yachting, the sport of racing or cruising in yachts, the term applying to both sailing and power vessels built for pleasure, or converted for it. The word has rather an old-fashioned, elitist ring to it, but Britain has not yet adapted the more democratic American word ‘boating’, so ‘yachting’ will have to suffice here as a generic term to cover the various ways of sailing for pleasure. In order to compete most types of sailing yachts are given a rating and all are subject to international racing rules.

In his History of Yachting (1974) Douglas Phillips-Birt writes that the Dutch, who gave the name ‘yacht’ to the world, were almost certainly the first to use their commercial boats for pleasure. This is confirmed in The Feadship Story (1999) by Andrew Rogers, who dates yachting in Holland to the end of the 16th century, and says the first yacht harbour was created within Amsterdam harbour in 1604. The pleasures of yachting may have been spread across the Atlantic by the Dutch to their colony of New Amsterdam—New York after 1664.

Sail

Inshore Racing.

The earliest known sailing race in England was noted in John Evelyn's diary. In this he records that he was on board Charles II's yacht Katherine when she raced, and beat, the Duke of York's Anne on 1 October 1661. The course was on the River Thames, from Greenwich to Gravesend and back, and Evelyn noted that the king sometimes steered his yacht himself.

In the 18th century yacht races were organized by the first yacht clubs, but it was not until the 19th century that racing really began as a sport, and it was not until after the visit of the schooner America (see Fig. 1, overleaf) in 1851 that it became in Britain more than an esoteric pastime for the aristocracy. The creation of what is now the Royal Yachting Association in 1875 and the introduction of rating rules established the sport in Britain on proper foundations. The earliest yachts were mostly schooners, but during the latter half of the century the cutter rig predominated, though yawls were also built.

The latter half of the 19th century was a boom time for yachting, particularly in Britain where the Prince of Wales encouraged the new sport with his presence on the water. Many notable yachts were constructed, but perhaps the most important from the point of view of racing design was the yawl-rigged Jullanar (see Fig. 2). She was built and designed by an agricultural engineer, E. H. Bentall, to have, in his own words, ‘the longest waterline, the smallest frictional surface, and the shortest keel’. She proved phenomenally fast and during her racing life won more races than any other yacht. Her design was the direct forerunner of such famous yachts as the Prince of Wales's Britannia, launched in 1893, and Lord Dunraven's Valkyrie II and Valkyrie III, both challengers for the America's Cup during the 1890s.

In the USA Nathanael Herreshoff was experimenting with hull forms for racing yachts. In 1891 he produced the sloop Gloriana (see Fig. 3). She was a small boat with a waterline length of 14 metres (46 ft) but was completely different in hull form from anything yet seen in American waters. Built with very long overhangs at bow and stern, her forefoot was cut away to produce an entry that was almost a straight line from the stem to the bottom of the keel. It was a revolutionary design, and in every race in which she sailed that season there was nothing that could touch her.

Early English rating rules produced the ‘plank-on-edge’ cutter where the beam became narrower and narrower and the draught deeper and deeper. Those yachtsmen in the USA who adopted this type of design became known as ‘cutter cranks’ and in both countries new rating rules were adopted to counter this extreme type. These formulae worked with varying degrees of success at first, but in trying to evade them designers eventually produced the skimming dish. To counter these extreme designs the Universal Rule was introduced in the USA and the International Rule, which produced the International Metre Classes, was introduced in Europe.

By 1911 the Bermudan rig was beginning to be adopted by some of the smaller racing classes. However, the first large racing yacht to adopt it, the Nyria, did not do so until 1920, though a halfway stage to the Bermudan from the gaff rig, known as the marconi rig, was introduced into the larger racing classes in 1913. While it was the big racing yachts, like the J-class, which attracted most public attention—yacht racing was very much a spectator sport right up to the Second World War (1939–45)—yachting grew astonishingly quickly during the first three decades of the 20th century. But after the Second World War (1939–45) everything changed. By then the Universal Rule was dead and yachts built to the International Rule were falling from favour. The age of the racing dinghy arrived, and the ocean racer became confirmed as the racing yacht of the future.

Offshore Racing.

Ocean, or offshore, racing in the modern meaning of the phrase began off the east coast of the USA in 1904 when a 480-kilometre (300-ml.) offshore race, from New York to Marblehead, was organized. The competitors were cruising yachts skippered by amateurs, with mostly amateur crews. There was a similar race in 1905 and then, in 1906, the first Bermuda race, a distance of 960 kilometres (600 mls.), was run. The same year, the first Transpac Race, from Los Angeles to Honolulu, also took place. Both are still held today, though both became defunct before the First World War (1914–18) and were revived after it.

