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As the Dutch found dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a leisure craft used initially by royalty and secondly by the burghers on the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, arising as private challenges. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration 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 then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, ruled 1685–88), built additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 wager. Yachting became classy among the affluent and royalty, but after that time the habit did not last.

The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and had large naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by 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 method on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to sovereignty in 1820, it was known as 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 location of British racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the ascension of George IV. Each member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for large bids were held, and the social life was wonderful. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats were raised 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 held power. Sailing was largely for fun and rose to its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a benchmark of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The first 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 style of large yachts was initially largely impacted by the success of America, which was created by George Steers for a club headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and crafted in a contemporary sense, with just a model used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was called 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 such science had already done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats had to be individually manufactured, there came a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule was decreed, which resulted in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited 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 areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between such boats can be done on an even basis with no handicapping necessary. A perfect example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on board for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting belonged largely for the nobility and the wealthy, money was no issue, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and preference of smaller yachts occurred in the later 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 voyage around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the hardiness of smaller craft. Thereafter in the 20th century, for the larger part 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, yachts of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, when steam began to replace sail power in market boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly used in personal vessels. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high standard, and long-distance travel became a favoured occupation of the wealthy. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave way to boats powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. Like naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were only power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the design of bigger steam yachts. Conspicuous of 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 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 gave active service during World War II.

As bigger and better quality internal-combustion engines were created, many bigger boats were using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, advanced during World War I. From the decade following that, large power-yacht building grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that point the best auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The construction of larger power boats fell away in 1932, and the trend after that was toward smaller, less costly craft. Following World War II, many small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a globally loved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and keeping their own small recreational craft. The amount of craft and yachtsmen has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations on the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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This entry was posted on Friday, July 16th, 2010 at 7:59 am and is filed under Uncategorized.