YACHT, a vessel of state, usually employed to convey princes, ambassadors, or other great personages from one kingdom to another.
As the principal design of a yacht is to accommodate the passengers, it is usually fitted with a variety of convenient apartments, with suitable furniture, according to the quality or number of the persons contained therein.
The royal yachts are commonly rigged as ketches, except the principal one reserved for the sovereign, which is equipped with three masts like a ship. They are in general elegantly furnished, and richly ornamented with sculpture; and always commanded by captains in his majesty's navy.
Besides these, there are many other yachts of a smaller kind, employed by the commissioners of the excise, navy, and customs; or used as pleasure-boats by private gentlemen.
YARDS of a SHIP, a long piece of timber suspended upon the masts of a ship, to extend the sails to the wind. See MAST and SAIL.
All yards are either square or lateen; the former of which are suspended across the masts at right angles; and the latter obliquely.
The square yards (fig. 1. Plate CCLX.) are nearly of a cylindrical surface. They taper from the middle, which is called the slings, towards the extremities which are termed the yard arms; and the distance between the slings and the yard-arms on each side, is, by the artificers, divided into quarters, which are distinguished into the first, second, third quarters, and yard-arms. The middle quarters are formed into eight squares, and each of the end parts is figured like the frustum of a cone. All the yards of a ship are square except that of the mizen.
The proportions for the length of yards, according
to the different classes of ships in the British navy, are as follows:
| Guns. | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1000: gun-deck:: | 560: | main-yard express |
| 559: | fed by d, d, fig. 1 | |
| 570: | Plate CCLX.— | |
| 576: | Note, the figure represents the | |
| 575: | yard and sails of | |
| 561: | a ship of 74 guns. | |
| 1000: main-yard:: | 880: | 100 90 80 |
| 874: | fore yard. } all the rest. |
To apply this rule to practice, suppose the gun-deck 144 feet. The proportion for this length is as 1000 is to 575, so is 144 to 83; which will be the length of the main-yard in feet, and so of all the rest.
| Guns. | ||
|---|---|---|
| 1000 main-yard:: | 820: | 100 90 80 60 44 |
| 847: | ||
| 840: | ||
| 1000: main-yard:: | 726: | 24 |
| 720: | ||
| 1000: fore-yard:: | 719: | all the rest. |
| 726: | ||
| 715: | ||
| 1000: main top-fail-yard:: | 690: | main top-gall-yard all the rest. |
| 1000 fore top-fail-yard:: | 696: | 70 |
| 690: | ||
| 1000: fore top-fail-yard:: | 768: | 70 |
| 750: |
Crofs-jack and sprit-fail yards equal to the fore top-fail-yard.
Sprit-top-fail-yard equal to the fore top-gallant-yard.
The diameters of yards are in the following proportions to their length.
The main and fore yards five sevenths of an inch to one yard. The top-fail, crofs-jack, and sprit-fail yards, nine fourteenths of an inch to one yard. The top-gallant, mizen top-fail, and sprit-fail top-fail yards, eight thirteenths of an inch to one yard.
The mizen-yard five ninths of an inch to one yard.
All studding-fail booms and yards half an inch to one yard in length.
The lifts of the main-yard are exhibited in the above figure, by g; the hoves and their stirrups, by b, i; the reef-tackles and their pendants, by k, l; and the braces and brace-pendants, by m, n.
The lateen-yards evidently derive their names from having been peculiar to the ancient Romans. They are usually composed of several pieces fastened together by woodings, which also serve as steps whereby the sailors climb to the peak or upper extremity, in order to furl or cast loose the sail.
The mizen-yard of a ship, and the main-yard of a bilander, are hung obliquely on the mast, almost in the same manner as the lateen-yard of a xebec, fettee, or polacre.