The British were slower to take to this type of racing, but in 1925 seven yacht owners took up the challenge of racing round the Fastnet Rock off the coast of south-west Ireland, starting from the Isle of Wight and finishing at Plymouth, a distance of some 968 kilometres (605 mls.) The event was won by E. G. Martin in his French pilot cutter Jolie Brise, and at dinner afterwards the Ocean Racing Club was formed. In 1931 this became the Royal Ocean Racing Club (RORC), now the governing body of offshore racing in Britain. The early competitors in the RORC's races were all cruising boats, many of them gaff rigged and built more for comfort than speed, but in 1931 a young American yacht designer, Olin Stephens, sailed his 16-metre (52-ft) LOA yawl Dorade across the Atlantic to compete in that year's Fastnet race, by now a biennial event. She won easily, and did so again in 1933, and won many other races as well. Then in 1935 the Stephens-designed Trenchemer was launched. She was the first yacht built specifically to the RORC rating rule, though Stephens knew nothing of it at the time as his design had been stolen from a book!

At least Trenchemer's owner knew a good design when he saw one, for Stephens's creations won every Fastnet race between 1931 and 1937, and many other races besides; and after the Second World War his yachts not only dominated ocean racing for many decades, but the America's Cup as well. But in 1939 the run of American wins in the Fastnet Race was broken when the English designer Charles E. Nicholson produced Bloodhound. Because of her royal ownership during the 1960s, she is perhaps the best-known ocean racer of all time.

In the USA the Cruising Club of America (CCA), founded in 1922, had the same role as the RORC in Britain. It, too, introduced its own rating rule and organized long-distance events. It did not organize the revival of the 1923 Bermuda race but did so after that year, and the influence of its rating rule steadily expanded along both coasts of the USA. So in 1941, when the Southern Ocean Racing Circuit (SORC) properly began, its organizers adopted the CCA rule. A series of winter events, which included the Miami–Nassau and St Pete–Havana races, the SORC quickly became popular and by the 1970s was a top event. It is still held each year, though the courses have changed.

Admiral's Cup and Ton Cups.

After the Second World War, ocean racers dominated the racing scene, and new long-distance events, like the Sydney–Hobart Race (started 1945) and the Mediterranean Giraglia Race (started 1953), were inaugurated. Then in 1957 the RORC initiated the first international ocean racing event by inviting an American three-boat team to compete against a British one for a new trophy, the Admiral's Cup, so called after the RORC's admiral. The teams raced against one another in the Fastnet and Channel races, and two inshore ones, with triple points being scored in the Fastnet and double points in the shorter Channel race. In somewhat dubious circumstances—it was found afterwards that one of the British competitors had inadvertently infringed the rules and the Americans were not informed of this—the British won by 70 points to 68. Two years later the competition was thrown open to any nation and similar competitions were started in the USA (Onion Patch series) and Australia (Southern Cross Cup), each, like the Admiral's Cup, being held biennially. Another important international competition was the One Ton Cup, a challenge trophy for yachts of equal rating donated by the Cercle de la Voile de Paris in 1965. The success of this series encouraged championships for Quarter Ton, Half Ton, Three-Quarter Ton, and Mini-Ton classes.

These competitions drew yachts from every corner of the world—there were nineteen national teams in the Admiral's Cup competitions of 1975–9—but during the 1990s interest dwindled. The Admiral's Cup was cancelled in 2001, and though in 2003 it was re-established on an inter-club basis efforts to make it an international event in 2005 failed, and it was again cancelled.

Transoceanic Racing.

This has a long history, for the first organized race was held in 1866. It was contested by three schooners, Henrietta, Fleetwing, and Vesta. The owner of each yacht put up a stake of US $30,000, with the winner—Henrietta—taking all. Other transatlantic races followed, most notably the one held in 1905 in which the schooner Atlantic won in a time not beaten until 1980, and they are still held today. However, attention is now centred on the astonishing speed achieved by racing multihulls in transocean racing, and on those who take part in the various round-the-world races.

In the late 1950s two yachtsmen, Francis (later Sir Francis) Chichester and ‘Blondie’ Hasler, wagered half a crown (25p/65 cents) as to who could win a single-handed race across the Atlantic east to west. Transatlantic races in small yachts were not a new idea—a similar event to what Chichester and Hasler were proposing had taken place as early as 1891—but the race, which attracted three other starters, caught the public's imagination. It was held in 1960, was won by Chichester, and developed into a quadrennial race sponsored by a newspaper. Called the OSTAR (Observer Single-Handed Trans Atlantic Race), it started a trend in single-handed, and double-handed, competitions. It is still held today (2004) with multihulls and monohulls competing in different classes, but the spotlight has long since shifted to the even longer events it spawned.

