Tents and Marquees

marquees-pavillion-3Event Tents, such as wedding tents are for when you want to make a remarkable outdoor scene. They are generally structures installed at a location for a period of time.

Why A Tent?
Commercial Tents are used as protection from the sun, rain or a gathering place. They can make a stunning and creative atmosphere for any event.

Tent Rentals
Tents can be rented or leased for a day, a weekend, weeks, months, etc. For one or two day events, the Tents are usually installed a few days before the event, depending on scheduling and weather, and remain until a few days after the event. Many rentals are quoted for the entire week, allowing for time to set up and design the interior and exterior. Some Tents are built for exceedingly long-term events and have been installed and remain installed for years.

What Kind of Tent Should I Rent?
Tent rental companies come in all sizes – from small-sized companies with just a few Tents to exceedingly large-sized companies – carrying dozens of several sizes and styles of Tents. Some general rental companies rent from tent rental companies to accommodate their client’s needs.

You may know you want to use a standard Tent for your event, or your event planner may already have in mind to use a Tent. You have options! There are lots of other splendid
structures and Tent styles out there. Some are unique and make a statement of their own. Ask the rental company you’re working with for a list of the type styles they have on hand.

Usually, the varying types of Tents available in most companies are (the names vary depending of the company):

Folding Tents Easy and fast to use and always in demand. Very popular, because usually is the less expensive tent. Fast, flexible, cost effective and long lasting.

They are used by:

  • Corporate brands across most industries
  • Government & Council buyers
  • SME business marketers
  • Franchisees
  • Agricultural exhibitors
  • Emergency services & community groups
  • Folding Tents create brand exposure opportunities.
  • You can reach your audience at the right time, in the right place with the right message.

Inflatable Tents An exciting and lively alternative Tent. Easy & fast to set up. Be sure they have removable printed roof because in that way you can share the investment with other licences.

What Size Tent Will I Need?

The size of Tent depends on a few factors:

1. The number of guests you expect
2. Layout or seating arrangements or the style of event:

* Reception with what type of tables?
* Speaker engagement with what type of seating?
* Will you need a dance floor?
* Will you need display areas for your products?

If you are interested in a Tent, you can expect to need about 2,000 – 2,500 square feet for 200-seated guests. That could mean a 40 x 60 size Tent (Always ask the Tent rental vendor directly and they’ll give you the best informationabout the size of Tent you’ll need).

Therefore, the key rule is; know what you are going to use your tent for. The choice of tents is amazing, almost on par with the choice of cars that you can buy.

So if you need a tent for the family BBQ, for example, your needs are fairly basic
and your budget may be tight. Look for cheap tents that offers a waterproof Polyester roof and a decent warranty for under $600.

If you need a tent for a school or sports club you will need a selection of sizes, and colours. Most plain colour Tents s range between $995- $2900. If you are keen to advertise yourself, you can have your names printed for around $150-$300. Printing logos usually cost a little more.

In the last 5 years, portable Tents have become important to businesses for their marketing. The key need for these buyers is a prominent and premium reproduction of their logo. Sign written or printed Tents can be as dull as a website address or they can be a design extravaganza.

Remember, if it is for commercial purposes, the aim is to build awareness of your company with your printed Tent. Printed corporate Tents range in price from $1500- $4000. Good ones will really catch your eye.

Once you have decided on what sort of buyer you are and how you are going to use your Tents, a good Tents company will offer you a choice of frames, a warranty of between 3-5 years and help with formulating the printing-if you need it.

For more information about tents, contact Extreme Marquees. We have a range of cheap tents, for all sorts of home and business applications.

New Zealand’s Top Holiday Cities

New Zealand has a radiant array of beautiful landscapes. Like imposing mountain ranges, majestic coastlines, lush rainforests, deep fiords, snow capped mountains and steaming volcanoes. These panoramic wonders have all made New Zealand an inspired destination for all kinds of holidays.

