Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht had been a pleasure craft used first by royalty and then by the burghers on the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, coming out of private challenges. 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 sent 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, reigned 1685–88), ordered for additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 wager. Yachting rose as classy for the affluent and aristocracy, but after that point the trend did not last.
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, with great naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when joining with other societies, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated manner on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to the throne in 1820, it came to be named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association had been formed 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 continuing location of British yacht racing. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the rise of George IV. All members were required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high stakes were held, and the club life was lovely. Eventually 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 took dominance. Sailing was for the most part for fun and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and set a standard of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts took the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was originally largely impacted by the success of America, which was designed by George Steers for a association led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its success at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and manufactured in the modern sense, with only a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what it had done earlier for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats had been individually manufactured, there arose a need for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule was written, which is found in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and revised in 1919. In modern times, one of the fastest flourishing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to standard dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for such boats can be done on an even basis with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting belonged primarily for the aristocracy and the wealthy, money was no problem, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller boats came in the latter 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) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the seaworthiness of small yachts. Following this in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and recreational craft became more popular, down to the dinghy, a preferred 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
After the decade 1840–50, at which point steam was set to take the place of sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly used in personal craft. Sizeable power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance sailing became a favoured activity of the well off. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to boats powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the later half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were solely power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the construction of large steam yachts. In particular within 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 at least 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 during World War II.
As bigger 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, advanced for World War I. During the decade following that, large power-yacht building blossomed, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that point the biggest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of big power boats lessened in 1932, and the trend after that was in preference of smaller, less pricey boats. From World War II, a lot of small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a globally beloved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually owning and keeping their own small recreational yachts. The number of craft and owners has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places on the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
Looking for boat transport Gold Coast ? Talk to Elite Yacht Services. We do great work at competitive prices.
Sphere: Related ContentComments
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!