Yachting and Yacht Clubs

As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht became a leisure craft used first by royalty and later by the burghers in the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. 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 royalty 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 called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), made additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 wager. Yachting became classy with the affluent and aristocracy, but after that period the fashion did not last.

The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, with large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club went on, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by joining with other organisations, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was seen in some stipulated manner on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to the throne in 1820, it came to be called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht organisation had been formed 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 location of British racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the ascension of George IV. All members were required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for large stakes were held, and the society life was splendid. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to more than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English took power. Sailing was mostly for fun and found its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and set a benchmark of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht association, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the later half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was first greatly impacted by the victory of America, which was created by George Steers for a association led 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 today’s sense, with just a model 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 craft of sails and rigging what science had earlier done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats had to be individually built, there came a desire for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were designed. Thus, a rating rule was written, which resulted in the International Rule, adopted 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 standard requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be had on an even par with no handicapping required. A perfect example is the standard International America’s Cup Class adopted for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

So long as yachting was done primarily for the aristocracy and the affluent, expense was no object, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and desire of smaller boats occurred in the second 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 voyage around the world (1895–98) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the seaworthiness of less sizeable craft. Later 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 favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam started to replace sail power in commercial boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in pleasure boats. Sizeable power yachts were progressed to a high degree, and long-distance sailing became a favoured pastime of the affluent. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made way to boats powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the latter half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were exclusively power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of more sizeable steam yachts. In particular among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed by a crew of at least 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 gave active service during World War II.

As more sizeable and more dependable internal-combustion engines were produced, many bigger boats started using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed during World War I. From the decade after that, bigger power-yacht building blossomed, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that time the biggest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of big power yachts fell away after 1932, and the style thereafter was in preference of smaller, less costly craft. From World War II, many small naval vessels were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting is a globally loved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually owning and keeping their own small pleasure yachts. The number of yachts and sailors increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations by the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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