Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht became a leisure craft used first 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 matches. English yachting originated 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 sent 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, ruled 1685–88), ordered for more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting was found to be popular with the wealthy and nobility, but after that period the trend did not last.
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, and had much naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when joining with other organisations, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some ordered manner on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to sovereignty 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 initiated at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal funding made the Solent - the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight - the perpetual site of British racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the accession of George IV. All members were required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for large stakes were held, and the social life was superlative. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to bigger than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English had dominance. Sailing was largely for fun and rose to its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and created a benchmark 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 instigated 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 design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the latter half of the 19th century. The design of sizeable yachts was initially heavily put upon by the win of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a group started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and crafted in a contemporary sense, with merely a model used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the research of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what it had previously done for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually custom-built, there arose a requirement for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule was decreed, which resulted in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In modern times, one of the rapidly growing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to standard specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for such boats can be done on an even keel with no handicapping necessary. A great example is the standard International America’s Cup Class adopted for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting belonged mostly for the royal and the rich, expense was no problem, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller yachts occurred in the second 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 made plain the hardiness of small boats. Thereafter in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, at which point steam was set to replace sail power in market vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in pleasure craft. Large power yachts were developed to a high element, and long-distance sailing became a fond activity of the rich. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then made way to those powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. Like naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard 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 with gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the construction of more sizeable steam yachts. Notably 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 over 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 for World War II.
As more sizeable and better quality internal-combustion engines were created, many large craft were using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, advanced for World War I. During the decade that followed, big power-yacht manufacture flourished, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that point the biggest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of large power boats declined in 1932, and the trend after that was toward smaller, less expensive boats. Following World War II, a lot of small naval vessels were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally beloved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually sailing and keeping their own small recreational yachts. The amount of yachts and sailors is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas by the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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