the developers will more than likely acquire the general layout of this concept and then formulate the inner page template. It is this template that will be repeated for most of your pages for your site.
Present your content in a pre-proofed word processed document; don’t become too creative with the document fonts etc. as these will not be preserved when the content is copied into the code of the site. It is preferred that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are essential later on in not only getting the point across to the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; formulate a decent amount of content but formulate it in a way that a reader may accomplish a summary of what you are trying to get across in the 1st couple of paragraphs and an image or to. The rest of the paragraphs that get into finer details ARE FOR GOOGLE !

5. Development Programming and CMS
If your website contains Content Managed Areas (CMS) or has any other dynamic sections the developers will wrap your design around a content management program such as Joomla or Drupal or they may have a custom built system. Make sure that you get to see how the CMS system operate on another site they have developed or an example site they may have. it is essential that you know that you can use and understand the system when your site is complete.

6. Testing and training
We work closely with the developers to test your site especially if there are any CMS or special programs that have been made for you. You can guarantee if it is has just been written for you then it will not operate 100% first time round. This is a where things can get ugly in the process you must understand the way the program operates and test it as if you were normal website user. If it doesn’t make sense to you, odds are it won’t make sense to your audience. Make sure you test your website on more than just your browser, try to test it on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. All of these browsers are avialable on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to make your site live make sure you have completed the above testing step until you are pleased that this website is the best representation of your business / product it can be. Remember even though you can change things after going live it is still a poor reflection on your business if there are spelling mistakes or broken images when you launch.

8. Marketing
There is little point in having a website if nobody visits it, make sure as part of you contract you have considered search engine optimisation and or search engine marketing as part of your website build. This is the absolute most important factor of the whole process. If you are the only one looking at your site then you are in trouble.

Remember Search Engine Optimisation is about 30% Onsite (getting your site correct for Search Engine to index correctly) and 70% Promotion. Any developer who tells you otherwise hasn’t been in the industry too long.

For more information about web design Brisbane, contact Web Site Blue. Our web designers understand marketing as well as design.

Tips to Creating a New Business Logo

2010 August 6

A logo is a decisive step to building a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face represents the tone of your business, gestures the service and screams the professionalism or lack there of.

People spend a lot of money on the creation of their logo and walk away with no artwork files. Then a couple months down the track when they require to put signage on their new building they cannot track the design studio down that created the original logo for them and so incur costs to have it recreated. This is needless and may cause complications when trying to replecate the logo exactly as determined originally.

We have created some basic tips you for to think about when creating a logo. Hopefully these will help you from experiencing any future obstacles.

Tip 1
First things first – you need to decide if you would like your logo to have an accompanying icon. It is desired that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will help in portraying a clear message across to your target audience.

An icon can add an extra element to your branding in that you could use the icon on its own on collateral where perhaps you are searching for a more illustrative finish without losing recognition.

A perfect example of this is the well-known and executed Fedex logo.

Tip 2
Colour can be an crucial decision as it not only could affect the output costs but can also margin your output use. Think about the end result and what you will be commiting your branding onto in the future. Make sure your designer is aware of this as they should design accordingly.

Tip 3
Make sure you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and make sure that it includes all the files needed for the different printing formats.

Creative software updates frequently and some programmes become obsolete. Ensure you have a copy of your logo as a PDF – with the text converted to curves.

Tip 4
Using images in your logo is not very easy to regulate. For example it is troublesome to reverse into black and white. Images also have limitations when it comes to size – they can only be reproduced to a certain size before they start pixilation.

Tip 5
Using gradients in your logo is not recommended. This too can have limitations when it comes to output for ie: gradients are hard to reproduce when embroidering fabrics.

Tip 6
Make sure sure the font is legible. Some logos need to be reproduced on small pieces of collateral ie: post stamps. It is important that in this case the text is
readable

Tip 7
Insure that you collect a copy of your logo in CMYK high resolution 300 dpi (for printing use) and RGB 72 dpi(for web use).

Tip 8
It is important to have a style guide of your logo. It will clearly show you how to use your logo so it looks exactly the same every time it is reproduced. This allows you to keep your corporate image consistent.

Tip 9
Make sure that you get a letter from the design studio declaring that you own the copyright to your logo.

If you follow these tips then not only will you acquire a well-designed logo but you will also own the artwork. And when it comes to reproducing your collateral you will be doing it the most cost effective way.

For logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact Bydaughters today for a free two hour consultation.

How to Create a Style Guide

2010 July 31
by squadron

How many times have you commissioned business cards to print and picked up yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been frantic to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then observed that the crucial tag line is not present or your logo has been ruined.

There is only one way to thwart this from happening and that is to set up a style guide. Not only will a style guide assist you control the reproduction of your logo – it will also help you extend your brand recognition – which many argue is one of the strongest selling tools.

We have placed the below steps together for you as a starting point.

