As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht was a pleasure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers in the canals and 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 return to the English throne 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, sovereign 1685–88), built more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting was found to be fashionable among the wealthy and aristocracy, but after that point the trend did not last.
The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and held large naval panoply and gravity. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club endured, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when conglomerating with other societies, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some stipulated fashion 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 the throne in 1820, it was then 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 association had been initiated 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 perpetual site of British racing. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession of George IV. Each member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for large bids were held, and the society life was lovely. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English took dominance. Sailing was mostly for leisure and found its high point 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 continuing American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts took the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The style of sizeable yachts was originally heavily affected by the win of America, which was designed by George Steers for a group started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its victory at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with only a model for an outline. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the application of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what it had previously done for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats were individually custom-built, there arose a need for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were made. Hence, a rating rule was written, which ended up in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In modern times, one of the fastest growing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to single requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between those boats can be held on an even par with no handicapping required. A great example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
As long as yachting was done largely for the aristocracy and the wealthy, expense was no problem, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller craft 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 trip around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the hardiness of less sizeable boats. Later in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure craft became more common, down to the dinghy, a popular training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
Post the decade 1840–50, in which steam started to emulate sail power in market vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed increasingly in leisure vessels. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high standard, and long-distance sailing became a favoured occupation of the rich. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made way to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht fashion for several years. By the latter half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were exclusively power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
In the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the manufacture of large steam yachts. Conspicuous among 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 saw active service during World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were developed, many bigger craft started using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, was furthered in World War I. During the decade that followed, big power-yacht manufacture grew, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that point the largest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of bigger power boats lessened in 1932, and the fashion after that was for smaller, less costly yachts. After World War II, lots of small naval vessels were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally loved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and upkeeping their own small pleasure yachts. The popularity of craft and owners has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations by the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
Looking for boat transport Sunshine Coast ? Talk to Elite Yacht Services. We do great work at competitive prices.
Sphere: Related Content