Starting from Wroxham, Yarmouth can be reached the first day; second day up the Yare to Norwich; third day Norwich to Oulton Broad; fourth day up the Waveney to Beccles; fifth day Beccles to Yarmouth; sixth day Yarmouth to Potter Heigham; seventh day do Hickling Broad in the morning, and sail up to Wroxham in the evening. A dead calm, or a combination of head wind and adverse tide, might, however, upset the plan by a day. It would be well, therefore, to stipulate in the hire that the yacht might be left short of its destination, to be taken back by the man.
Most people will take fishing tackle with them on a cruise on the Broads, but I hope everybody will leave their guns at home. The incessant popping away with shot-guns and pea-rifles is quite useless in results, very annoying to riparian owners, and very dangerous to the public. A camera is a much better weapon. Few districts offer better or more artistic subjects for the photographer's skill. A dark room is provided upon some of the pleasure wherries, and the tripod is almost as common an object on the marshes as the windmills.
Commodore Stevens, founder of the New York Yacht Club, 1844.
CHAPTER VI
YACHTING IN AMERICA
By Lewis Herreshoff
The degree of leisure and wealth, so essential to the development of yachting, was not realised by the citizens of the American seaboard until nearly one-third of this century had passed, and even then only a mere handful of nautically inclined sportsmen could spare time from the stern duties of country settling and fortune-hunting to follow in any measure their tastes in seeking pleasure on the alluring waters that flowed at their very feet.
It must not be supposed, however, that our ancestors took absolutely no pleasure in sailing; they had their pirogues and other small craft which were kept ostensibly for trade, but which served the double purpose of affording gain and pleasure.
In the traditions of my ancestry I learn of a small boat kept by one who used her to visit an island farm, whence he brought produce; and another would sail down the bay (Narragansett) for the love of it, but largely to meet and pilot up the tortuous channel his returning vessels from their coastwise trade.