Among the best known of these are the French-organized single-handed Route du Rhum (Saint-Malo–Guadeloupe) and double-handed Transat Jacques Vabre (Le Havre–Brazil). These events are dominated by multihulls, though monohulls, especially those with swing keels, have their successes. All are high-tech ‘formula one’ machines which use state-of-the-art materials and the latest design expertise, and their crews are funded by sponsorship deals which run into millions.

Round-the-World Competitions.

Even longer events were prompted by the first single-handed round-the-world race held in 1968–9. Sponsored by a British national newspaper, the Sunday Times, it was a non-stop race and was won by Robin (now Sir Robin) Knox-Johnston in his ketch Suhaili, in a time of 313 days. This, too, captured the imagination of the public—and the eye of the advertising industry—and has led to an ever-increasing number of round-the-world events. Regular quadrennial ones include the Volvo (previously Whitbread) Round-the-World Race, a crewed monohull race first held in 1973; the single-handed ‘Around Alone’ Race; and the Global Challenge in which identical yachts, with crews who pay for the privilege, race round the world against the prevailing winds. All these are held in stages, but the Everest among round-the-world races is the non-stop single-handed Vendée Globe. Yachtsmen taking part in all single-handed, or short-handed, events, including those described in the next sections, use a vane self-steering gear.

Racing Against Time.

Not exactly racing, but certainly not cruising, are the yachtsmen who race, not against anyone else, but against time.

In previous centuries the clipper ships had raced to be first home with their cargoes and this gave Francis Chichester the idea of trying to beat the 100 days it usually took them between England and Australia, and to do it single-handed. It took him 107 days in his 16-metre (53-ft) ketch Gipsy Moth IV, but he then went on to circumnavigate the world, returning to a knighthood and acclaim in May 1967.

This voyage, too, set a trend and soon everyone was trying to establish new speed records. In 1970–1 Chay (now Sir Chay) Blyth made the first single-handed circumnavigation against the prevailing winds in a time of 293 days, but the current record-holder for this feat, Jean Luc van den Heede, finished the same course in 2004 in just 122 days. Women have accomplished equally astonishing voyages racing against time; in 1988 Australian Kay Cottee became the first woman to complete a solo non-stop circumnavigation, finishing in 189 days. The present holder, for both men and women, is Englishwoman Ellen (now Dame Ellen) MacArther. In February 2005 she beat the then current world record of just under 73 days, established by Frenchman François Joyon in 2004, by completing her non-stop circumnavigation in her catamaran B&Q in 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds.

The Jules Verne Trophy, awarded to the fastest circumnavigation by a crewed yacht, was conceived by the Frenchman Yves Le Cornec, who based his idea on the Jules Verne novel Around the World in Eighty Days. Frenchman Bruno Peyron was the first skipper to compete for it in 1993, and Sir Peter Blake was among others who later held the trophy. In April 2004 Steve Fossett established the fastest crewed circumnavigation in a time of 58 days, 9 hours, 32 minutes, and 45 seconds, but he was not racing for the trophy. Its current holder is Bruno Peyron who in March 2005 completed his crewed circumnavigation in the catamaran Orange II in a new world record time of 50 days, 16 hours, 20 minutes, and 4 seconds.

Cruising Under Sail.

What must have been one of the earliest cruises took place in 1809 when Sir William Curtis decided to sail to Spain to view the Peninsular War at first hand. He was allowed to do so provided he put his yacht under the command of a naval squadron, which he gladly agreed to. Then in 1815 he took a party of friends aboard his yacht at Ramsgate and visited St Petersburg. In those days wars attracted the attention of cruising yachtsmen. Despite a demand from some professional crews for ‘no Baltic cruizing’, several English yachtsman sailed there during the Crimean War (1854–6) to see if they could witness any actions against the Russian fleet, and one nearly got blown out of the water. Others sailed to the Crimea with supplies for the soldiers fighting there. The first yacht to cruise across the Atlantic was the 25-metre (83-ft) LWL American brigantine Cleopatra's Barge which sailed to the Mediterranean, via the Azores and Madeira, in 1817, and then returned.

