Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a pleasure craft used mostly by royalty and secondly by the burghers for the canals and then in 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 monarchy 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 named 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 the same way back, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as popular among the affluent and nobility, but after that time the fashion did not last.
The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, with large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after joining with other organisations, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing was seen in some ordered method on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to monarchy in 1820, it was named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht group had been started 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 continuing setting of British racing. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the ascension of George IV. All members were required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for large stakes were held, and the social life was wonderful. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to more than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English gained dominance. Sailing was for the most part for leisure and found its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the later half of the 19th century. The craft of bigger yachts was originally heavily impacted by the win of America, which was drawn 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 victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and crafted in a contemporary sense, with only a model for an outline. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the application of the research of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what science had done earlier for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually manufactured, there came a need for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were made. Therefore, a rating rule was created, which resulted in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and revised in 1919. In modern times, one of the rapidly flourishing 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 specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between these boats can be done on an even playing field with no handicapping at all. A great example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting belonged largely for the royal and the wealthy, cost was no issue, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller boats occurred in the second half of the 19th century out of the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A journey 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. Following this in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure craft became more popular, down to the dinghy, a popular training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Post the decade 1840–50, at which point steam was set to emulate sail power in commercial craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were favoured increasingly in leisure vessels. Bigger power yachts were furthered to a high element, and long-distance sailing became a favourite activity of the well off. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to those powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht fashion for a number of years. By the later half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were only power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.
In the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the design of more sizeable steam yachts. Conspicuous among 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, 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 during World War II.
As bigger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many bigger yachts began using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. During the decade that followed, large power-yacht building flourished, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the best auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The manufacture of larger power boats fell away in 1932, and the fashion after that was for smaller, less costly craft. Following 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 internationally loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and maintaining their own small recreational boats. The number of yachts and sailors is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations on the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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