Step 1 : Mark the audience for your Style Guide. Is this for staff to work in-house or is this for suppliers and contractors to refer to?

Step 2 : Define what your output uses are. This is important because you will want different logos and file formats for example, black and white publication adverts in comparison to vehicle graphics.

Step 3 : Define the tone for the copy and content required. For example you may needcopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website content.

Content rules cover all punctuation rules and how to attribute to the business and team.

Step 4 : Make sure you layout all the design templates so it is clear how and where the logo and branding sits on all the different pieces of collateral that may be repeated.

Step 5 : Insure to take into account any contributing logos or logos of business that are linked with you. It’s also important that you send a copy of the layout to these companies to ensure they approve the layout of their logo as they too may have their own Style Guide and hierarchy layout rules.

Step 6 : Make certain that grammar, spelling and contact details are correct.

Step 7 : Assure that when suppliers are using the Style Guide they understand~know~discern~apprehend} that a proof needs to be dispatched~sent~mailed~commissioned}to you to be affirmed as correct.

Get your Style Guide finished and as established as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly suggest a training session – whereby your design studio arrives and trains your staff on how to work the Style Guide and most importantly your brand.

For graphic design Brisbane, logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact Bydaughters today. We help your brand build business.

Projectors: LCD Verses DLP (The downfall of DLP technology)

2010 July 19

The most typical question heard when buying a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: should I buy an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, standing for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, an acronym for ‘digital light processing’ are the two most common projector imaging technologies. With so many company brands and types available, it can be challenging for clients to make a decision between those technologies. Ultimately LCD projectors provide better image quality and colour accuracy. The next paragraph will explain why DLP projectors struggle with projecting a comparable level of image quality.

It’s like a set of blinds in your home for your bedroom window. By pulling on a rod you can turn the shutters open or closed, depending on if you want to let light in or not. That is exactly how an LCD projector works. Each pixel works like an individual shutter on a set of blinds to either pass light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is made up of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as the pros like to call them. Each pixel element functions to either reflect light or block it.

How the light source is processed from the point when the projector turns on to when the image reaches your screen is extremely important with regard to image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors direct white light from the lamp by separating it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which send the coloured light to 3 individual LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels make the elements of the image by shining each pixel on and off. The pixels are then projected in a glass prism to create the projector image. A point to remember about LCD projectors is that all three colours are projected onto your projector screen at once. The way a DLP projector functions is widely different and even the final product of how an image appears is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is sent through a turning colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This method of forming an image creates a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors as mentioned above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to produce the image elements. The elements of the image are projected in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s eye will then draw each coloured element of the image into a single total image. Using LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to offer high brightness and superb colour accuracy. In DLP, only one colour is available at once, resulting in lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some manufacturers have added a white segment into the colour wheel to improve brightness overall, but this goes and lessens colour accuracy.

I find in forums all the time that DLP has a higher contrast ratio and therefore must be better. For those who do not know, the contrast ratio is a measure of a display system defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest white to that of the darkest black that the projector is capable of. DLP projectors do possess high contrast specifications in comparison to most LCD projectors. At a glance, this seems to be an advantage, however, in real life, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room when the projector is being utilised. Do not be hoodwinked by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you are trying to project has moving images, DLP projection technology can also create image errors, or ‘artifacts’. The most commonplace artifact that a DLP projector displays with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is unavoidable in DLP systems because moving images change between the time red, blue and green colours are shone. LCD projectors do not have this problem because all the colours are projected simultaneously. DLP developers have formed 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to answer the colour break up problem, but the expense of these projectors make them hardly practical for most businesses and consumers.

Another point of difference between LCD and DLP is how they balance for the refractive qualities of light. Jump back to high school science, and remember when they taught you how different colours of light refract different amounts when projected through the same lens. The problem with DLP projectors is that they use the one same panel with the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are not the same and refract light in a different way. Usually with a DLP projector, a spill of yellow colour will come up above and a spill of blue will be projected below an image as simple as a single black line. During manufacturing LCD projectors can be adjusted to take away these effects on the projected image, because each colour is directed on isolated LCD panels.

The only real buy point (excluding price) with choosing a DLP projector is its smaller total size and weight. However, this is only relevant for transporting the device and has to be traded off against the image advantages of LCD projectors. If the result of the picture quality is important to you, then the solution is simple. Go with an LCD projector! LCD projectors will definitely show bright, colourful images with fewer image mistakes. If you need to ask more about LCD technology in more detail, see this spectacular resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any more questions, visit Projector Central and send me an email.

Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager for Projector Central, Australia’s number one online shop for projectors. Brisbane-based, Projector Central has served Australia for 15 years. For data projectors in the Gold Coast and Interactive Whiteboards, contact Projector Central today.