All these voyages were undertaken in large yachts crewed by professional seamen, indeed some were so large and fast that they rivalled anything the Royal Navy could build. But by the middle of the 19th century, cruising was no longer a rich man's pastime and yachtsmen were sailing their own yachts. Among the best known of these was E. F. Knight, who cruised to the Baltic in a 9-metre (29-ft) converted ship's lifeboat, and R. T. McMullen, who cruised in British waters, often alone, and their writings inspired a generation of enthusiasts to follow in their wake. Other cruising yachtsmen have also been adept at writing about their experiences and encouraging their readers to copy them. The first man to sail around the world alone, Joshua Slocum, wrote about his adventures in a book which is still in print. In the 20th century, the books written by Susan and Eric Hiscock, Bill Tillman and others, inspired a whole generation of cruising yachtsmen.

A feature of modern cruising is the rallies and meets held by yacht clubs where owners and their families cruise, either alone or in company, to an agreed destination, or series of destinations, so as to socialize at the end of the voyage. Perhaps the best known of these is the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC), which held its first meet in 1986. The participants do compete on each of its legs, but in a low-key kind of way. There are different divisions for different types of yachts, and the prizes reflect the relaxed nature of the contest.

Power

Steam and Motor Yachts.

With the introduction of steam propulsion during the early 19th century it was only to be expected that some yachtsmen should look to this new means of propulsion. A steam yacht, as well as being more popular with ladies, was also far more suitable for the lavish entertaining of the period as well as being a status symbol. Most of the steam yachts of that century were luxuriously fitted out, with heavy carving and panelling, thick carpeting, and large staterooms equipped with every conceivable convenience.

Like many innovations, the introduction of steam was not accepted immediately. Indeed, The Royal Yacht Club, as The Royal Yacht Squadron was then called, banned members from owning steam yachts. In 1829 one of its members, Thomas Assheton-Smith, preferred to resign rather than accept the ban, and the following year he built the 400-ton Menai, the first steam yacht to be built in Britain. In the USA the first steam yacht was the 1,876-ton North Star, for Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, which was launched in 1853. Both vessels were paddle steamers, and steam had no rival in pleasure craft until about 1885, when launches fitted with an engine using naphtha gas in place of coal and water in the boiler appeared in both Britain and the USA. However, fires were a frequent occurrence, and when a few years later the more compact, if noisy, internal combustion engine was introduced the naphtha launch disappeared.

The first yacht to have steam turbines fitted was the Turbinia, which was launched in 1897 and the first large yacht to be powered by diesel engines, the 360-ton Pioneer, was launched in 1913. From that time the diesel engine quickly became accepted as the easiest, cleanest, and most economical way of powering a yacht, and without boilers and bunkers there was much more room for the passengers.

The largest privately owned motor yacht ever built was the 4,646-ton American designed Savarona III. Just over 125 metres (408 ft) long and with a crew of 107, she was owned by an American, Mrs E. R. Cadwalader, from 1931 to 1938, and subsequently became a school ship in the Turkish Navy. The American magnate J. P. Morgan built four yachts called Corsair. The last, 105 metres (343 ft) long and 2,142 tons gross, was the largest of them, and was the second largest motor yacht ever built.

Some of the motor yachts built between the wars are still afloat, and grace the harbours of Monte Carlo and the French Riviera, but many were commandeered at the start of the Second World War (1939–45), as their predecessors had been in 1914, and were sunk or had to be scrapped. Only one, T. O. M. Sopwith's 1,620-ton Philante, was large enough to be armed and serve in the Royal Navy during the Second World War, as a convoy escort, and is now the Norwegian royal yacht Norge. In the USA the larger motor yachts were also commandeered and used as anti-submarine patrol boats in the US Coast Guard. Today, the successors of these luxury vessels, or super-yachts as they are now called, reflect the enormous wealth of their owners as well as the talent of their designers to produce a beautiful, visually dramatic, vessel.

Offshore Powerboats.

Racing powerboats offshore began as soon as the marine internal combustion engine had been introduced. By the early 20th century it had become almost as popular as racing motor cars, and it was given further impetus when the International Harmsworth Trophy was first awarded in 1903. The trophy was competed for until 1939 when it was withdrawn, and it was not resurrected until 2002, when it was awarded to powerboats up to 12.2 metres (40 ft) in length, manned by a crew of two.

Initially, powerboat racing took place in sheltered water, and the first offshore event in Britain was not held until 1905. Though the British held offshore races before the First World War (1914–18), from London to Cowes, by the 1950s the Americans had begun to dominate the sport. The first 295-kilometre (184-ml.) Miami–Nassau Race was held in 1956—it later became the 580-kilometre (362-ml.) Miami–Nassau–Miami event still held annually—and other long-distance events included the Around Long Island marathon and the Miami–Key West Race. Then, in 1961, the newspaper magnate Max Aitken, inspired by the Miami–Nassau event, started the 286-kilometre (179-ml.) Cowes–Torquay Powerboat Race—it became the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes Race from 1968—and the following year the Italians began the 317-kilometre (198-ml.) Viareggio–Bastia–Viareggio Race.