Amazing travel packages and holiday specials are available on quality accommodation in modern city hotels and luxurious wilderness lodges at reduced prices. Among the top holiday destinations in New Zealand, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland would definitely be there. Travel Online is a celebrated online specialist travel operator and provides fantastic tourist services for New Zealand. Travel Online provides an instant quote and booking service for accommodation in cities right across the country.

Queenstown
The international resort town of Queenstown is situated on the shoreline of Wakatipu Lake. This beautiful region is among the most scenic locations on the globe. Throughout the year adventurous and thrilling sports like jet boating, bungy jumping, and white water rafting take place. This town is the epicentre of the entire world’s bungy jumping activities too. With the advent of winter, the town gets transformed to an alpine wonderland with snowboarders and skiers from all corners of the world assembling at the annual Winter Festival.

There is constant demand for Queenstown Accommodation all round the year and Travel Online offers a select group of hotels best suited for New Zealand holidays. 1, 2, 3 or 4 bedroom apartments, with modern facilities, gyms, spas and fantastic views are available at various holiday retreats across the city. Bigger apartments with more bedrooms, tennis courts, private jetties and fitness centres are also available at a higher price. Luxury complexes with studio rooms in the vicinity of cafes, bars, and restaurants are also found in Travel Online’ Queenstown Accommodation selection.

Christchurch
When choosing a place to stay in Christchurch look for hotels that give views over the wonderful Victoria Square, across the transfixing Avon River or towards the epochal Anglican Cathedral. Situated on New Zealand’s South Island, this cosmopolitan city is always abuzz with great festivals, shopping spots, theaters and art galleries. Hotels overlooking Victoria Square provide visitors with an insight in to the city’s English history.

Individuals accommodated in the vicinity of the Christchurch Cathedral will find hotel rooms with a Manhattan-style feel. Tradition and elegance are everywhere in these hotels along with a keen eye on service excellence. Luxurious bedrooms with full-fledged kitchen facilities are common, along with hi-tech conference facilities, resort-like leisure features like spas, saunas, gyms, and swimming pools. Many of these hotels provided by Travel Online are located in the vicinity of the Technology Park, the International Antarctic Centre, and the airport. Travelers who want to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the cosmopolitan life will find suitable accommodation in the radiantcountryside surrounding the city.

Auckland
Auckland, also known as the City of Sails, is located in between 2 harbors and has more boats per person than anywhere on the planet. Within minutes a person has the choice of sailing away on yachts to isolated nearby islands, living the sweet life in the casino, surfing at winding beaches or tasting the exotic wines at local vineyards. Hotels come in stylish and comfortable studios, and luxurious executive / marina suites. Travel Online caters to the tastes of corporate and business tourists and can beat any price seen on Auckland accommodation advertised. Auckland harbor is wonderful, and is seen perfectly from atop Sky City and the surrounding accommodation.

Affordable and comfortable apartments are available for casual tourists, equipped with kitchens, laundries, and balconies to provide a fantastic holidaying experience. Visitors to Auckland love visiting the Antarctic Encounter, which showcases the only penguins present in the sub-Antarctic region. More adventures include cage-bereft shark dives, scuba expeditions and snorkel safaris. New Zealand is waiting.

Travel Online has a wide range of Queenstown accommodation close to all the snow action and cosmopolitan Christchurch accommodation surrounded by all that theatre and art. For holidays in and around the water, Auckland accommodation is as good as anywhere in the world.

Repairing Flooded Carpet: A cheap job is a good job right? Wrong….

Don’t have an amateur 24 hour carpet cleaner come to repair your carpets damaged by water. These are the signs you have to be careful of:

Overcharging. An unprofessional water restoration restorer may build the job up with extra extras. E.g. using dehumidification for drying the flooded carpets when it is not needed.

Correct equipment. They sometimes use equipment from hire places for the carpet. This is permissible, but a professional water damage cleaner will possess all their equipment to enable a quicker response and hopefully a better value job.

