As the Dutch found preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a pleasure craft used first by royalty and secondly by the burghers for the canals and then in 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 monarchy in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with a 20-metre (66-foot) pleasure 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 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 became fashionable for the wealthy and royalty, 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, and had much naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club persisted, largely 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 fashion on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to the throne in 1820, it was known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht club had been formed 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 continued location of British racing. 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 races for great stakes were held, and the club life was splendid. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to over 350 tons.
In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English had power. Sailing was for the most part for fun and found its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and created a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.
Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts followed the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the later half of the 19th century. The design of bigger yachts was initially greatly affected by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a group started 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. Earlier yachts were not designed and manufactured in today’s sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the research of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what science had done earlier for hulls.
Because most of all sailboats had to be individually custom-built, there came a need for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule came into being, which is found in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the rapidly growing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to the same dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing those boats can be done on an even basis with no handicapping necessary. A prime example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.
So long as yachting was done largely for the royal and the affluent, expense was no problem, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and desire of smaller boats happened in the latter 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 journey around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the hardiness of less sizeable boats. Thereafter in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and leisure craft became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.
Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, in which steam started to replace sail power in market vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in pleasure yachts. Bigger power yachts were furthered to a high element, and long-distance cruising became a preferred pastime of the rich. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. Like naval and merchant vessels, 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 majority were solely 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. In particular of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, that had triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned 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 gave active service for World War II.
As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many large craft were using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, advanced during World War I. During the decade after that, bigger power-yacht creation flourished, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.
The construction of big power craft declined after 1932, and the style after that was for smaller, less pricey yachts. After World War II, many small naval boats were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting had become a globally popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually manning and upkeeping their own small pleasure yachts. The amount of yachts and yachtsmen is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations on the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.
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