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Rh altered several times, and again entirely rebuilt in 1887–88. The Thames soon followed the example of the Solent and established the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1823, the Clyde founding the Royal Northern Yacht Club in 1824, and Plymouth the Royal Western in 1827. In this year the Royal Yacht Squadron passed a resolution disqualifying any member who should apply steam to his yacht—the enactment being aimed at T. Assheton Smith, an enthusiastic yachtsman and fox-hunter, who was having a paddle-wheel steam yacht called the “Menai” built on the Clyde. In 1830 one of the largest cutters ever constructed was launched, viz. the “Alarm,” built by Inman at Lymington for Joseph Weld of Lulworth Castle, from the lines of a famous smuggler captured off the Isle of Wight. She was 82 ft. on the load-line by 24 ft. beam, and was reckoned of 193 tons, old measurement, in which length, breadth and half-breadth (supposed to represent depth) were the factors for computation. Some yachtsmen at this time preferred still larger vessels and owned square-topsail schooners and brigs like the man-o'-war brigs of the day, such as the “Waterwitch,” 381 tons, built by White of Cowes, in 1832, for Lord Belfast, and the “Brilliant,” barque, 493 tons, belonging to J. Holland Ackers, who invented a scale of time allowance for competitive sailing. In 1834 the first royal cup was given by William IV. to the Royal Yacht Squadron. In 1836 the Royal Eastern Yacht Club was founded at Granton near Edinburgh; in 1838 the Royal St George's at Kingstown and the Royal London; in 1843 the Royal Southern at Southampton and the Royal Harwich; in 1844 the Royal Mersey at Liverpool and the Royal Victoria at Ryde. The number of vessels kept pace with the clubs—the fifty yachts of 1812 increasing nearly tenfold before the middle of the century.

First Alteration in Type.—In 1848, after J. Scott Russell had repeatedly drawn attention to the unwisdom of constructing sailing vessels on the “cod's head and mackerel tail” plan, and had enunciated his wave-line theory, Mare built at Blackwall an entirely new type of vessel, with a long hollow bow and a short after-body of considerable fulness. This was the iron cutter “Mosquito,” of 59 ft. 2 in. water-line, 15 ft. 3 in. beam, and measuring 50 tons. Prejudice against the new type of yacht being as strong as against the introduction of steam, there were no vessels built like the “Mosquito,” with the exception of the “Volante,” 59 tons, by Harvey of Wyvenhoe, until the eyes of English yachtsmen were opened by the Americans three years later. About this period yacht racing had been gradually coming into favour in the United States, the first yacht club being founded at New York in 1844 by nine yacht-owners; and in 1846 the first match between yachts in the States was sailed, 25 m. to windward and back from Sandy Hook lightship, between J. C. Stevens's new centre-board sloop “Maria,” 170 tons, 100 ft. water-line and 26 ft. 8 in. beam, with a draught of 5 ft. 3 in. of water, and the “Coquette,” schooner, 74 tons, belonging to J. H. Perkins, the latter winning; but the appearance of the “Maria,” which had a clipper or schooner bow, something like that of the racing cutters of 1887–88, did much for yachting in America. Stevens then commissioned George Steers of New York, builder of the crack pilot schooners, to construct a racing schooner to visit England in the year of the great exhibition, and the result was the “America” of 170 tons. She crossed the Atlantic in the summer of 1851, but failed to compete for the Queen’s cup at Cowes in August, although the club for that occasion threw the prize open to all the world, as her owner declined to concede the usual time allowance for difference of size. The members of the Yacht Squadron, not wishing to risk the reproach of denying the visitor a fair race, decided that their match for a cup given by the club, to be sailed round the Isle of Wight later in the same month, should be without any time allowance. The “America,” thus exceptionally treated, entered and competed against fifteen other vessels. The three most dangerous competitors being put out through accidents, the “America” passed the winning-post 18 minutes ahead of the 47-ton cutter “Aurora,” and won the cup; but, even if the time allowance

had not been waived, the American schooner yacht would still have won by fully a couple of minutes. The prize was given to the New York Yacht Club and constituted a challenge cup, called “the America's cup,” for the yachts of all nations, by the deed of gift of the owners of the winner. (See below for a complete account of these races.)

