Arizona weekly citizen., 1892-07-09
YACHTING EI AMERICA.
Tho Extent and Cost of Boating
 for Pleasure.
Hundreds of Organized Clubs snd Thou 6ands of Recorded Yachts Repre- sentins an Invested Capital
 of Millions of Dollar

 Each advancing year makes more ap-
 parent the universality of a taste for
 aquatic sports among the American
 people. Yachting has ever been . grow
 ing paStiIac by the waters of the North
 Atlantic coast. We now find white sails in thcleast-expected places; yachts
 and yachterS where but few years ago the only sailors were the tinid wild duck end the solemn mudhen; boats up- on waters that have scarcely ceased to ripple from the agitation of their first invasion by a launched vessel: butterfly canoes s.udding over rivers that not a decade since knew no alien thing save thc Indians dug-out; lakes upon which float shapely vessels of pattern so mod crn that they almost seem uneOuth in their intrusion upon natures prir1eval landscape; SlOOpS and cutters, schoon- CTS end 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 CTS Outnumbcr and outsail those of all other countries Few among the ''land- NF yachterS, realize the magnitude of this national pastimc- 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.
 It IS safe to estimate. writes r. 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 arc at least six thousand yacht owners in the country, and that sixty thousand people may participate in plcasure-sailing. a large number, surely. to be devoted toa sport which i5 necessarily confined to loeali- tics near the water, and which is an ex- pCnSivC PaStinc The public hears -1uch of vessels of the Volunteer and Crayling types, champions of the "big- boat classes. but the real yachters of -hC land are the owners of small boats; n fact, the big-boat owner generally Loops g small yacht in which to enjoy himself when he feels like being master
 L rcndcr this quite plain
 Figures that arc somewhat incom- p'ctc show that there are over 200 or Clri-cl yacht clubs in the United States, which enroll nearly 4.OOO yachts Of these, less than Onc-thirteenth arc steam vessels, launches. etc. and not SSiling-bOatS at all. One-eleventh are chased as large yachts. including many steam and sail vessels. big schOoncrs and slOOps, all of more than forty feet wa tcr-linc measurement That is to say, of 1000 recorded yachts, fve-sixths are sailing vessels under 40 feet This shows conclusivcly that the majority of American yachts are small boats that are managed by their owners. It is safe tO assert that there arc at least 2,OOO moro small yachts which are not en- tered in clubs, and of which no exact record can be given.
 The 200 clubs report a membership of over 7.090 men, 1000 of whom arc yacht owners. Leaving out One-sixth of them as owners of large and very costly yes lCls ranging in value from s5. 900 to perhaps S5OO,OO0 each, and assuming
 
 be about 1000, which is a low figure, )ne finds that fve-sixths of these 4,OOO yachts represent an invested capital of over S3.3OO, 900; large sum when 1t is remembered that yachts never pay back anything in profit to their buyers, md that, like horses and carriages, hey cat up a good deal of money all he time. The average dues, etc, of q -acht club arc about S35 a year, not extras. This, paid in by 1000 of clubs, shows a revenue of ;1I5,000 per annum, which really repro 'cnts no part of the great cost of yacht ng. for every yacht-Owner has to pay lis own expenses, and the club dues irc spent on shore. At very low estl- nate the owner of small yacht will pend $50 month during the season of bout five months. This means that he Gmall-yacht sailors of the country pend ct least SSOO,OO in a season low much their yachting costs the 'wncrs of the big boats it would be inn possible to state; the sum is enormous