The modern powerboat is a huge advance on the 10-metre (34-ft), 21-horsepower wooden monohulls that raced in the 1950s at an average speed of 32 kph (20 mph). Today catamaran powerboats made of advanced composites such as Kevlar and carbon fibre race at speeds that sometimes exceed 200 kph (125 mph). In the 1950s and 1960s the two-man crew would stand at the controls; nowadays they are enclosed in canopies made of materials borrowed from the aerospace industry, and in 2003 the Cowes–Torquay–Cowes Race was won at an average speed of 122.4 kph (76.5 mph).

As in sailing, speed for its own sake is also a great challenge to those who drive or own powerboats and in 1985 Richard (now Sir Richard) Branson's Virgin Atlantic Challenger II beat the transatlantic blue riband record held since 1952 by the ocean liner United States. She did so at an average speed of 67.3 kph (42.1 mph), the six-man crew covering the 4,757 kilometres (2,973 mls.) in 3 days, 8 hours, and 31 minutes. However the trustees of the blue riband prize, the Hales Trophy, later ruled that powerboats were not eligible to compete for it.

yachtbuilding. Yacht design was originally carried out by the shipwright or boatbuilder commissioned to build the yacht, and quite often to the shape agreed of a half model produced by the builder. A successful design would be copied and modified so that existing patterns could be used. In the late 19th century the advent of rating rules influenced the previous, more traditional shapes, so that more extreme types, such as the skimming dish, were developed to try and beat these rules.

The introduction of steam propulsion led to many large iron auxiliary and full-powered steam yachts being built. However, it was not until about 1870 that yacht design began as a separate profession, though most yacht designers retained strong links with building yards. Each developed his own style and yachts could be recognized as being from a particular designer.

In the 1930s the increase in ocean racing (see yachting: sail) and dinghy racing led to an increasing number of designers producing race-winning designs so that design offices expanded. After the Second World War (1939–45) yacht design was generally low key with small simple yachts, but by the 1950s the introduction of GRP provided a boost, and the spread of various forms of ocean racing provided battlegrounds for designers. Many of the successful ones from this period later became involved in the design of larger and larger yachts where a lot of the detail work again devolved upon the building yard.

Following modern shipbuilding practice, the modern yacht designer will work closely with a stylist and interior designer, as yachts become ever more sophisticated. However, he will still be responsible for the yacht's fitness for its purpose, and for performance, stability, structural integrity, and safety. To establish these he will first of all normally produce, for a sailing yacht, a preliminary general arrangement and a sail plan for the owner's approval and as a basis for a written specification with which to obtain building estimates. A lines plan is then produced, so that stability and performance checks can be made together with detailed weight estimates, and a construction plan, including decks and the scantling section. These, together with other structural drawings such as bulkheads, tanks, machinery seatings, stern gear, and rudder arrangements, may all need approval by a classification society. At this stage it is likely that the builder and the interior designer will become involved with the development of all the systems and the detail of the interior. Other specialists may also be brought in to design the spars, rigging, sails, and deck gear. There may be as many as 100 drawings for a 10-metre (32-ft) yacht or 400 for a 20-metre (65-ft) yacht.

Early Yachtbuilding.

From the inception of yachting, yachtbuilding followed the traditional methods used to build small commercial wooden vessels such as barges and smacks, with one of the main tools being the adze. The wood keel, of oak, elm, pitch pine, or other local timber, was laid on the slipway or on building blocks, and the wooden stem, sternpost, and stern frame bolted into place. The various frames (or ribs) were sawn to shape and erected in their respective positions along both sides of the keel from stem to stern, the lower ends of each pair being fastened to floor frames which were commonly oak crooks laid athwart the top of the keel. An inner keel, or keelson, was sometimes bolted on to the tops of the floor frames and running from the inside of the stem to the sternpost. Beam shelves, running from bow to stern and fastened to the inside of the head of every frame, carried the outboard ends of the deck beams which in turn were fastened to the shelves, often with a half-dovetail joint. Openings in the deck for hatches or skylights were joined by carlings to which the coamings were fastened. At all junctions beneath the deck where the racking strains of hard sailing in heavy seas were greatest, oak crooks or wrought iron knees were bolted to give more rigidity, hanging knees being vertical and lodging knees horizontal.

