Yacht Sailing
A yacht, from Dutch Jacht meaning "hunt", pronounced [iat] (ya't), was originally defined as a light, fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch navy to pursue pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the Low Countries. After its selection by Charles II of England as the vessel of choice to return to Britain from the Netherlands for his restoration, it came to be used to convey important persons (see under History below).
Later, the word came to designate a wider range of vessels, almost always in private use (i.e., not used for commercial carriage of cargo or passengers), propelled by sail, power, or both, and used for pleasure cruising or racing. Often, powered yachts are referred to as motor yachts, to differentiate them from yachts with sail propulsion.
Yacht has witnessed great modifications since its origins , but many aspects of the sport remain the same.
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Yacht racing is the sport of competitive sailing. There is a broad variety of kinds of races and sailboats used for racing.
Whilst sailing's invention is prehistoric, racing sailing boats is believed to have started in the Netherlands some time in the 17th century, whence it soon made its way to England where custom-built racing "yachts" began to emerge. In 1851, a challenge to an American yacht racing club in New York led to the beginning of the America's Cup, a regatta won by the New York Yacht Club until 1983, when they finally lost to Australia II. Meanwhile, yacht racing continued to evolve, with the development of recognised classes of racing yachts, from small dinghies up to huge maxi yachts.
Rather than having traditional goals where the ball has to pass through goal posts, many of the Native teams used a large rock or tree as their goal. They would hit the deerskin ball against the goal to earn points.
All kinds of boats are used for racing, including small dinghies, catamarans, boats designed primarily for cruising, and purpose-built raceboats.Much racing is done around buoys or similar marks in protected waters, while some longer offshore races cross open water.
The game became known to Westerners when a French Jesuit Missionary, Jean de Br¨¦beuf, saw the Iroquois Natives play it in 1636. In 1763, after Canada had become British, the game was used by the Natives to carry out an ingenious military deception.
Offshore yacht races are held over long distances and in open water; such races usually last for at least a number of days. The longest offshore races involve a circumnavigation of the world.
Some of the most famous offshore races are the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, the Transpacific Yacht Race, the Fastnet race, the Bermuda Race, the 2005 Rolex Transatlantic Challenge and the West Marine Pacific Cup. Several fully-crewed round-the-world races are held, including the Volvo Ocean Race (formerly called the Whitbread Round the World Race), the Global Challenge and the Clipper Round the World Race.