The right moisture metre. If they don’t have the proper moisture meter, they can’t tell whether the carpet is repaired. This increases the problem of future mould. Removal of the mould may be required.

If they aren’t specialised. There are many “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do repair repairs on the “side.” i.e. they do not complete this kind of work each day. Be aware of that. Restoring a carpet is an art. Removing and repairing and reinstalling the carpet must be taken on by a professional, otherwise the carpet can be permanently damaged.

You might be pondering, how do I pick a proper Flood Restoration professional? Below I have listed some signifiers to look for when you call around for a carpet flood damage business:

How big is their Yellow Pages ad: This can be a sign of how much work they have already. A full-size Yellow Pages ad slot can cost more than $50 000. When they have paid for a bigger ad, you have some indication that they will deliver the goods.

Where do they show up in Google? The higher their rank in Google, the more “online votes” there are for this business.

What Qualifications do they have? The foundational qualification required is a IICRC qualification about Applied Structural Drying and Water Damage Restoration.

Do Insurance companies use them for their carpet damage jobs? This is a top indicator. If insurance companies source them, the business is very likely to be excellent at their skill. Insurance companies tend to use the providers that grant them the better value for money.

What Equipment do they have? They should own about 100 Air movers. If they own this many, this could indicate they have been in the game for a good time. We took 8 years to build up that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What level of commitment can you get for them on a phone call? Try to pin them down to a set fee for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they won’t give you a price for at least this, you know they are not interested in serving you, so look elsewhere.

Response Time – Our Water Damage Brisbane-based business operates to a 59 minute response time for water damage emergency. The business needs to be done ASAP. Mould can appear after a 24 hour period.

If you follow these tips you are sure to get a Flood Damage Restoration company who knows how to do the job.

If you have carpet water damage Brisbane, call us for flooded wet carpet drying. Brisbane storm season is approaching and you may need storm damage carpet cleaning. Brisbane and surrounding areas serviced.

Podiatry as a Career in Australia

As a practicing podiatrist in Brisbane, Australia, I am frequently asked by patients if podiatry would be a good career for a school leaver to contemplate . There are many things to recommend a career in podiatry including:

  • You can be self employed: This is a opportunity that is increasingly being denied to other health care providers such as optometrists and even Family Doctors. Big Business controls a lot of health practices. Consider how often you see an independent optometrist these days – can they compete on price with the multinational chains?
  • Legal Issues: In Australia (unlike the USA where things are very different), podiatrists very, very rarely face litigation . The nature of podiatry practice does not lend itself to accidentally harming one’s patients. Also, you never have to give your customers the bad news that their condition will be terminal.
  • Working Hours: Emergency call outs are very unlikely. This is a desirable fact for those among us who like their sleep uninterrupted.
  • Financial Reward: Whilst it is true that podiatry doesn’t pay as well as being a medical practitioner or dentist , the pay is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
  • Instant Gratification: One of the most fulfilling things about a career as a podiatrist is the instant gratification! People come in with pain and leave happy. You will experience a plethora of bite-sized jobs each day, many with a cure you can provide immediately. From someone that has worked with unanimously grumpy customers in a past career, believe me when I tell you, it makes the day much more pleasant when people leave you smiling.
  • Philanthropy: Podiatry will afford you an abundance of opportunity to help eliminate the suffering of your fellow human beings.
  • Self – Determination: Podiatryallows a professional the power to determine their own course of action for the benefit of their patients. This is unlike a career in nursing for example where one acts under the instruction of a doctor.
  • Clear Job roles: The only people who can work as a podiatrist are those with a podiatry degree . The clear roles that this demarcates relieves the need to find your ‘niche’ after university – as someone with a more generic Bachelor of Science degree might need to do.
  • Got the urge to travel? There are many places across the world that do not train their own podiatrists including Tasmania, the Northern Territory, all of Asia and all of the Middle East. If you want to see the world, Australian podiatrists can work in any Commonwealth country and are especially in demand in Singapore, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and other far flung fields.
  • Variety: In any given day, a podiatrist will see a large range of complaints. There might be an ingrown toenail or two, an excruciating corn, a sporting injury, some sacroiliac pain and at least a couple of painful plantar fascias. The primary skill required in being a good podiatrist is to bea good problem solver. Each patient is an individual with a unique condition requiring a well considered solution.

