ORIGIN OF THE TERM “YACHT”
Life on our planet never fails to amaze us with its diversity and richness. Naturally, human genius contributes a lot to an individual man’s talent and scientific achievements in various fields. Technical development and new computer technologies have entered most human activities, professions, and active leisure occupations. This has not always been the case, for sure.
Take, for example, the history of sailing and its development from the deepest antiquity to the present. If we look carefully at the features of the first boats using sail, to the modern exquisite and incredibly luxurious yachts, packed with tons of software technologies, we would be amazed by the countless interesting facts, related to this progress.
Yachting always has a particular magical effect on people, even if they have never personally dealt with it. The slender silhouette of the sailing yacht temptingly invites and provokes the adventurous thirst for water trips and voyages in each of us, and entices us to enter the azure waters, heading for new horizons.
There are many types of water activities in the world. Sailing stands alone among them because sliding on the water surface of yachts under sails will leave few people indifferent. What do we actually know about its origin?
It is easy to imagine the delight of the people, who initially and deliberately built a kind of sails from branches with leaves, or from animal skins. However, the sail simply became a vital necessity and its invention was to be realized soon.
The most ancient history of sailing is the history of sail used by a fisherman, a merchant, an ancient traveler who discovered a new island or continent. In short, it was the history of those individuals for whom navigation was the main thing in their lives.
The history of yachting dates back to the 16th century when piracy forced Dutch sailors to build a fast and maneuverable boat, which purpose was mainly to captivate sea robbers. So on this specialized boat became known as a "hunting ship", which in Dutch sounds like a "yacht", and that's the way how the actual name came into use.
The first person to introduce the term “yacht holiday” was King Charles II of England. This happened in the 17th century, and two hundred years later yachting became firmly an important part of the sport’s world. However, throughout this period, the presence of yachts was seen as the privilege of exceptionally wealthy people, able to maintain a large boat, which required a large team. But soon the yacht became more common, and this is the merit of Queen Victoria. She was able to promote the development and support of the yacht fleet. Thus, the fleet was stationed at her English residence.
Yachting is historically a favorite pastime of a nobleman. Skilled yachtsmen at their times were Prince Henry of Denmark, King Constantine of Greece, and King Juan Carlos of Spain.