As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a leisure craft used first by royalty and secondly by the burghers in the canals as well as the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private challenges. English yachting started 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 gave him 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 returning, on a £100 bet. Yachting was found to be fashionable among the rich and nobility, but after that time the habit did not last.

The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, with large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club endured, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other groups, 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 rose to the throne in 1820, it was named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing dispute, 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 sponsorship made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continued site of British yachting. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the rise of George IV. All members were required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for great 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 started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English took dominance. Sailing was mostly for fun and rose to its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and set a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts followed the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the latter half of the 19th century. The style of bigger yachts was initially largely put upon by the victory of America, which was created 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 victory at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and built in today’s sense, with merely a model used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the application of the research of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such study had already done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats had been individually custom-built, there came a requirement for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were made. Therefore, a rating rule was created, which is found in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In modern times, one of the most rapidly growing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to the same requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for these boats can be done on an even keel with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on board for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

For the time that yachting belonged mostly for the nobility and the rich, cost was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller yachts occurred in the second half of the 19th century out of 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) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the value of less sizeable yachts. Thereafter in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a popular 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
Following the decade 1840–50, at which point steam was set to emulate sail power in commercial boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly used in leisure craft. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance travel became a favourite pastime of the well off. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave rise to boats powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the later half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were solely power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the construction of more sizeable steam yachts. Conspicuous 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 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 during World War II.

As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were produced, many big craft started using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed from World War I. During the decade following, bigger power-yacht creation grew, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that point the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of bigger power yachts declined after 1932, and the fashion thereafter was in preference of smaller, less pricey yachts. Following World War II, lots of small naval craft were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a globally beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually manning and upkeeping their own small leisure yachts. The popularity of boats and yachtsmen has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations by the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.

Looking for boat cleaning Brisbane ? Talk to Elite Yacht Services. We do great work at competitive prices.