As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and secondly by the burghers in the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, borne from private games. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English royalty 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), ordered for additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 bet. Yachting was found to be popular among the affluent and royalty, but after that period the trend did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, and held large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club went on, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other societies, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some organized method on the Thames in 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 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 club had been formed 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 racing. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the ascension of George IV. All members were required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great bets were held, and the society life was splendid. 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 continued when the English had control. Sailing was for the most part for fun and found its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and created a standard of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while on board 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 through the latter half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was originally largely impacted by the success 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. Early yachts were not designed and crafted in the modern sense, with merely a model being used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the application of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such study had already done for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats had been individually custom-built, there arose a requirement for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were made. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which ended up in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the fastest growing 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 dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for such boats can be held on an even par with no handicapping required. A great example is the standard International America’s Cup Class adopted for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done primarily for the royal and the affluent, cost was no issue, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and desire of smaller boats came 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 seaworthiness of smaller craft. Later in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and leisure yachts became more popular, down to the dinghy, a favoured 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, during which steam was set to take the place of sail power in market boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in leisure boats. Sizeable power yachts were progressed to a high degree, and long-distance sailing turned into a preferred activity of the rich. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to boats powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. Like naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for several 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.
In the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of more sizeable steam yachts. Conspicuous within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed by a crew of more than 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 in World War II.
As more sizeable and more dependable internal-combustion engines were produced, many bigger craft started using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, was furthered during World War I. From the decade following, bigger power-yacht manufacture grew, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that time the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of big power yachts lessened from 1932, and the trend from then was toward smaller, less pricey craft. Following World War II, a lot of small naval craft were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally loved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually manning and maintaining their own small leisure craft. The popularity of yachts and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places on the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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