ABW Dec 2020-1

Yacht Club was founded, and the rivalry between the two clubs
resulted in the founding of the America’s Cup in 1820. This
prestigious event probably did more to improve the design and
performance of sailing yachts than anything else, as designers,
boat-builders and yachtsmen fought to produce the best
and fastest boat with ever improving
technology and skill.
At the same time that yachting was
growing in renown through the
prestigious racing events, A small band
of individuals eschewed competition
and sailed simply to improve their
mastery of a small boat in the open
water. The first to leave any real
record of his exploits was Richard
Turrill McMullen in the 1850s, when
McMullen was sailing, yachting was
still in the province of gentleman skipper, with a hired crew
of professional sailors, so McMullen set out to prove that a
gentleman skipper could actually handle the boat himself. He
learned the hard way –through experience and practical sailing.
to other members. In 1902 the club received its royal warrant
and appeared under the name by which it is now known, the
Royal Cruising Club. Five years later the Cruising Association
was formed with the object of providing more information
about harbours and ports, and encouraging safe and seaman
like cruising. The first book to
be devoted entirely to the art of
Unlike the boats of
private racing events,
such as the Americas
Cup, they were
skippered and sailed
amateur yachtsmen.
Folkboat
cruising – now regarded as a classic
– was Claud Worth’s Yacht Cruising,
published in 1910. He explained the
many branches of expertise which
were required by the all-round
seaman and handler of small craft.
After the early pioneering of
McMullen, Worth and a few other
English eccentrics, cruising grew
rapidly in popularity and spread
to the United States, where the cruising club of America was
founded in 1922. Although the early cruising boats were all
converted working boats, a Norwegian naval architect, Colin
Archer, had turned his attention to designing craft specifically
for cruising. A lifetime spent amongst the difficult sailing
waters of Norway made him well qualified to produce sturdy,
seaworthy boats.
McMullen did a great deal to prove that a small craft is no
less safe and seaworthy than a large one, if properly handled;
and he revealed the as-then unrecognized truth that it is the
shore which is the danger for sailing craft not the open sea.
McMullen died of a heart attack at the helm of his yacht
Perseus in 1891 – just four years before another equally
famous Yachtsman, Captain Joshua Slocum, a Canadian,
completed the first single-handed circumnavigation of the
world in his boat, Spray. The idea of rounding the horn in
a boat less than 40ft in length was regarded at the time as
suicidal. What made the achievement particularly spectacular
was the fact the he sailed around the world against prevailing
winds. In fact, the next circumnavigation in a small boat was
not made for another 25 years and when it was, the route
was via the Panama canal, thus avoiding the rigors of the
Southern Atlantic and Cape Horn in particular.
A little earlier in 1880, the first cruising club had been
formed in Britain, the object of which was to promote
good seamanship, navigation and pilotage. Members were
encouraged to explore the less know coasts and harbours, and
produce pilot information on them which could be disseminated
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Although there was still a deep schism between cruising and
racing sailors in the early 20th century, the founding of the first
public offshore race, the Fastnet in 1925, did much to marry the
two branches of the sport. The boats which took part in the first
Fastnet race were, in the main, converted working boats, like
the winner Jolie Brise a converted pilot boat. Unlike the boats
of private racing events, such as the Americas Cup, they were
skippered and sailed amateur yachtsmen. A new club came into
being, The Royal Ocean Racing Club, and with it a new breed of
boats, the cruiser-racers.
Modern advances in boat technology owe a great deal to the
development of this form of racing, and, although there is still
a great difference between sailors whose prime objective is to
compete and those whose main purpose is to cruise, there is
often less of a distinction between the types of boat.Thanks
to the new breed of boats, which are safe, speedy and easily
maintained, cruising today far from being the pastime of a
few eccentrics, has become one of the most popular sailing
activities. Competing with the elements, discovering new
coastlines and getting away from the pressures of the industrial
rat-race – these advantages have persuaded large numbers of
people to try their hand at cruising.
You can buy a boat suited to your need for pottering, or you
can occasionally try your hand at racing. You are master of
your own boat, reliant on your own skills for safety, and you
can travel where you will, at a speed determined by yourself.
your boat and the elements. Small wonder, therefore, in an
age where the individual has less and less control over his own
destiny, that cruising has become one of the fastest growing
sports since the Second World War.