Yacht

The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea | 2006 | The Oxford Companion to Ships and the
Sea 2006, originally published by Oxford University Press 2006
Yacht, from the Dutch jacht, which comes from another Dutch word, jachten, meaning to hurry
or hunt, for the Dutch were the first to use commercial vessels for pleasure. The word also applies
to large powered pleasure vessels, steam or motor yachts, as well as sailing vessels deemed too
big to be called a boat or a dinghy.
yachtbuilding. Yacht design was originally carried out by the shipwright or boatbuilder
commissioned to build the yacht, and quite often to the shape agreed of a half model produced by
the builder. A successful design would be copied and modified so that existing patterns could be
used. In the late 19th century the advent of rating rules influenced the previous, more traditional
shapes, so that more extreme types, such as the skimming dish, were developed to try and beat
these rules.

The introduction of steam propulsion led to many large iron auxiliary and full-powered steam
yachts being built. However, it was not until about 1870 that yacht design began as a separate
profession, though most yacht designers retained strong links with building yards. Each
developed his own style and yachts could be recognized as being from a particular designer.

In the 1930s the increase in ocean racing (see yachting: sail) and dinghy racing led to an
increasing number of designers producing race-winning designs so that design offices expanded.
After the Second World War (1939–45) yacht design was generally low key with small simple
yachts, but by the 1950s the introduction of GRP provided a boost, and the spread of various
forms of ocean racing provided battlegrounds for designers. Many of the successful ones from
this period later became involved in the design of larger and larger yachts where a lot of the detail
work again devolved upon the building yard.

Following modern shipbuilding practice, the modern yacht designer will work closely with a
stylist and interior designer, as yachts become ever more sophisticated. However, he will still be
responsible for the yacht's fitness for its purpose, and for performance, stability, structural
integrity, and safety. To establish these he will first of all normally produce, for a sailing yacht, a
preliminary general arrangement and a sail plan for the owner's approval and as a basis for a
written specification with which to obtain building estimates. A lines plan is then produced, so
that stability and performance checks can be made together with detailed weight estimates, and a
construction plan, including decks and the scantling section. These, together with other structural
drawings such as bulkheads, tanks, machinery seatings, stern gear, and rudder arrangements, may
all need approval by a classification society. At this stage it is likely that the builder and the
interior designer will become involved with the development of all the systems and the detail of
the interior. Other specialists may also be brought in to design the spars, rigging, sails, and deck
gear. There may be as many as 100 drawings for a 10-metre (32-ft) yacht or 400 for a 20-metre
(65-ft) yacht.

Early Yachtbuilding.
From the inception of yachting, yachtbuilding followed the traditional methods used to build
small commercial wooden vessels such as barges and smacks, with one of the main tools being
the adze. The wood keel, of oak, elm, pitch pine, or other local timber, was laid on the slipway or
on building blocks, and the wooden stem, sternpost, and stern frame bolted into place. The
various frames (or ribs) were sawn to shape and erected in their respective positions along both
sides of the keel from stem to stern, the lower ends of each pair being fastened to floor frames
which were commonly oak crooks laid athwart the top of the keel. An inner keel, or keelson, was
sometimes bolted on to the tops of the floor frames and running from the inside of the stem to the
sternpost. Beam shelves, running from bow to stern and fastened to the inside of the head of
every frame, carried the outboard ends of the deck beams which in turn were fastened to the
shelves, often with a half-dovetail joint. Openings in the deck for hatches or skylights were joined
by carlings to which the coamings were fastened. At all junctions beneath the deck where the
racking strains of hard sailing in heavy seas were greatest, oak crooks or wrought iron knees were
bolted to give more rigidity, hanging knees being vertical and lodging knees horizontal.

The planking of the hull was fastened to the frames and floors with galvanized iron spikes,
bronze bolts, or, in smaller yachts, with copper square-sectioned nails riveted over copper collars
(or roves) on the inside of every frame. The work of planking the vessels was started at the
garboard strake on each side, and continued in sequence up to the turn of the bilge. Other planks
were then fastened on from the sheer strake downwards, until the final gap between the two sets
of planks could be filled in with an exactly fitting shutter strake. Deck planks, traditionally of
white pine or teak, were laid fore and aft usually following the curve of the wide covering board
at the yacht's side. The seams between the planks, cut in the form of a deep V, were caulked with
cotton and payed with hot pitch. The seams of the hull planking were likewise caulked with
cotton and finished smooth and flush with a patent stopping mixture which never set hard enough
to crack when the seams worked in a seaway.

