Yachting and Yacht Clubs

As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht had been a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and secondly by the burghers on the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, coming out of private challenges. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English monarchy 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 named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), built other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 wager. Yachting became popular for the wealthy and aristocracy, but after that time the habit did not last.

The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and had much naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club went on, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other societies, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some organized fashion on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended 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 fight, 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 perpetual location of British racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. Each member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high bids were held, and the society life was lovely. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to more than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English took dominance. Sailing was largely for pleasure and found its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and established a minimum of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts took the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the second half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was first largely affected by the win of America, which was designed by George Steers for a syndicate started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its success at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and built in a contemporary sense, with only a model for an outline. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the use of the research of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such study had earlier done for hulls.

Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually custom-built, there came a requirement for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were built. Thus, a rating rule came into being, which is found in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and amended in 1919. Today, one of the rapidly flourishing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to single requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between these boats can be had on an even par with no handicapping at all. A prime example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class adopted for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

So long as yachting belonged mostly for the aristocracy and the affluent, expense was no issue, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and preference of smaller yachts 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 value of small yachts. Following this in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and recreational craft became more popular, down to the dinghy, a favoured training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, when steam was set to emulate sail power in public boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed increasingly in leisure vessels. Large power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance cruising turned into a preferred occupation of the wealthy. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to yachts powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. Like naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the second half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were only power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the design of large steam yachts. Notably among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated by a crew of at least 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 more sizeable and more reliable internal-combustion engines were produced, many large yachts began using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. During the decade after, large power-yacht building grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the largest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of large power craft declined in 1932, and the fashion from then was in preference of smaller, less costly boats. Following World War II, many small naval craft were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting is a widespread popular competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually sailing and upkeeping their own small recreational craft. The popularity of yachts and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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