Yachting and Yacht Clubs

2010 July 16

As the Dutch found dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht was a pleasure craft used mostly by royalty and then by the burghers for the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, arising as private matches. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English royalty in 1660, the city of Amsterdam sent him a 20-metre (66-foot) pleasure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), made more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as fashionable for the affluent and nobility, but after that time the habit did not last.

The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, with great naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club went on, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after joining with other organisations, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was first seen in some organized manner on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to the throne in 1820, it was then named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht group had been started 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 continuing setting of British racing. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the ascension of George IV. All members were required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for large bets were held, and the society life was lovely. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to over 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English gained power. Sailing was mostly for fun and found its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and set a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts were within the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the latter half of the 19th century. The craft of large yachts was first greatly impacted by the success of America, which was designed by George Steers for a syndicate led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its success at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and manufactured in today’s sense, with merely a model being used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the use of the research of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what science had earlier done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats were individually custom-built, there came a desire for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule was written, which is found in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and edited in 1919. In the present day, one of the rapidly growing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to the same specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing such boats can be had on an even playing field with no handicapping required. A perfect example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on board for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting was an activity largely for the royal and the wealthy, expense was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and popularity of smaller craft occurred in the latter half of the 19th century out of 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 smaller yachts. Following this in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure craft became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a popular training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to emulate sail power in public boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in leisure vessels. Large power yachts were furthered to a high degree, and long-distance sailing turned into a favourite pastime of the rich. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave rise to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the second half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were solely power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the design of large steam yachts. In particular among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated by a crew of over 150. The Mayflower, bought by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and saw active service during World War II.

As more sizeable and better quality internal-combustion engines were developed, many large yachts began using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. In the decade following that, large power-yacht creation flourished, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The building of larger power boats fell away in 1932, and the trend after that was in preference of smaller, less expensive boats. After World War II, a lot of small naval boats were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting has become a globally loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally owning and upkeeping their own small leisure boats. The number of yachts and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

2010 July 8

Taxes are distinguished by the impact they have on the placement of income and wealth. A proportional tax is the kind that impinges the same relative burden on all the taxpayers—i.e., in the case where tax liability and income increase in the same levels. A progressive tax is recognised by a higher than proportional rise in the tax liability relative to the increase in income, and a regressive tax is recognisable by a less than proportional rise in the related liability. Therefore, progressive taxes are thought of as fighting inequalities in income distribution, while regressive taxes can cause an increase in these inequalities.

The taxes that are normally regarded as progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are initially progressive, however, might become less so for the upper-income categories—especially if a taxpayer is allowed to reduce his tax base by declaring deductions or by excluding certain income components from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates when applied to lower-income classes would also be more progressive if such personal exemptions are claimed.

Income measured over the course of a given period may not definitely provide the most accurate measure of taxpaying ability. For example, transitory growth in income may be saved, and in temporary declines in income a taxpayer may choose to pay for consumption by reducing savings. Ergo, if taxation is held in comparison with “permanent income,” it would be less regressive (or more progressive) than if compared with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (excepting those on luxuries) tend to be regressive, because the spread of own income consumed or spent for a specific good decreases as the amount of personal income is raised. Poll taxes (aka head taxes), nominated as a standard amount per capita, clearly are regressive.

It is not easy to determine corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, due to the uncertainty around the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of dictating who bears the tax burden is dependant crucially on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being debated.

In analysing the economic effects of taxation, it is essential to differentiate between differing concepts of tax rates. The statutory rates include those nominated in the legislation; generally these are marginal rates, but sometimes they are mean rates. Marginal income tax rates signify the fraction of incremental income that is demanded by taxation when income grows by one dollar. Thus, if tax liability grows by 45 cents when income increases by one dollar, the marginal tax rate is 45 percent. Income tax legislation generally contain graduated marginal rates—i.e., rates that grow as income increases. Careful analysis of marginal tax rates must take into account provisions in addition to the formal statutory rate structure. If, for example, a particular tax credit (reduction in tax) declines by 20 cents for each one-dollar increase in income, the marginal rate is 20 percentage points greater than indicated in the statutory rates. Since marginal rates display how after-tax income changes in response to changes in before-tax income, they are the appropriate ones for regarding incentive effects of taxation. It is even more difficult to understand the marginal effective tax rate to apply to income from business and capital, since it may be dependant on considerations such as the structure of depreciation allowances, the deductibility of interest, and the provisions for inflation adjustment. A basic economic theorem grants that the marginal effective tax rate in income from capital is nothing under a consumption-based tax.

Average income tax rates show the part of total income that is demanded in taxation. The pattern of average rates is the one that is necessary for assessing the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate grows with income. Average income tax rates commonly grow with income, both because personal allowances are permitted for the taxpayer and dependents and because marginal tax rates are graduated; on the other side of things, preferential treatment of income received predominantly by high-income households could swamp these effects, producing regressivity, as signified by average tax rates that lower as income rises.

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