The planking of the hull was fastened to the frames and floors with galvanized iron spikes, bronze bolts, or, in smaller yachts, with copper square-sectioned nails riveted over copper collars (or roves) on the inside of every frame. The work of planking the vessels was started at the garboard strake on each side, and continued in sequence up to the turn of the bilge. Other planks were then fastened on from the sheer strake downwards, until the final gap between the two sets of planks could be filled in with an exactly fitting shutter strake. Deck planks, traditionally of white pine or teak, were laid fore and aft usually following the curve of the wide covering board at the yacht's side. The seams between the planks, cut in the form of a deep V, were caulked with cotton and payed with hot pitch. The seams of the hull planking were likewise caulked with cotton and finished smooth and flush with a patent stopping mixture which never set hard enough to crack when the seams worked in a seaway.

Towards the end of the 19th century sawn frames were replaced in the smaller yachts by steam-bent timbers, and this remained standard boat-building practice for wood-built yachts under about 14 metres (45 ft). In building a hull for steam-bent framing, the keel was laid first, and the stem and sternpost erected. Next, moulds, or patterns, were cut to the shape and measurements on the designer's plan. These were fitted inside the planking and spaced at their appropriate stations through the vessel. Then, on each side wooden battens called ribbands were temporarily screwed to the edges of the moulds, running from bow to stern and spaced roughly 15–23 centimetres (6–9 in.) apart. Each frame-timber was then made pliable by heating in a steam box, and while still boiling hot was smartly bent into shape on the inside of the ribbands, with its lower end fitting into a check slot already cut in the side of the keel. When all the timbers were in place and temporarily fastened to the ribbands, the ribbands were removed one by one as the planks of the hull were laid in place, being fastened to the timbers by copper nails and roves. Steam-bent timbering was suitable for either carvel or clinker planking.

Developments after the Second World War.

Design and building techniques, together with the introduction of many new materials, revolutionized yachtbuilding during the 1950s. Water-resistant marine plywood, introduced during the war, opened up the possibilities for amateur builders to construct their own boats, and numerous new designs were made available to plank in plywood from small dinghies up to cruising yachts of 12 metres (39 ft) in length.

Another popular material for the amateur boatbuilder which came into vogue at this time was ferrocement, or ferroconcrete. This method employed several layers of wire mesh, generally of the welded type, which were wired to the intersections of steel rods and tubes forming a close-knitted framework of the vessel's hull. When complete the whole fabric was rendered waterproof by an application, simultaneously from both inside the hull and outside, of a semi-liquid mortar mix, composed of cement and very fine sand. When cured and set over a period of a week or more, the resulting surface is smooth, hard, and resilient. Many barges and pontoons have also been made this way.

For yachts over 12 metres, the strength and durability of steel makes it favoured by those undertaking long ocean voyages and it is fairly easy to repair in any part of the world. Aluminium is also popular and, being lighter, is used to build racing yachts, but it has now been largely superseded by the composites mentioned below.

Modern Yachtbuilding by Jeremy Lines

By far the most popular material today for constructing yachts, both power and sailing, is glassfibre, or GRP, a revolution which occurred in the 1960s. After a female mould for the hull and deck has been made it is coated and polished to a high degree as this will be the finished surface of the actual yacht. This is then coated with a release agent which is followed by two gel coats before the first layer of glassfibre is laid. Resin is then rolled into this mat before the succeeding layers of reinforcement are laid and again impregnated with resin. The most usual resin is a polyester but other more expensive types such as vinylester and epoxy may be used for greater strength or less weight. A simple small hull such as a dinghy may have just a single laminate lay-up, but as size increases a cored laminate may be used to get more panel stiffness, and additional frames, stringers, and bulkheads may be fitted.

The unique property of a composite structure is that the designer can specify not only the thickness and size of the material but also the physical properties of the material itself by adjusting the type and orientation of the reinforcement and using different core materials and resins. Because the actual material is being made at the time of manufacture close control has to be maintained over the whole process as it cannot be remade.

Nowadays state-of-the-art racing yachts are built on the foam sandwich principle, the hull generally being formed over a male mould from two composite skins enclosing a central core of end-grain balsa wood, pvc foam, or other lightweight material. Some extremely light but stiff epoxy honeycomb materials are available today and, combined with an enormous range of reinforcement materials such as Kevlar and carbon fibre in woven, unidirectional, and combinations of the two, the hull structure can be built to the minimum weight in every part.

Using techniques adapted from the aerospace industry the reinforcements may be pre-impregnated with resin, thus ensuring the minimum resin weight, and then cured by controlled heating in an oven.

