Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht was a leisure craft used first by royalty and secondly by the burghers in the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, coming out of private matches. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English monarchy in 1660, the city of Amsterdam gave 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, sovereign 1685–88), built additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 bet. Yachting rose as classy for the affluent and aristocracy, but after that point the fashion did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, with large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club endured, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after joining with other groups, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated fashion 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 came to be named 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 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 setting of British racing. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the rise of George IV. All members were required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for large stakes were held, and the club life was splendid. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats were raised 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 took dominance. Sailing was mostly for leisure and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht group, 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 the later half of the 19th century. The craft of large yachts was first heavily put upon by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a club headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and built in a contemporary sense, with only a model for an outline. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the research of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what such science had already done for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats were individually manufactured, there arose a need for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were made. Therefore, a rating rule was created, which resulted in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and revised in 1919. In the present day, one of the rapidly blossoming areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to single dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be held on an even playing field with no handicapping required. A great example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on board for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was an activity mostly for the aristocracy and the wealthy, money was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and desire of smaller craft happened in the later 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) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the hardiness of less sizeable 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, when steam started to replace sail power in commercial boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in leisure boats. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance travel was a favourite pastime of the rich. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave rise to boats powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the latter half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were only power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the manufacture of more sizeable steam yachts. In particular of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed 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 saw active service in World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many bigger boats started using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed for World War I. During the decade following that, big power-yacht creation flourished, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that period the largest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The manufacture of larger power craft fell away after 1932, and the style thereafter was in preference of smaller, less costly craft. Following World War II, many small naval craft were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting has become a internationally popular competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally sailing and maintaining their own small leisure craft. The number of craft and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional places by the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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