How do you become a qualified as a podiatrist ?

To qualify as a podiatrist provided by six Australian Universities:

  • Curtin University
  • La Trobe University
  • Charles Sturt University
  • Queensland University of Technology
  • University of South Australia
  • University of Western Sydney.

Last year, the entry score for the QUT was OP 8.

Stephanie Cosgrove graduated as a podiatrist from QUT in 1990 and with a Master’s degree in Applied Science (Podiatry) in 1996. Since 1991, she has worked in private practice as a Podiatrist Brisbane. She received three university prizes during her studies, including the award for excellence in design and manufacture of orthotics. Brisbane has been the site of her private practice since 1991 which has grown to four locations and eleven staff. If you want to Walk Without Pain consider a visit to Brisbane’s most innovative podiatry practice today. Call for an appointment now on 1300 A1 Feet.

Eight Steps to Great Web Design

Take control of getting your site created by a developer and know the process it will save you money and gain you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Knowing your business and how you are currently positioned in your market.
In order to formulate a site that truly meets your requirements; you first need to have a full knowledge of your business including your products, and/or services and more importantly their market position. You then have to acknowledge how you want to explain your business and what it offers in 7 seconds or less. Sounds impossible? Well that is the average time that a user will consider the point “is this site I searched for?”.

2. Budget and estimation
Have a budget in mind and don’t be afraid to let the developers know what it is. In saying this: BE REALISTIC, $500 will never see a great web site created, nor will they be anything left in the bank to market it.

3. The creative process
Be armed with example sites and more importantly the elements of the site you like so they can achieve an understanding of what you would like to see on your site and also what you find frustrating about other sites. This will build a good profile and identify not only what type of site to build for you but your tolerance to colours, animations, layouts etc. for your requirements which will allow for effective development. The more interaction and information you bestow them in the beginning the more time you will save everybody in the long run by becoming what you want 1st time round. Check with the designers on how many rounds of changes come with the contract, most will allow for a total conceptual redesign only once and 2 rounds of changes after that.

4. Production and Content
After the home page design is created, the developers will more than likely acquire the general layout of this concept and then formulate the inner page template. It is this template that will be repeated for most of your pages for your site.
Submit your content in a pre-proofed word processed document; don’t become too creative with the document fonts etc. as these will not be kept when the content is copied into the code of the site. It is suggested that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are crucial later on in not only establishing with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; formulate a decent amount of content but formulate it in a way that a reader may attain a summary of what you are trying to present across in the 1st couple of paragraphs and an image or to. The rest of the paragraphs that get into finer details ARE FOR GOOGLE !

5. Development Programming and CMS
If your website contains Content Managed Areas (CMS) or has any other dynamic sections the developers will wrap your design around a content management program such as Joomla or Drupal or they may have a custom built system. Make sure that you get to see how the CMS system operate on another site they have developed or an example site they may have. You need to know that you can utilize and comprehend the system when your site is complete.

6. Testing and training
We work closely with the developers to test your site especially if there are any CMS or special programs that have been created for you. You can guarantee if it is has just been written for you then it will not work 100% first time round. This is a where things can get ugly in the process you must understand the way the program works and test it as if you were normal website user. If it doesn’t make sense to you, odds are it won’t make sense to your audience. Make sure you test your website on more than just your browser, try to test it on Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari. All of these browsers are available to download on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to put your site onlive make sure you have completed the above testing step until you are happy that this website is the best representation of your business / product it can be. Remember even though you can change things after going live it is still a poor reflection on your business if there are spelling mistakes or broken images when you launch.