Towards the end of the 19th century sawn frames were replaced in the smaller yachts by steam-
bent timbers, and this remained standard boat-building practice for wood-built yachts under about
14 metres (45 ft). In building a hull for steam-bent framing, the keel was laid first, and the stem
and sternpost erected. Next, moulds, or patterns, were cut to the shape and measurements on the
designer's plan. These were fitted inside the planking and spaced at their appropriate stations
through the vessel. Then, on each side wooden battens called ribbands were temporarily screwed
to the edges of the moulds, running from bow to stern and spaced roughly 15–23 centimetres (6–
9 in.) apart. Each frame-timber was then made pliable by heating in a steam box, and while still
boiling hot was smartly bent into shape on the inside of the ribbands, with its lower end fitting
into a check slot already cut in the side of the keel. When all the timbers were in place and
temporarily fastened to the ribbands, the ribbands were removed one by one as the planks of the
hull were laid in place, being fastened to the timbers by copper nails and roves. Steam-bent
timbering was suitable for either carvel or clinker planking.

Developments after the Second World War.

Design and building techniques, together with the introduction of many new materials,
revolutionized yachtbuilding during the 1950s. Water-resistant marine plywood, introduced
during the war, opened up the possibilities for amateur builders to construct their own boats, and
numerous new designs were made available to plank in plywood from small dinghies up to
cruising yachts of 12 metres (39 ft) in length.

Another popular material for the amateur boatbuilder which came into vogue at this time was
ferrocement, or ferroconcrete. This method employed several layers of wire mesh, generally of
the welded type, which were wired to the intersections of steel rods and tubes forming a close-
knitted framework of the vessel's hull. When complete the whole fabric was rendered waterproof
by an application, simultaneously from both inside the hull and outside, of a semi-liquid mortar
mix, composed of cement and very fine sand. When cured and set over a period of a week or
more, the resulting surface is smooth, hard, and resilient. Many barges and pontoons have also
been made this way.

For yachts over 12 metres, the strength and durability of steel makes it favoured by those
undertaking long ocean voyages and it is fairly easy to repair in any part of the world. Aluminium
is also popular and, being lighter, is used to build racing yachts, but it has now been largely
superseded by the composites mentioned below.
Modern Yachtbuilding by Jeremy Lines
By far the most popular material today for constructing yachts, both power and sailing, is
glassfibre, or GRP, a revolution which occurred in the 1960s. After a female mould for the hull
and deck has been made it is coated and polished to a high degree as this will be the finished
surface of the actual yacht. This is then coated with a release agent which is followed by two gel
coats before the first layer of glassfibre is laid. Resin is then rolled into this mat before the
succeeding layers of reinforcement are laid and again impregnated with resin. The most usual
resin is a polyester but other more expensive types such as vinylester and epoxy may be used for
greater strength or less weight. A simple small hull such as a dinghy may have just a single
laminate lay-up, but as size increases a cored laminate may be used to get more panel stiffness,
and additional frames, stringers, and bulkheads may be fitted.

The unique property of a composite structure is that the designer can specify not only the
thickness and size of the material but also the physical properties of the material itself by
adjusting the type and orientation of the reinforcement and using different core materials and
resins. Because the actual material is being made at the time of manufacture close control has to
be maintained over the whole process as it cannot be remade.

Nowadays state-of-the-art racing yachts are built on the foam sandwich principle, the hull
generally being formed over a male mould from two composite skins enclosing a central core of
end-grain balsa wood, pvc foam, or other lightweight material. Some extremely light but stiff
epoxy honeycomb materials are available today and, combined with an enormous range of
reinforcement materials such as Kevlar and carbon fibre in woven, unidirectional, and
combinations of the two, the hull structure can be built to the minimum weight in every part.

Using techniques adapted from the aerospace industry the reinforcements may be pre-
impregnated with resin, thus ensuring the minimum resin weight, and then cured by controlled
heating in an oven.

Resins are also used to seal and glue wood and this has helped to overcome many of the
disadvantages—rot, high maintenance costs—of this type of construction and has led to a modest
revival of wood in the yachtbuilding industry. Other methods such as cold-moulded wooden
laminates glued with resin over a mould have produced many lightweight dinghies and racing
yachts, but, worldwide, GRP production yachts now far outnumber other types of construction.
The introduction of GRP hulls and decks, and the standardization of yachts, led to batch
production where the interiors were produced on jigs and then lifted in large sections into the
hulls before the decks were bonded in. To reduce the cost still further, more and more of the
interior is also now moulded in GRP so that the fitting-out time can be reduced to days instead of
weeks. The decks may also be fitted out separately, both above and below, before being bonded
to the hull. Most boat factories have the working area arranged at deck level with everything
possible being prefabricated and tested before installation. Another great advantage of this type of
construction, if done properly, is the close quality control that can be achieved. It also means
easier maintenance, even if it means replacement rather than repair.
Bibliography
Watts, C. , Practical Yacht Construction, 3rd edn. (1970).