Resins are also used to seal and glue wood and this has helped to overcome many of the disadvantages—rot, high maintenance costs—of this type of construction and has led to a modest revival of wood in the yachtbuilding industry. Other methods such as cold-moulded wooden laminates glued with resin over a mould have produced many lightweight dinghies and racing yachts, but, worldwide, GRP production yachts now far outnumber other types of construction.

The introduction of GRP hulls and decks, and the standardization of yachts, led to batch production where the interiors were produced on jigs and then lifted in large sections into the hulls before the decks were bonded in. To reduce the cost still further, more and more of the interior is also now moulded in GRP so that the fitting-out time can be reduced to days instead of weeks. The decks may also be fitted out separately, both above and below, before being bonded to the hull. Most boat factories have the working area arranged at deck level with everything possible being prefabricated and tested before installation. Another great advantage of this type of construction, if done properly, is the close quality control that can be achieved. It also means easier maintenance, even if it means replacement rather than repair.

Bibliography

Watts, C. , Practical Yacht Construction, 3rd edn. (1970).

yacht designers, until relatively recently, were not all qualified in naval architecture, a lack which did not stop many from rising to the top of their profession. However, with the expansion of tertiary education and the intricacies of designing on a computer, it must be rare nowadays for a professional yacht designer not to have formal qualifications, though there are probably still plenty of talented amateurs without them who are more than capable of designing fast, seaworthy boats.

The term yacht designer—which covers designing both sailing yachts and power yachts—seems to have been introduced by an Englishman, Dixon Kemp (1839–99). Kemp worked for many years as the yachting editor of a magazine and as secretary of the Yacht Racing Association, now the Royal Yachting Association. He formulated the length and sail area rating rule, adopted first in the USA (1882) and then Britain (1887), which did much to improve yacht racing and yacht design, and became an established yacht designer during the latter half of the 19th century, producing a number of seminal works on the subject.

Kemp worked during the great boom in the sport of yachting which followed the visit to England of the schooner America, in 1851, and the introduction of steam propulsion in leisure craft which caught on at about the same time. It was this popularity that led to the work of the yacht designer diverging from that of the yachtbuilder who had traditionally designed what he was constructing.

Some of the most famous yacht designers during this period emerged from the yachtbuilding firms they ran. Among the most eminent were the Scottish builders of Fairlie, William Fife II (1821–1902) and his son William III (1857–1944); Charles E. Nicholson (1868–1954) of Camper & Nicholsons, who designed everything from skimming dishes to J-class yachts as well as luxurious power yachts and speedboats; and Nat Herreshoff of Bristol, RI, perhaps the greatest of all American yacht designers, who was equally versatile. All three firms built and designed many famous yachts during the decades 1850–1939, a number of which are still sailing today as classic yachts.

Archibald Cary Smith (1837–1911) was the first to specialize exclusively in yacht design in the USA, after initially earning his living by marine painting. As a child, he played around America as she was being built, and was later apprenticed to a boat-builder. In 1870 he designed Vindex, the first iron-built yacht in America. In doing so he broke from the established concepts, employed by the boat-builders of the day, of designing by ‘rule of thumb’ and with carved models. Instead, every conceivable part of the vessel was calculated and then transferred to paper plans before construction started. Later, with the iron-built Mischief, the 1881 defender of the America's Cup, he advanced the cause of yacht designing by producing a revolutionary yacht.

In the same period a number of British yacht designers emerged from different backgrounds, some more qualified than others, but all highly skilled. Four outstanding examples are George L. Watson (1851–1904), who designed Britannia, perhaps the most famous racing yacht of all time; Alfred Mylne (1873–1951), the designer of some outstanding International Metre Class yachts; and the Boston designer B. B. Crowninshield (1867–1948), a prolific designer of the smaller yacht as well as some contenders to defend the America's Cup, and the trading schooner Thomas W. Lawson.

It was in Crowninshield's design office that John Alden (1884–1962), a name synonymous with a distinctive type of schooner yacht, learned his trade. Another whose name is always associated with his own designs is the Norwegian Colin Archer (1832–1921). In 1873 he designed the first Norwegian yacht, but his real interest was working boats—pilot boats, fishing craft, and those specially built for lifesaving—some of which were later converted into outstandingly seaworthy cruising boats. Another Norwegian, Johan Anker (1871–1940), a one-time pupil of Nat Herreshoff, became equally well known for his Dragon-class yacht which is still popular today.

The skills of yacht designing were, and are, often passed from father to son, and sometimes to a third generation, as well. Two of Herreshoff's sons, L. Francis (1890–1972) and A. Sidney (1886–1977), were successful designers, as is Sidney's son Halsey (b. 1933). Starling Burgess (1878–1947) was, perhaps, even better known than his father Edward (1848–91), both of whom, before and after the Herreshoff era, produced designs that successfully defended the America's Cup. The Germán Frers family from Argentina, father (1898–1986), son (b. 1941), and grandson (b. 1969), have an international reputation for their yachts.