8. Marketing
There is little point in having a website if nobody visits it, make sure as part of you contract you have discussed search engine optimisation and or search engine marketing as part of your website build. This is the absolute most important factor of the whole process. If you are the only one looking at your site then you are in trouble.

Remember Search Engine Optimisation is about 30% Onsite (getting your site correct for Search Engine to index correctly) and 70% Promotion. Any developer who tells you otherwise hasn’t been in the industry too long.

For more information about web design Brisbane, contact Web Site Blue. Our web designers understand marketing as well as design.

Tips to Creating a New Business Logo

A logo is a very important step to creating a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face conveys the tone of your business, gestures the service and displays the professionalism or lack there of.

People spend a lot of money on the formation of their logo and walk away with no artwork files. Then a couple months down the track when they require to put signage on their new building they cannot track the design studio down that formulated the original logo for them and so incur costs to have it recreated. This is redundant and may cause complications when trying to recreate the logo exactly as done originally.

We have created some basic tips you for to think about when creating a logo. Hopefully these will help you from experiencing any future difficulties.

Tip 1
First things first – you need to decide if you would like your logo to have an accompanying icon. It is advised that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will assist in conveying a clear message across to your target audience.

An icon can add an extra element to your branding in that you could use the icon on its own on collateral where perhaps you are searching for a more illustrative finish without losing recognition.

A perfect example of this is the well-known and executed Fedex logo.

Tip 2
Colour can be an extremely important decision as it not only could influence the output costs but can also limit your output use. Think about the end result and what you will be assigning your branding onto in the future. Make sure your designer is aware of this as they should design accordingly.

Tip 3
Assure you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and confirm that it includes all the files needed for the different printing formats.

Creative software updates frequently and some programmes become obsolete. Confirm you have a copy of your logo as a PDF – with the text converted to curves.

Tip 4
Using images in your logo is not very easy to arrange. For example it is troublesome to reverse into black and white. Images also have limitations when it comes to size – they can only be reproduced to a certain size before they start pixilation.

Tip 5
Using gradients in your logo is not recommended. This too can have limitations when it comes to output for ie: gradients are hard to reproduce when embroidering fabrics.

Tip 6
Insure sure the font is legible. Some logos need to be reproduced on small pieces of collateral ie: post stamps. It is important that in this case the text is
legible.

Tip 7
Ensure that you receive a copy of your logo in CMYK high resolution 300 dpi (for printing use) and RGB 72 dpi(for web use).

Tip 8
It is important to have a style guide of your logo. It will clearly show you how to use your logo so it looks exactly the same every time it is reproduced. This allows you to keep your corporate image consistent.

Tip 9
Make sure that you get a letter from the design studio declaring that you own the copyright to your logo.

If you follow these tips then not only will you acquire a well-designed logo but you will also own the artwork. And when it comes to reproducing your collateral you will be doing it the most cost effective way.

For logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact graphic design Brisbane today for a free two hour consultation.

How to Create a Style Guide

How many times have you sent business cards to print and obtained yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been frantic to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then spotted that the crucial tag line is nowhere to be found or your logo has been squashed.

There is only one way to prevent this from happening and that is to use a style guide. Not only will a style guide help you oversee the reproduction of your logo – it will also help you sustain your brand recognition – which many argue is one of the strongest selling tools.

We have placed the below steps together for you as a starting point.

Step 1 : Define the audience for your Style Guide. Is this for staff to use in-house or is this for suppliers and contractors to refer to?

Step 2 : Define what your output uses are. This is important because you will require different logos and file formats for example, black and white publication adverts in comparison to vehicle graphics.

Step 3 : Define the tone for the copy and content required. For example you may needcopy rules for printed content and then copy rules for website content.

