Yachting and Yacht Clubs

As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht was a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and secondly by the burghers for the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, coming out of private matches. English yachting originated 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, reigned 1685–88), made more 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 rose as fashionable with the wealthy and royalty, but after that period the fashion did not last.

The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, with great naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after joining with other societies, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some ordered 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 rose to the throne in 1820, it was called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht club had been started at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal patronage made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continuing site of British yachting. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. All members were required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for large stakes were held, and the social life was superlative. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to bigger than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English gained 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 minimum of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
Early 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 style of sizeable yachts was first greatly affected by the win of America, which was designed 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 success at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with only 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 use of the science of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such study had earlier done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats had to be individually built, there came a need for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Thus, a rating rule was decreed, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. In the present day, one of the most rapidly growing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created 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 held on an even keel with no handicapping at all. A prime example is the generic International America’s Cup Class adopted for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

So long as yachting was an activity largely for the royal and the affluent, cost was no issue, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The promotion and desire of smaller craft 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 journey 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 yachts. Following this in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and recreational boats became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favourite 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
After the decade 1840–50, during which steam began to take the place of sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in personal vessels. Bigger power yachts were progressed to a high standard, and long-distance travel was a fond occupation of the wealthy. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made 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 archetype for several years. By the latter half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were exclusively power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the manufacture of bigger steam yachts. Notably 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 over 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 gave active service in World War II.

As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were developed, many bigger yachts were using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, advanced during World War I. In the decade following that, bigger power-yacht building flourished, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that point the largest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of bigger power yachts fell away after 1932, and the style from then was toward smaller, less expensive craft. Following World War II, a lot of small naval vessels were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting has become a widespread popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally owning and upkeeping their own small pleasure yachts. The popularity of yachts and owners increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

Looking for boat transport Brisbane ? Talk to Elite Yacht Services. We do great work at competitive prices.