Chapter One
The Origins
Early days of yacl1ti tig overseas . The first yacht to visit Australia , the formation of some old world yacht clubs and the ititroductioti of yacht racing rules itito Etigland .
The first historical reference 10 a ' yacht ' was probably in relation to Clcopntra , when we read of her sailing down the Nileaomc 2000 years ago in a vessel with a golden stem . sails of purple silk and oars of silver . Hatdly a yacht as we know it today .
The first real yachts probably appeared in Holland . The Dutch developed what they called a ' jogbt ' ( sometimes ' jaght ' or ' joghte '). One of these vessels was presented to Charles 11 upon his restoration to the English throne in 1660 . From this vessel developed the English yachts-slightly different from the Dutch jogbts in that they were built tor the rougher English conditions with less freeboard , but tbey were beuer seaboats und foster than tl1e Dutch versions . Charles 11 is credited with having some yachts built which he meed against nobility for wagers .
The first yachts to visit our shores were most
probably D1ty / 1 " n and Humskirk . The Dutch yacht DllYfken , in March 1605 . sailed down the inner side of Cape Yodr . Pcrnnsula to Cape Keer Weer ( Tum
Again ) arriving back in Bonda some two months later . ond before Torres passed lhrough the Straits that bear his name . The Dutch , failing to notice the
Straits , thou & Jlt both on the ourwatd and nomewatd journey that they were coasting New Guinea . The Other Dutch yacht . Httmskirk . was described as a yacht when she . In company with uehan under the command of Abel Janzen Tasman . eotered Blackmaos Bay in Van Dicmens Land on I December 1642 . They landed in ships ' boats , beoomingthefirst known withe men to set foot on Tasmanian soil .
As more yachts appeared on English waters , and as interest grew early in the eighteenth century . it was inevimble that owners and crews would meet in tea houses und caverns just as Australian yachtsmen did some one hundred years late .. From these beginnings appeared the first yacht clubs . Russia claims to hav6 .. l < lblished th6 first yncht club in the world .
This club was said to have been set up by Peter the
Fint in 1718 . The name of the club was the Flotilla
Dutch yachts of the midseventeenth century . King Charles n . on being presented by the Dutch East India Company with two yachts , became interested in yachting as a spon and ordered 14 similar yachts to be built by English shipbuilders for racing . The English builders discarded the Dutch lines in favour of
the finer Jines of the sixth rate man-o-war of the period . Three of these y : ichts were of abouc
130 tons with a length on the keel of S6 ft . length overall was abouc 60-70 ft and they were of about 20 ft beam . The hulls canied the dccormions of the day- much carving- and they also carried cannon .
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