Content rules cover all punctuation rules and how to attribute to the business and team.

Step 4 : Make certain you layout all the design templates so it is clear how and where the logo and branding sits on all the different pieces of collateral that may be reproduced.

Step 5 : Confirm to insert any contributing logos or logos of business that are correlated with you. It’s also important that you deliver a copy of the layout to these companies to insure they agree with the layout of their logo as they too may have their own Style Guide and hierarchy layout rules.

Step 6 : Confirm that grammar, spelling and contact details are correct.

Step 7 : Assure that when suppliers are using the Style Guide they understand~know~discern~apprehend} that a proof needs to be dispatched~sent~mailed~commissioned}to you to be validated as correct.

Make your Style Guide finished and as established as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly suggest a training session – whereby your design studio comes in and trains your staff on how to put to work the Style Guide and most importantly your brand.

For graphic design Brisbane, logo design Brisbane and web design Brisbane, contact Bydaughters today. We help your brand build business.

Projectors: LCD Verses DLP (The downfall of DLP technology)

The most typical question asked when purchasing a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: should I get an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, short for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, short for ‘digital light processing’ are the two most common projector imaging technologies. With so many business brands and models available, it can be challenging for clients to pick between these technologies. The fact is that LCD projectors provide superior image quality and colour accuracy. The next paragraph tells you why DLP projectors struggle with creating a similar grade of image quality.

Visualise a set of blinds in your household covering your bedroom window. By pulling a rod you can make the shutters open or closed, depending on whether you want to let light in or not. And that is exactly how an LCD projector behaves. Each pixel functions like an individual shutter on a set of blinds to either allow light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is formed of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as pros like to call them. Each pixel element operates to either reflect light or block it.

How the light source is processed from the time the projector turns on to when the picture reaches your screen is ultimately significant for image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors project white light from the lamp by cutting it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which project the coloured light to 3 individual LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels create the elements of the image by shining each pixel on and off. The pixels are then projected in a glass prism to deliver the projector image. A point to understad about LCD projectors is that all three colours are directed onto your projector screen all at once. The way a DLP projector operates is very different and even the produced image looks is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is directed through a spinning colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This way of projecting an image casts a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors described above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to produce the image elements. The elements of the image are projected in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s vision will then put together each coloured element of the image into the complete image. From LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to deliver the top level of brightness and spectacular colour accuracy. In DLP, only one colour is available at a time, and so resulting in lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some manufacturers have included a white segment in the colour wheel to improve brightness overall, but this also lessens colour accuracy.

I hear in forums all the time that DLP offers a higher contrast ratio and thus must be better. For those uncertain, the contrast ratio is a measure of a display system defined as the ratio of the luminance of the brightest white to that of the darkest black that the machine is capable of producing. DLP projectors do have high contrast specifications as compared to the majority of LCD projectors. At a glance, this appears to be an advantage, however, in the real world, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room when the projector is utilised. Do not be duped by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you want to view needs moving images, DLP projection technology can also create image errors, or ‘artifacts’. The most often seen artifact that a DLP projector creates with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is inherent in DLP systems because moving images change between the time red, blue and green colours are displayed. LCD projectors do not have this characteristic because all the colours are processed at the same time. DLP builders have come up with 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to resolve the colour break up problem, but the cost of these projectors make them impractical for the large part of businesses and consumers.

Another point of difference between LCD and DLP is how they balance for the refractive qualities of light. Think back to high school science, and remember how the different colours of light refract various amounts when projected through the same lens. The disadvantage with DLP projectors is that they utilise the one same panel for the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are obviously different and refract light in a different way. Most of the time with a DLP projector, a spill of yellow colour will show above and an extra blue will show below an image as simple as a straight black line. During manufacturing LCD projectors can be adapted to take away these effects on the projected image, because each colour is refracted on isolated LCD panels.

