Yachting and Yacht Clubs
As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a pleasure craft used mostly by royalty and then by the burghers in the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, borne from private games. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English royalty in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with 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, sovereign 1685–88), made other 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 became popular with the rich and aristocracy, but after that time the habit did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, with great naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club endured, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other societies, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some stipulated fashion on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to monarchy in 1820, it was known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing dispute, 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 patronage made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the perpetual site of British yacht racing. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the rise of George IV. Every member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for high stakes were held, and the society life was splendid. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to more than 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English held control. Sailing was mostly for fun and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and established a minimum of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts were within the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the second half of the 19th century. The design of sizeable yachts was originally largely put upon by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a syndicate started 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. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with just a model being used. 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 employment of the study of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what it had earlier done for hulls.
Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually manufactured, there arose a desire for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were made. Hence, a rating rule came into being, which resulted in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In modern times, one of the fastest growing areas in sailing 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 areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for such boats can be done on an even par with no handicapping necessary. A perfect example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
For the time that yachting was an activity largely for the aristocracy and the wealthy, expense was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller craft came in the latter 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 proved the value of less sizeable yachts. Later in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure craft became more popular, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts 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 began to replace sail power in commercial craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in leisure craft. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high element, and long-distance sailing turned into a favoured occupation of the well off. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave rise to those powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht fashion for many years. By the second half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were solely power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.
During the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the design of more sizeable 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 more than 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 for World War II.
As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many large craft began using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed during World War I. In the decade following, bigger power-yacht building grew, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the largest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The building of larger power yachts lessened from 1932, and the fashion from then was toward smaller, less pricey craft. After World War II, many small naval craft were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting has become a globally beloved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally sailing and keeping their own small pleasure yachts. The amount of yachts and sailors increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations along the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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