As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht had been a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers in the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, borne from private matches. 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 presented him with 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 returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting became popular with the rich and royalty, but after that period the habit did not last.
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, with great naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club endured, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after conglomerating with other organisations, it became 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 instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to monarchy in 1820, it was then known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht society 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 perpetual location of British racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the accession of George IV. All members were required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great stakes were held, and the society life was splendid. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats grew 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 continued when the English gained dominance. Sailing was for the most part for leisure and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and established a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht group, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began 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 through the second half of the 19th century. The style of sizeable yachts was initially greatly put upon by the win of America, which was created by George Steers for a association led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and built in the modern sense, with just a model being used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such study had previously done for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually built, there came a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were made. Therefore, a rating rule came into being, which is found in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. Today, one of the fastest growing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to single dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for those boats can be held on an even playing field with no handicapping necessary. A great example is the generic International America’s Cup Class adopted for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was an activity primarily for the aristocracy and the affluent, money was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller craft occurred in the second 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 voyage around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the hardiness of small boats. Thereafter in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and recreational craft became more common, down to the dinghy, a favoured training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam began to emulate sail power in commercial boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in pleasure boats. Bigger power yachts were furthered to a high degree, and long-distance cruising became a fond occupation of the wealthy. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave rise to those powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were exclusively power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
In the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of bigger steam yachts. Notably of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned by a crew of more than 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 was used in active service for World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many large yachts started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, advanced during World War I. From the decade following, large power-yacht manufacture grew, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that point the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of bigger power yachts lessened after 1932, and the trend after that was for smaller, less costly craft. After World War II, lots of small naval craft were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting has become a globally loved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually owning and maintaining their own small leisure yachts. The number of craft and sailors increased steadily, not only in the traditional places on the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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