Tuesday, September 04, 2007

Yachting

Yachting is a physical action connecting boats. It may be racing sailing boats, cruising to far-away shores, or day-sailing along a coast.
Whilst sailing's invention is prehistoric, racing sailing boats is supposed 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 awaiting 1983, when they finally lost to Australia II. For now, yacht racing continued to develop, with the development of recognised classes of racing yachts, from small dinghies up to huge maxi yachts.
These days, yacht racing and ship racing are common participant sports around the developed world, mainly where favourable wind conditions and access to reasonably sized bodies of water are available. Most yachting is conducted in salt water, but smaller craft can be - and are - raced on lakes and even huge rivers.
Whilst there are many different types of racing vessels, they can normally be separated into the larger yachts, which are larger and contain facilities for extensive voyages, and smaller harbour racing craft such as dinghies and skiffs.

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