Not only was the “America” as great a departure from the conventional British type of yacht as the “Mosquito,” but the set of her sails was a decided novelty. In England it had been the practice to make them baggy, whereas those of the “America” were flat, which told materially in working to windward. The revolution in yacht designing and canvasing was complete, and the bows of existing cutters were lengthened, that of the “Arrow” among others. The “Alarm” was also lengthened and turned into a schooner of 248 tons, and the “Wildfire,” cutter, 59 tons, was likewise converted. Indeed there was a complete craze for schooners, the “Flying Cloud,” “Gloriana,” “Lalla Rookh,” “Albertine,” “Aline,” “Egeria,” “Pantomime” and others being built between 1852 and 1865, during which period the centre-board, or sliding keel, was applied to schooners as well as sloops in America. The national or cutter rig was nevertheless not neglected in England, for Hatcher of Southampton built the 35-ton cutter “Glance”—the pioneer of the subsequent 40-tonners—in 1855, and the “Vampire”—the pioneer of the 20-tonners—in 1857, in which year Weld also had the “Lulworth,” an 82-ton cutter of comparatively shallow draught, constructed at Lymington. At this time too there came into existence a group of cutters, called “flying fifties” from their tonnage, taking after the “Mosquito” as their pioneer; such were the “Extravaganza,” “Audax” and “Vanguard.” In 1866 a large cutter was constructed on the Clyde called the “Condor,” 135 tons, followed by the still larger “Oimara,” 163 tons, in 1867. In 1868 the “Cambria” schooner was built by Ratsey at Cowes for Ashbury of Brighton, and, having proved a successful match-sailer, was taken to the United States in 1870 to compete for the America's cup, but was badly beaten, as also was the “Livonia” in 1871.

The First Great Era of Yacht Racing.—The decade between 1870 and 1880 may be termed the first Golden Age of yachting, inasmuch as the racing fleet had some very notable additions made to it, of which it will suffice to mention the schooners “Gwendolin,” “Cetonia,” “Corinne,” “Miranda” and “Waterwitch”; the large cutters “Kriemhilda,” “Vol au Vent,” “Formosa,” “Samoena” and “Vanduara,” a cutter built of steel; the 40-tonners “Foxhound,” “Bloodhound,” “Myosotis” and “Norman”; the 20-tonners “Vanessa” (Hatcher's masterpiece), “Quickstep,” “Enriqueta,” “Louise” and “Freda”; and the yawls “Florinda,” “Corisande,” “Jullanar” and “Latona.” The “Jullanar” may be noted as a specially clever design. Built in 1874 from the ideas of Bentall, an agricultural implement maker of Maldon, Essex, she had no dead wood forward or aft, and possessed many improvements in design which were embodied and developed by the more scientific naval architects, G. L. Watson, William Fife, jun., and others in later years. Lead, the use of which commenced in 1846, was entirely used for ballast after 1870 and placed on the keel outside.

Of races there was a plethora; indeed no fewer than 400 matches took place in 1876, as against 63 matches in 1856, with classes for schooners and yawls, for large cutters, for 40-tonners, 20-tonners and 10-tonners. The sport, too, was better regulated, and was conducted on a uniform system: the Yacht-Racing Association, established in 1875, drew up a simple code of laws for the regulation of yacht races, which was accepted by the yacht clubs generally, though a previous attempt to introduce uniformity, made by the Royal Victoria Yacht Club in 1868, had failed. The Association adopted the rule for ascertaining the size or tonnage of yachts which had been for many years in force, known as the Thames rule; but in 1879 they altered the plan of reckoning length from that taken on deck to that taken at the load water-line, and two years later they adopted an entirely new system of calculation.