YACHT is a small vessel constructed so as best to insure strength, elegance, and speed, and exclusively employed for pleasure-sailing. Vessels of this sort were first con structed in this country in 1604, at which date a yacht was built by the king's master shipwright for Henry, eldest son of James I. of England; the idea of such a vessel being taken from the Dutch, among whom they had been employed for some time previous. From this time yachting, steadily patronized by royalty, became a favorite pastime of the nobility and gentry, and there are now about N yacht clubs in the United Kingdom, possessing, according to the Yacht List of 1876, 3,164 yachts. This amusement is en couraged by government, mainly because it supplies an excellent training for seamen, who in time of war become available for the royal navy, while in time of peace they are no burden on the national treasury; and accordingly yachts are allowed to bear the ensign of the royal navy, supplemented by the special flag granted by the admiralty to each club, and to refit and revictual in the royal dockyards. The oldest yacht club in the United Kingdom is the Royal Cork, which, under the title of the "`Water club of Cork," is known to have existed as early as 1720; and the next in order of seniority is the Royal Yacht Squadron, founded in June, 1815, and having its headquarters at Cowes, isle of Wight. The club which stands first as to the number of its members and yachts is the Royal Thames Yacht Club, which was founded in 1823, and has its headquarters in London. Of the other clubs, 6 are Scotch (4 on the Clyde and 2 on the Forth), 8 Irish (2 at Queenstown, 2 at Kingstown, 1 at Dublin, 1 at Belfast, 1 at Carlingford loch, and 1 at loch Erne), and the rest English, being mostly located on the Thames, the channels between Southampton and the isle of Wight, or the n. coast of Wales, from Liverpool to Holyhead. More than half of these clubs have been founded since 1840. Yachting is gaining ground in foreign countries and in the British possessions, the United States rank ing next to Great Britain and Ireland in the number and importance of her yacht clubs (the chief of which is the New York yacht club); and Holland, Belgium, France, Aus tralia, Bermuda, Canada, and Russia have similar associations.
The principles adopted in the construction of yachts have fluctuated greatly, from the simple unpretending rig, small tonnage, and clumsy build of the early yachts of the royal Cork club, to the immense canvas area, larger size, and long narrow build of the yacht of the present time. The yacht of the early part of the century was built with a tine run aft, and a bluff bow; but about 20 years ago this style was supplanted by increased sharpness of bows and stern, a raking (slanting upward and backward) stern post, more depth, the draught aft double of that forward, great fineness of the water lines, narrow beam, and immense sails. The effect of these changes was a great increase of speed, attended, however, with certain defects: one of which was that the diminished breadth of beam injuriously affected buoyancy, and the yachts consequently were more liable to be wetted in a heavy sea. In 1851 the hollow manner in which the crack yachts
of the principal clubs iu England were beaten by the yacht America of the New York yachting club, showed their owners and builders that they bad still much to learn in the way of improvement; and, with few exceptions, they wisely took the lesson. The America had great breadth of beam, comparatively little depth inside, an upright stern post, extremely sharp entrance, and fine water-lines, and (the most remarkable feature) her maximum breath considerably abaft the center. With the exception of the great breadth of beam, and little depth inside, all the other characteristic points of the Ameri can yacht acere adopted by the builders of yachts in this country; the difference between gie draught aft and forward was diminished; and the result of these changes has shown that they were great improvements.
The materials used in the building of yachts are wood, iron, and steel; wood alone, wood and iron together, iron alone, and steel alone, being the various ways in which the materials are employed. Yachts built of wood, or of wood and iron, are generally cop pered, to protect the planking, and secure the smoothness of surface essential to speed. The considerations which determine the relative length, breadth, depth, etc., are treated of under SHIPBUILDING. Considerable stimulus is. given to improvements ha construc tion by the numerous prizes which are offered for competition by the various yacht clubs, and which amounted in 1875 to -214,000, besides cups. These small, but power fully built and thoroughly sea-worthy vessels have traversed every sea on the globe; numbers make trips to Norway and the Mediterranean ; a few visit America and the Indian and Southern oceans; and one or two have circumnavigated the globe. Some of the most remarkable performances of yachts are the voyage from New t ork to Liver pool of the Charter Oak, 23 tons, in 36 days; that of the Sylvie,- 205 tons, from Halifax to Havre, in 16-1 days; those of the Inca, Katinka, and Vivid, 25 tons each, from Eng land to Australia; and the great Atlantic yacht-race from New York to Cowes, in Dec., 1866, which was won by the Henrietta, 205 tons, after a voyage of 14 days. Yachts may be divided, according to the style of their rig, into cutters (q.v.), fore-and aft and square topsail schooners (q.v.), and yawls (q.v.). The tonnage of these vessels is very variable, ranging from 3 to 420 tons in Britain, the average tonnage being 30 to 50 tons. Steam-yachts (screws) are now exceedingly common, their independence of wind making them very popular. The Victoria and Albert and the Fairy, both belong ing to her majesty, are specimens of this class.