Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers for the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, coming out of private matches. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation to the English royalty 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 then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 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 was found to be popular with the rich and royalty, but after that period the fashion did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and held large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after joining with other societies, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some stipulated manner on the Thames around 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 came to be named 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 group had been initiated 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 continuing site of British racing. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the rise of George IV. All members were required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for great bids were held, and the club life was lovely. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to more than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English took power. Sailing was for the most part for leisure and rose to its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and set a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts took the lines 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 sizeable yachts was originally largely put upon 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 success at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and built in today’s sense, with just a model being used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the science of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such science had earlier done for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had been individually built, there arose a need for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule came into being, which ended up in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and revised in 1919. In modern times, one of the most rapidly blossoming areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to the same requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between these boats can be held on an even keel with no handicapping necessary. A prime example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class adopted for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done largely for the aristocracy and the affluent, expense was no problem, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The rise and preference of smaller boats came 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 voyage around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the seaworthiness of small boats. Later in the 20th century, for the larger part 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 emulate sail power in public boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were used increasingly in personal yachts. Sizeable power yachts were progressed to a high standard, and long-distance sailing became a preferred occupation of the affluent. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to boats powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht archetype for many years. By the latter half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were only power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the design of large 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 manned 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 saw active service during World War II.
As bigger and better quality internal-combustion engines were produced, many big craft started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered during World War I. In the decade following that, large power-yacht manufacture flourished, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the largest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of large power boats lessened in 1932, and the style thereafter was for smaller, less costly craft. From World War II, a lot of small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting has become a widespread beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually owning and keeping their own small recreational yachts. The number of craft and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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