Yacht, a small sailing or steam vessel, decked (as distinguished from an open boat), and permanently fitted out and exclusively used for pleasure. Vessels answering the character of yachts were in use by royal personages in England from a very early period, but the name was first applied in 1660 when the Dutch presented a 'jacht,' named the Mary, to Charles II. Queen Elizabeth in 1588 had a royal yacht built at Cowes, Isle of Wight, and every succeeding English sovereign has had one or more yachts. In 1662 Charles II., who had a number of yachts designed and built for him by Sir Phineas Pett, is recorded to have matched for £100 a yacht of his own design against another, of Dutch build, under his brother the Duke of York.
The first authentic record of a sailing club is in 1720, when the 'Cork Harbour Water Club'—now known as the 'Royal Cork Yacht Club'—was established. The vessels owned were small, and from that period till early in the 19th century yachting developed but slowly. In 1812, when there were probably about fifty yachts afloat, an association similar to the Cork club was established at Cowes by some fifty-five yachtsmen. Known first as 'The Yacht Club,' it continued steadily to
Copyright 1892 in U.S.
by J. B. Lippincott
Company. increase in membership and importance until 1820, when, having attracted the attention of William IV., then Duke of Clarence, its name was altered to 'The Royal Yacht Club,' and subsequently to 'The Royal Yacht Squadron,' the title by which it has since been known. Since 1820, and more particularly during the last half of the century, yachting associations have rapidly grown in numbers, strength, and popularity. There are now over forty 'royal' or 'recognised' yacht clubs distributed around the coasts of the British Isles, four-fifths of which have been founded since 1840. Most of the clubs are English, and are located chiefly on the Thames and the channel between Southampton and Isle of Wight. Some eight are Irish and ten Scottish; the most important of the latter being the Royal Northern, founded in 1824, having its headquarters at Rothesay, and the Royal Clyde (1856), at Hunter's Quay. The clubs which stand first as to number of members and yachts is the Royal Thames (1823), and the Royal London (1838). In foreign countries and in British possessions during recent years yachting has been growing in popularity. France, Germany, Austria, Holland, Belgium, Russia, Australia, and Canada have each yachting associations. In America yachting dates from only about 1844, in which year the New York Yacht Club was founded. In the first five years of its existence this was the only yacht club in the United States, and so late as 1870 only some fifteen clubs altogether were in existence. The history of this club in fact is practically the history of American yachting, for down to the year 1885 no other club—although the number had greatly increased—ever attempted anything more than mere local efforts. In the matter of organised squadron-cruising, ocean-racing, or private matches the New York Club has all along taken the lead, but during recent years Boston has in this connection shared the honours with New York.
From the year 1850, when there were only about 500 British yachts afloat, the increase in numbers has been immense, and the increase in size of individual vessels no less remarkable. The total number and tonnage of yachts owned in the United Kingdom in 1891, as recorded in Lloyd's Yacht Register, were sailing-yachts, 2428 of 59,795 tons; steam-yachts, 788 of 78,090 tons; or a grand total of 3216 vessels of 137,885 tons. The British colonies own 253 yachts, principally sailing, having a tonnage of 7193 tons. France owns a total of 476 yachts of 16,378 tons, of which 180 of 10,020 tons are steam-vessels. Germany and Austria own together 327 vessels of 5895 tons, of which 24, of 2825 tons, are steam-vessels. The grand total of the number of yachts belonging to all nations as recorded in the register is 6179 vessels, 1164 of which belong to America.
