Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht had been a leisure craft used initially 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, coming out of private games. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English monarchy in 1660, the city of Amsterdam gave him a 20-metre (66-foot) pleasure 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, sovereign 1685–88), built other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 bet. Yachting became fashionable for the rich and aristocracy, but after that time the trend did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, with large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club went on, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after joining with other organisations, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some ordered manner on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to sovereignty in 1820, it was then known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht club had been initiated at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal sponsorship made the Solent - the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight - the continued location of British yachting. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. All members were required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for high bets were held, and the club life was wonderful. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to bigger than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English took dominance. Sailing was mostly for fun and reached its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised 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 continuing American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts took the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the later half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was initially largely put upon by the win of America, which was designed by George Steers for a syndicate started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its success at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with just a model for an outline. 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 research of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such science had already done for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats were individually built, there was a need for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were built. Thus, a rating rule was created, which is found in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In modern times, one of the most rapidly flourishing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to the same specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between such boats can be held on an even keel with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on board for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done primarily for the aristocracy and the affluent, money was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The rise and desire of smaller boats happened 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 made plain the hardiness of smaller yachts. Later in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and recreational boats became more common, down to the dinghy, a popular 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
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam began to take the place of sail power in market boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in leisure yachts. Sizeable power yachts were furthered to a high degree, and long-distance cruising became a fond occupation of the well off. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to boats powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for a number of years. By the second half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were solely power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of large steam yachts. Notably among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, that had triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated 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 was used in active service during World War II.
As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many big craft began using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, advanced for World War I. During the decade after, bigger power-yacht manufacture blossomed, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that period the best auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of big power yachts lessened in 1932, and the trend from then was toward smaller, less costly yachts. After World War II, a lot of small naval boats were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and upkeeping their own small leisure yachts. The number of craft and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas by the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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