Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a pleasure craft used first by royalty and then by the burghers for the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, borne from private games. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English throne in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with 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 more 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 was found to be classy for the rich and nobility, but after that period the habit did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held much naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club went on, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by merging with other clubs, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some organized method on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to sovereignty in 1820, it was then named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht organisation 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 continued location of British yacht racing. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. Each member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for high bets were held, and the society life was superlative. 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 went on when the English took control. Sailing was for the most part for pleasure and found its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a minimum of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters 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 while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts were within the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the later half of the 19th century. The craft of large yachts was originally largely affected by the win 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.) was named after its victory at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and crafted in the modern sense, with just a model used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the study of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what it had already done for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually built, there was a need for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule was created, which resulted in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and amended in 1919. In modern times, one of the fastest growing areas in 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 elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for those boats can be held on an even keel with no handicapping necessary. A perfect example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting belonged primarily for the royal and the wealthy, cost was no issue, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller yachts occurred in the later half of the 19th century from the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A trip around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the value of less sizeable yachts. Following this in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and leisure boats 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, in which steam started to take the place of sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in pleasure boats. Large power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance sailing became a fond activity of the wealthy. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to those powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were only power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the manufacture of bigger steam yachts. In particular within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, that had triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed by a crew of over 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 for World War II.
As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were developed, many big yachts started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. During the decade that followed, large power-yacht manufacture blossomed, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that point the largest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of big power yachts lessened from 1932, and the trend after that was in preference of smaller, less costly boats. After World War II, many small naval vessels were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually owning and maintaining their own small recreational yachts. The popularity of boats and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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