Australian Content Blog

As the Dutch found dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a leisure craft used first by royalty and secondly by the burghers on the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. 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 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 called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), ordered for other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting rose as popular for the rich and royalty, but after that point the habit did not last.

The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, with large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club persisted, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after joining with other groups, it was 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 monarchy in 1820, it came to be called 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 organisation 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 continuing location of British racing. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the rise of George IV. Each member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for high bids were held, and the society life was wonderful. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to more than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English had power. Sailing was largely for leisure and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and set a minimum of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while on board 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 latter half of the 19th century. The craft of bigger yachts was originally largely put upon by the success of America, which was created by George Steers for a association started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with merely a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the use of the science of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what it had earlier done for hulls.

Because nearly all sailboats had to be individually manufactured, there came a need for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule was created, which ended up in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the most rapidly blossoming areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to standard dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for these boats can be held on an even keel with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the standard International America’s Cup Class adopted for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting belonged primarily for the aristocracy and the wealthy, expense was no object, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference of smaller boats happened in the latter 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 less sizeable boats. Later in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure yachts 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 sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Post the decade 1840–50, when steam started to replace sail power in commercial craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in leisure vessels. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance sailing was a favourite pastime of the affluent. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave way to those powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the second half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were solely power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

In the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the manufacture of large steam yachts. Notably of 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, 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 larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many big boats began using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. In the decade following that, big power-yacht creation blossomed, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that point the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of big power craft fell away from 1932, and the fashion from then was toward smaller, less expensive craft. Following World War II, a lot of small naval boats were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. By the late 20th century, yachting had become a internationally loved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually owning and keeping their own small pleasure craft. The popularity of yachts and yachtsmen is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas by the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

Looking for boat transport Sunshine Coast ? Talk to Elite Yacht Services. We do great work at competitive prices.