The materials used in the build of yachts are wood, iron, and steel; wood alone, wood and iron together (composite), iron alone, and steel alone being the several ways in which the materials are employed. Wooden yachts have their bottoms coppered to protect the planking and secure the smoothness of surface essential to speed. Lead, the use of which for ballast began in 1846, has since 1874 been adopted entirely for the purpose, in the form of lead keels forming an integral part of the hull. While speed, generally speaking, has always been the regulating condition of design, the other considerations determining the proportions, scantling, and build of yachts have fluctuated greatly throughout the course of their evolution, from the unpretentious rig and clumsy build of the small craft of the 18th century to the immense spread of sail and the rakish narrow model of the lengthier yachts of the present time. Prior to the advent in British waters in 1851 of the famous America (170 tons) of the New York Yacht Club the Cutter (q.v.), or 'national rig,' was much the most favoured by the British yachtsmen, especially for racing purposes. After the brilliant performances of that vessel, however, in winning, against fourteen rivals, the cup presented by the Royal Yacht Squadron for a race round the Isle of Wight, the attention of designers was forcibly drawn to the merits of the Schooner (q.v.) rig. The flat set of her sails was especially novel (in England it had been the practice till then to have them 'baggy'), and it is not too much to say that the lesson she taught the yacht sailors in the art of setting canvas has never been forgotten. The America, in fact, was a revelation, not only as regards rig, but in matters connected with the form and proportions of hull. Up to 1848 development had proceeded on conventional lines, but in that year a yacht of an entirely different type was built on the Thames. This was the iron cutter Mosquito, of 50 tons, the features chiefly distinguishing her being a long hollow bow and a short after-body of considerable fullness—a reversal, in fact, of 'the cod's head and mackerel tail' order of design then being disparaged by Mr Scott Russell, who advocated in its place his 'wave-line theory.' This marked deviation from orthodox lines, however, did not meet with ready acceptance, and prejudice was still strong when the success of the America forcibly shook English yachtsmen out of their complacency. Her model partook of the very features then being advocated, and copies of her and of the schooner style of rig became quite the rage in new yachts, both for racing and cruising purposes; even existing cutters being lengthened in the bows to give them the hollow contour in vogue. This movement notwithstanding, the cutter style of rig has held its own, the number of such craft being always on the increase. Since 1864, when the yawl (see SAIL) rig assumed importance, and especially during the past few years, the cutter has again decidedly become the favourite rig, not only for racing purposes, but—above 40 tons—for cruising as well. The labour and expense connected with racing a schooner are so very much greater than with a cutter or yawl, that there is but small likelihood of the former again coming into favour.
American yacht designers have in turn benefited from British example. In 1881 the 10-ton cutter Madge, designed by G. L. Watson of Glasgow, was sent across the Atlantic, and it is not too much to say that her performances in American waters established the cutter model in that country on a firm foundation, modifying the American centre-board model, and resulting in a yacht with the depth, the outside ballast, and in part the rig of the cutter, retaining still the advantage of beam and centre-board. Centre-board yachts are of restricted depth, displacement, and draught, and have the effective area for lateral resistance to avoid leeway made up by a 'shifting keel' or 'centre-board,' fitted to drop below and in line with the keel proper. When made of heavy material, centre-boards also serve to impart stability to a vessel while under press of canvas. They are, as a rule, pivoted at the fore-end, and drop, like a fin, towards the aft extremity, and are either rigid and housed in a well inside the vessel, or made collapsible, like a fan, and carried alongside the keel. The idea of their use is traced to the old Dutch lee-boards—boards attached one to either side of flat-bottomed boats, one or other being let down as may be needed to check drifting. The exigencies of American yachting waters, if they did not suggest, have at least favoured the development of this class of yacht from the beginning of yachting there. It is, however, only since the interest in American yachts which the visit of the America and subsequent international contests engendered, that British designers have studied the centre-board and one or two notable centre-board yachts have been tried.
The necessity for time allowances in races where yachts of different sizes and spread of sail are matched together, and the efforts at classifying and differentiating them according to a given rule for measurement of Tonnage (q.v.), largely account for fluctuation in design. System and uniformity in these matters have been, on the whole, well attained since 1875, when the Yacht Racing Association was established with the object mainly of providing one code of sailing rules in all matches, and of deciding such disputes as might be referred to the council. This association in fact bears much the same relation to yachting that the Jockey Club does to horseracing. It adopted the rule for ascertaining the size or tonnage of yachts which had been in use for a very considerable period, known as the 'Thames Rule,' because first employed there. It was based upon and a modification of the well-known 'Builder's Old Measurement' rule, in which the length and breadth only were factors. In operation this rule was found to favour length and depth at the expense of breadth. The absence of restriction on depth and the penalty put upon beam engendered a deep narrow type of vessel, which, although admirable for sea-going qualities, caused difficulties in competitive sailing. Thus vessels of extreme length, depth, and narrowness, which were kept up by enormous masses of lead on the outside of the keel, were enabled to compete on equal terms with vessels of greater proportionate width, less depth, and less spread of sail. Such anomalies led to minor modifications on the rule, and finally in 1885 to its entire relinquishment in favour of a rule of measurement or 'rating' which takes account only of length on water-line and area of sail carried. This has left naval architects a freer hand in the matter of adopting either a long and narrow or a short and 'beamy' boat, with appropriate ballasting. In this way a set of yachts have been created which besides being splendid as racing craft are also admirable sea-boats, and well adapted for cruising when their butterfly life as racing clippers is ended. Notwithstanding this, the rating rule which has been in use since 1885 has been subject to criticism from owners and designers of the smaller classes of yachts, on which the rule has operated hardly. It has been pointed out, for instance, that the tax on sail area should be abolished, because in heavy weather a lengthy boat with diminished canvas can run away from a rival—a 'poor man's boat' probably—who has sacrificed length to a spread of canvas only possible in light breezes.
