Editing Yacht (section)

===Sail===
[[File:America's Cup Racing, 1893-Fred S. Cozzens-IMG 5974.JPG|thumb|1893 [[America's Cup]] match between ''[[Vigilant (yacht)|Vigilant]]'' and ''[[Valkyrie II]]'']]
The history of sailing yachts begins in Europe in the beginning of the 1600s with the building of a pleasure vessel for the son of [[James VI and I|King James I of England]]. While other monarchs used naval ships for transportation and conquest, James I was the first English monarch to commission the construction of a yacht—for his son [[Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales|Henry, Prince of Wales]] in the early 1600s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Major, Alan P.|title=Royal yachts|date=2011|publisher=Amberley|isbn=978-1-4456-1107-5|location=Stroud|oclc=1100700087}}</ref>  Pleasure vessels acquired the name ''yacht'' after the time of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]], who spent time exiled in Europe and visited the Netherlands, where a variety of ''jachten'' were already well developed as pleasure boats for the elite classes since the beginning of the 17th century. Upon his restoration to the English crown, Charles was presented with a [[HMY Mary|yacht]] and later commissioned a series of royal yachts, which included at least one experimental [[catamaran]]. The first recorded yacht race between two vessels occurred in 1661, followed by the first open sailing competition in 1663 in English waters.<ref name="golden">{{Cite book|last=Herreshoff|first=L. Francis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4RONp_1mrMC&q=history+of+sailing+yachts|title=The Golden Age of Yachting|date=2007|publisher=Sheridan House, Inc.|isbn=978-1-57409-251-6|pages=19–25|language=en}}</ref>

Starting in 1739, England found itself in a series of wars—a period that saw a decline in yachting. In Ireland, however, the gentry enjoyed yachting and founded the first yacht club in Cork as the [[Royal Cork Yacht Club|Cork Harbour Water Club]] in 1720. English yacht racing continued among the English gentry who founded England's oldest yacht club in 1775 to support a fleet at [[Cumberland]]. With maritime peace, starting in 1815, came a resurgence of interest in yachting. Boatbuilders, who had been making fast vessels both for smugglers and the government [[Cutter (boat)|revenue cutters]], turned their skills again to yachts.<ref name="golden" />

The fast yachts of the early 19th century were [[Fore-and-aft rig|fore-and-aft]] [[lugger]]s, [[schooner]]s, and [[sloop]]s. By the 1850s, yachts featured large sail areas, a narrow beam, and a deeper draft than was customary until then. Racing between yachts owned by wealthy patrons was common, with large wagers at stake. The [[America's Cup]] arose out of a contest between the yacht, ''[[America (yacht)|America]]'', and its English competitors. Both countries had rules by which to rate yachts, the English by tonnage and the American by length.<ref name="golden" />

In the late 19th century, yacht owners would base their choice of vessel upon preferred lifestyle and budget, which would determine the size and type of vessel, which would most likely be a fore-and aft, two-masted sailing vessel. A treatise on the subject, ''A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing'', provided detailed information on selecting, equipping, sailing, seamanship, management of the paid crew, and racing such vessels. It included a brief section on steam yachts, the recirculating coil steam engine just having made such yachts efficient enough for leisure travel on the water.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kemp|first=Dixon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vAOAAAAYAAJ&q=Sailing+yacht|title=A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing|date=1882|publisher=Horace Cox|location=London|language=en}}</ref>