Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1892-08-18
YACHTING IN AMERICA.
The Extent and Cost of BOATING
for Pleasure.
Hundreds of Organized Clubs and Thou
sands of Recorded Yachts Repre-
senting an Invested Capital
of Millions of Dollars.

Each advancing year makes more ap-
parent the universally of taste for
aquatic sports among the American
people. Yachting has ever been a grow
ing pastlIne by the waters of the North
Atlantic coast. We now find white
sails In the least-expected places; yachts
and yachters where but few years ago
the only sailors were the tinid wild
duck and the solemn mudhen: boats M
on waters that have scarcely ceased to
ripple from the agitation of their first
invasion by a launched vessel: butterfly
canoes scudding over rivers that not a
decade since knew no alien thinU save
the Indians dug-out; lakes upon which
float shapely vessels of pattern so mod
ern that they almost seem uncouth in
their intrusion upon natures primeval
landscape: sloops and cutters, schoon-
ers and cat-boats, every kind of sailing
craft, in short, that can be made to ca
ter to the yachter's insatiate desire for
sport. In yachting the United States
takes first rank; her yachts and yacht
ers outnumber and outsail those OF all
other countries. Few among the Gland
lubbers" of the country, and not many
yachters, realize the magnitude of this
national pastime. The Queens Cup
races gave the sport publicity which
it never had before, but even these
events did not bring to general public
notice an adequate conception of the ex-
tent of this interest.
1t is safe to estimate, writes T. W.
Pangborn in Century, that there is at
least one yacht to every ten thousand
people in the land, and that an average
yacht will carry at least ten persons.
This means that there are at least six
thousand yacht owners in the country,
and that sixty thousand people may
participate in pleasure-sailing; a large
number, surely, to be devoted toa sport
which is necessarily confined to locali-
ties near the water, and which is an ex-
pensive pastime. The public hears
much of vessels of the Volunteer and
Grayling types, champions of the big
boat classes, but the real yachters of
the land are the owners of small boats;
in fact, the big-boat owner generally
keeps a small yacht in which to enjoy
himself when he feels like being master
of his own craft. A few statistics will
render this quite plain.
Figures that are somewhat incom-
plete show that there are over 200 or
ganized yacht clubs in the United
States, which enroll nearly 1000 yachts.
Of these, less than one-thirteenth are
steam vessels, launches, etc, and not
sailing-boats at all. One-eleventh are
classed as large yachts, including many
steam and sail vessels, big schooners and
sloops, all Of more than forty feet wa
ter-line measurement. That is to say,
OF 4, 900 recorded yachts, five-sixths are
sailing vessels under 40 feet This
shows conclusively that the majority of
American yachts are small boats that
are managed by their owners. tits safe
to assert that there are at least 1900
more small yachts which are not en-
tered in clubs, and of which no exact
record can be given.
The 200 clubs report membership of
over 1000 men, 1000 of whom are yacht
owners. Leaving out one-sixth of them
as owners of large and very costly YES
sells ranging in value from $4,000 to
perhaps $500, 900 each, and assuming
the average cost of the small yachts to
be about $1,000, which is low figure,
one finds that five-sixths of these 4, 900
yachts represent an invested capital of
over So, 300, 900; large sum when it is
remembered that yachts never pay
back anything in profit to their buyers,
and that, like horses and carriages,
they eat up good deal of money all
the time. The average dues, etc, of
yacht club are about S25 a year, not
counting extras. This, paid in by 1000
members Of clubs, shows a revenue of
$175, per annum, which really repre-
sents no part of the great cost of yacht
ing, for every yacht-owner has to pay
his own expenses, and the club dues
are spent on shore. At very low estl-
mate the owner of small yacht will
spend $50 month during the season Of
about five months. This means that
the small-yacht sailors of the country
spend at least $500, 600 in a season.
How much their yachting costs the
owners of the big boats it would be i'm
possible to state; the sum is enormous.