Yachting and Yacht Clubs
July 16th, 2010
As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht became a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers on the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, arising as private challenges. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English throne in 1660, the city of Amsterdam sent 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, reigned 1685–88), built more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as popular among the affluent and royalty, but after that point the habit did not last.
The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held much 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, by joining with other clubs, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).
Yacht racing began in some ordered method 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 sovereignty in 1820, it was named 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 association had been started at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal funding made the Solent - the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight - the continued setting of British yachting. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession 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. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English gained control. Sailing was mostly for pleasure and rose to its high point 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 enduring American yacht group, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
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 first greatly put upon by the win of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a club headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in the modern sense, with just a model used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the application of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such science had already done for hulls.
Because almost all sailboats were individually built, there came a desire for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Hence, a rating rule came into being, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and edited in 1919. In modern times, one of the most rapidly growing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to the same dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between such boats can be held on an even keel with no handicapping required. A perfect example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on board for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting was done mostly for the royal and the affluent, money was no problem, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller yachts came in the later half of the 19th century in 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 value of less sizeable boats. Later in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and recreational yachts became more common, down to the dinghy, a favourite 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
Following the decade 1840–50, when steam started to emulate sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed increasingly in personal craft. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high standard, and long-distance sailing became a favourite pastime of the well off. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to boats powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht archetype for many years. By the second half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were only power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.
From the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the manufacture of large steam yachts. Notably of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, that had triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed by a crew of more than 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 for World War II.
As more sizeable and more reliable internal-combustion engines were developed, many big craft were using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed during World War I. During the decade following, bigger power-yacht building blossomed, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that time the biggest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of big power boats fell away in 1932, and the style from then was for smaller, less expensive craft. After World War II, many small naval vessels were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a widespread loved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally 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 seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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