International yacht-racing—or contests between yachts built and owned in different countries—is the highest and most generally interesting form which the sport can assume. It may be said to date from 1851, the year of the Great Exhibition, when, as before related, the famous schooner America bore away the trophy presented by the Royal Yacht Squadron at Cowes. Commodore Stevens, the owner of the America, died in 1856, and by a deed of gift set the cup apart as 'a perpetual challenge for friendly rivalry between foreign countries.' This trophy has come to be regarded as the emblem of the supremacy of the seas—in a yachting sense—its possession having been frequently contested. In 1870 the Cambria, owned by Mr James Ashbury, made an unsuccessful attempt to bring back the cup to England, as did the same owner's Livonia in the following year; the latter vessel being built expressly for the task, and the whole effort involving an outlay of £22,000. The Canadian schooner Countess of
Dufferin in 1876, the Atalanta in 1881, the Genesta in 1885, and the Galatea in 1886 each made futile efforts to defeat the American representatives, as also in 1887 did the Thistle, a steel cutter built on the Clyde expressly for the purpose from the designs of G. L. Watson, for a syndicate of Scottish yachtsmen, headed by Mr James Bell of Glasgow. Prior to this vessel's departure for America she proved her superiority over all English yachts. Meanwhile the Americans had, from the designs of Edward Burgess, built the centre-board sloop Volunteer, which in September twice defeated the Scotch cutter. In 1893-94-95 Lord Dunraven thrice attempted to secure the America Cup with his (built specially for the purpose) Valkyrie I., II., and III., the last contest leading to long and acrimonious debates. Of three trials the Defender won the first (the sailings being very much impeded by steamers crowded by sightseers), the second ended in a foul, and before the third Lord Dunraven withdrew his yacht. Sir T. Lipton's challenge in 1891 was accepted by the New York Club, and in October 1899 the Shamrock (built in Ireland) raced the American Columbia outside Sandy Hook—the latter winning three consecutive races. The Irex (80 tons) during the 1887 season won seventeen first prizes and six second (thirty-four starts), winning £1789. The Genesta (80 tons), which won the £1000 prize in the Jubilee race round the British Isles, secured twelve other prizes and £1355. In 1898 the Duke of Abruzzi's yacht Bona won in the regattas on the French Riviera thirteen prizes, the gross value of which was £2800; in British waters this famous cutter started thirty-six times, and won £1655 in twenty-seven different prizes. Against such figures, however, must be set the expenses of racing, which are very great, amounting in the case of an 80 or 100 ton cutter to fully £2000 or £3000 a year. The expenses of cruising yachts are, of course, not so heavy; the crew is neither so numerous nor so highly paid, the breakage of spars and tearing of sails is not so frequent, and there are no entrance fees nor 'winning money' to pay over.
While the growth, since 1850, of the world's pleasure-fleet of sailing-yachts has been remarkable, the increase of steam-yachts has been still more wonderful, in spite of the antipathy with which they were long regarded by racing yachtsmen. In 1850 there were not more than four or five steam-yachts—properly so called—afloat. Lloyd's Register of late years shows a total afloat of about 150 steam-yachts above 300 tons—55 being over 500 tons and a dozen over 1000 tons. The rapidity with which they have grown into favour for cruising is easy of explanation. Yachts mechanically propelled are independent of wind, and can traverse the sea to any desired point when the sailing craft is lying helplessly becalmed. Large steam-yachts can keep the sea practically all the year round and go enormous distances. The largest of the modern steam-yachts are 'auxiliary' in character—i.e. fitted with steam-engine and screw-propeller in addition to the ordinary spread of sails. Their prime cost and the cost of upkeep and management are, however, enormous, and their possession is beyond all but the wealthiest owners.
Yachting has been encouraged by government, as affording an excellent training for seamen who in time of war become available for the royal navy. The first Royal Cup was presented in 1834 by William IV. to the Royal Yacht Squadron, a gift which has been continued ever since, and in recent years supplemented by similar gifts to other clubs. Warrants are granted by the Admiralty to members of clubs to fly the white, blue, or red ensign, with device upon it, when the yachts are registered according to the provisions of the Merchant
Shipping Acts. These warrants carry with them certain privileges, such as exemption from excise duties and harbour and anchorage dues. The master or mate need not have Board of Trade certificates, and the yacht's name need not appear on her stern—although in both these cases the privilege is of doubtful utility.
See Dixon Kemp, Yacht Architecture (2d ed. 1891); Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing (7th ed. 1891); E. Burgess, English and American Yachts (1888); C. P. Kunhardt, Small Yachts (1885), and Steam Yachts and Launches (1888); and the annual Lloyd's Yacht Register and Yacht Racing Calendar; also the articles BOAT, SHIPBUILDING.