As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a pleasure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers on the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, arising as private challenges. English yachting originated 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) 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, ruled 1685–88), made other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as popular for the wealthy and nobility, but after that time the habit did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, with great naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by joining with other clubs, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some ordered manner on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to monarchy in 1820, it was then called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association had been formed 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 perpetual setting of British yacht racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the accession of George IV. Every member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high bets were held, and the social life was lovely. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to more than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English had power. Sailing was mostly for leisure and found its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and created a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts were within the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the latter half of the 19th century. The style of bigger yachts was originally largely put upon by the win of America, which was designed by George Steers for a association started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its success at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and crafted in today’s sense, with only a model for an outline. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the study of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what it had previously done for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats had to be individually custom-built, there arose a desire for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were built. Therefore, a rating rule was written, which ended up in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and amended in 1919. In modern times, one of the most rapidly blossoming areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to the same dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for those boats can be done on an even playing field with no handicapping at all. A prime example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on board for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting was done mostly for the aristocracy and the rich, cost was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller boats came 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 made plain the hardiness of less sizeable boats. Following this in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became more popular, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Post the decade 1840–50, in which steam began to emulate sail power in public vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in leisure yachts. Sizeable power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance sailing was a preferred occupation of the rich. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made way to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht fashion for a number of years. By the latter half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were solely power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the manufacture of bigger steam yachts. Conspicuous of 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 more than 150. The Mayflower, commissioned by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and was used in active service in World War II.
As larger and better quality internal-combustion engines were produced, many large boats began using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. From the decade after that, large power-yacht manufacture flourished, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the largest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of big power craft declined from 1932, and the fashion after that was in preference of smaller, less costly yachts. From World War II, a lot of small naval vessels were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting is a internationally popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally manning and maintaining their own small leisure boats. The amount of yachts and yachtsmen has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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