During the 1800s, yachting grew rapidly in popularity in England. Following the end of the Napoleonic wars, coastal waters became safe for pleasure craft as well as working vessels. The rising prosperity of the middle and upper classes, fuelled by the Industrial Revolution, led to a rapid expansion in the pastimes of cruising and yacht racing.
Gradually, the owners of the larger yachts organised themselves into yacht clubs and established races over prescribed courses under specified rules. Larger and faster yachts were built to win these races and this led to a technological competition, continued into recent times by the contest for the America’s Cup.
In the UK, most of the yacht racing took place in the Solent and on the Clyde, and a sequence of regattas took place around the coast during the summer months. Some yachts competed at Kiel in Germany and elsewhere in Europe. Up to the first world war, yacht racing developed into a popular spectator sport and dense crowds stood at suitable viewing points on the Clyde and other locations. In 1885, two packed excursion steamers followed two yachts owned by the Clark and Coats thread making rivals from Paisley on a 60 mile race around Ailsa Craig in bad weather. By 1897, Clyde regattas were covered by no fewer than nine yachting correspondents and several specialist photographers. Some of this mass interest can be explained by the limited alternative summer spectator sports, and the presence of large…show more content… Essex, Blakeney in Norfolk, Brixham in Devon, the Solent and the Clyde were favourite sources of crew. It is not known how the first men from the West Highlands found employment of this sort. One man probably had the good fortune to secure the first position through connections with friends or relatives on the Clyde, and word of mouth led to more and more of his friends and relations becoming