Charles E. Nicholson always described yacht design as an art, but by the time a new generation of designers began to appear during the late 1930s, when the tank testing of hulls was enormously improved, it was more a science than an art. Certainly, this is how the leader of this new wave of designers, Olin J. Stephens (b. 1908), looked upon it; and between the 1930s and the 1980s his firm of Sparkman & Stephens produced many, if not most, of the top ocean racers as well as designing the America's Cup 12-metre (39-ft) boats that successfully defended the Cup up to 1983.

Stephens, of course, had his rivals during this era. Outstanding among these were the English designers Robert Clark (1909–88) and Jack Laurent Giles (1901–69); the American Bill Lapworth (b. 1919), who in the 1960s produced some of America's most popular racing classes such as the Cal-40; the Dutchman E. G. Van de Stadt (1910–99); the New Zealanders Ron Holland (b. 1947) and Bruce Farr (b. 1949); and the Australian Ben Lexcen, formerly Bob Miller (1936–88), whose design eventually wrestled the America's Cup from the Americans in 1983. The American Ray Hunt (1908–78) was a top designer of powerboats, while Jon Bannenberg (1929–2002), Australian born, but British based, designed nearly 200 luxury state-of-the-art motor yachts for the super-rich.

For the technical aspects of yacht design see naval architecture; yachtbuilding. Del Sol Knight, L., and MacNaughton, Daniel B. (eds.), The Encyclopedia of Yacht Designers (2005).
Kinney, F. , You Are First: The Story of Olin and Rod Stephens of Sparkman & Stephens (1978).
Robinson, W. , The Great American Yacht Designers (1974).
Stephens, W. , Traditions and Memories of American Yachting, new edn. (1989).

yacht Boat used for sport and recreation, powered by sail or motor. Sailing yachts, which are usually fore and aft rigged, vary from 6m (20ft) to more than 30m (98ft) long and include cutters, schooners, ketches, sloops, and yawls, Those fitted with diesel or petrol engines are usually classified as cruising (or motor) yachts. Although most yachts are used for vacationing and cruising, it has been an international sport since 1851, when the Royal Yacht Squadron (formed at Cowes, England, in 1812) offered a silver cup as a prize for a race of 97km (60mi) around the Isle of Wight. The race was won by the schooner America, owned by the members of the New York Yacht Club (established 1844), and has since been known as the America's Cup. The Admiral's Cup is an international race held biennially since 1957 at Cowes. The Observer Single-Handed Transatlantic Race has been held every four years since 1960. The Olympics have competitions in seven yachting categories.

yacht, from the Dutch jacht, which comes from another Dutch word, jachten, meaning to hurry or hunt, for the Dutch were the first to use commercial vessels for pleasure. The word also applies to large powered pleasure vessels, steam or motor yachts, as well as sailing vessels deemed too big to be called a boat or a dinghy. See also yachtbuilding; yacht clubs; yacht designers; yachting.

yacht / yät/ • n. a medium-sized sailboat equipped for cruising or racing. ∎  a powered boat or small ship equipped for cruising, typically for private or official use: a steam yacht. • v. [intr.] race or cruise in a yacht. DERIVATIVES: yachts·man n.

yacht XVI. — early modDu. jaght(e), now jacht, short for jaghtschip (ship for chasing), f. jaght hunting, chase, f. jagen hunt, chase; see -T2.
Hence yachting (-ING1), yachtsman XIX.

yacht yät n.
1. a medium-sized sailboat equipped for cruising or racing.

2. a powered boat or small ship equipped for cruising, typically for private or official use: a steam yacht.

yacht see motorboating ; sailing .

yacht •allot, begot, Bernadotte, blot, bot, capot, clot, cocotte, cot, culotte, dot, forgot, garrotte (US garrote), gavotte, got, grot, hot, jot, knot, lot, Mayotte, motte, not, Ott, outshot, plot, pot, rot, sans-culotte, Scot, Scott, shallot, shot, slot, snot, sot, spot, squat, stot, swat, swot, tot, trot, twat, undershot, Wat, Watt, what, wot, yacht •robot • hotshot • peridot • microdot •Wyandot • polka dot • fylfot • mascot •Caldecott • carrycot • apricot •boycott • dovecote • sandlot • melilot •polyglot • Camelot • ocelot •monoglot • sub-plot • Lancelot •cachalot • counterplot • Wilmot •guillemot • motmot • bergamot