The sole actual benefit (excluding price) with going with a DLP projector is its smaller overall size and weight. However, this is only relevant to portability and needs to be traded off against the image superiority of LCD projectors. If resulting picture quality is important to you, then the choice is a no-brainer. Go for an LCD projector! LCD projectors will consistently produce bright, colourful images with fewer image blips. If you wish to learn more about LCD technology in more detail, have a gander at this tremendous resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any more questions, jump onto Projector Central and send me an email.

Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager with Projector Central, Australia’s leading online store for projectors. Brisbane-based, Projector Central has been servicing Australia for 15 years. For data projectors in the Gold Coast and Interactive Whiteboards, contact Projector Central today.

Yachting and Yacht Clubs

As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a pleasure craft used first by royalty and later by the burghers on the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, arising as private matches. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return to the English monarchy in 1660, the city of Amsterdam gave him a 20-metre (66-foot) pleasure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he called Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, reigned 1685–88), built more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 wager. Yachting was found to be fashionable among the rich and aristocracy, but after that period the habit did not last.

The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, with large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club went on, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other organisations, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was seen in some ordered method on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to the throne in 1820, it was then known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association had been formed at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal patronage made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the perpetual setting of British yachting. The organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession of George IV. All members were required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for great stakes were held, and the social life was lovely. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to bigger than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English had power. Sailing was for the most part for pleasure and reached its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and created a minimum of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts followed the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the second half of the 19th century. The design of bigger yachts was initially greatly put upon by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a association headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with just a model being used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the application of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such science had done earlier for hulls.

Because most of all sailboats had to be individually built, there arose a desire for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were built. Therefore, a rating rule was written, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. Today, one of the fastest flourishing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to single dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between those boats can be had on an even keel with no handicapping required. A perfect example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting was done mostly for the nobility and the wealthy, cost was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and desire of smaller boats occurred in the later half of the 19th century from the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A journey around the world (1895–98) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the value of smaller craft. Thereafter in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure craft became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to take the place of sail power in market craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were used increasingly in pleasure craft. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance cruising was a preferred pastime of the well off. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave way to yachts powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were solely power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the construction of bigger steam yachts. Notably of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed by a crew of over 150. The Mayflower, bought by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and gave active service for World War II.

As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many large craft started using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. In the decade following that, big power-yacht building grew, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The building of bigger power craft declined in 1932, and the fashion thereafter was toward smaller, less costly boats. After World War II, a lot of small naval vessels were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting has become a widespread loved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually owning and keeping their own small recreational yachts. The number of craft and sailors increased steadily, not only in the traditional places along the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

Taxes are differentiated by the effect they have on the allocation of income and wealth. A proportional tax is the kind that impinges the same relative requirement on all the taxpayers—i.e., in the case where tax liability and income move in the same levels. A progressive tax is recognised by a larger than proportional increase in the tax onus in regard to the increase in income, and a regressive tax is recognised by a less than proportional growth in the comparable liability. So, progressive taxes are regarded as fighting a lack of equality in income distribution, but regressive taxes may have the effect of increasing these inequalities.

The taxes that are normally considered progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are declarably progressive, however, may become less so in the upper-income class—especially if a taxpayer is permitted to lower his tax base by nominating deductions or by removing some certain income components from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates that are applied to lower-income groups could also be more progressive if such personal exemptions are claimed.

Income measured over the period of a given year might not definitely provide the most suitable measure of taxpaying requirement. For example, transitory growth in income may be saved, and in temporary declines in income a taxpayer may elect to pay for consumption by reducing savings. Therefore, if taxation is regarded along with “permanent income,” it would be less regressive (or more progressive) than when it is held in comparison with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (excepting luxuries) are generally regressive, because the spread of individual income consumed or spent on specific goods lessens as the rate of personal income rises. Poll taxes (also called head taxes), nominated as a fixed amount per capita, obviously are regressive.

It is difficult to classify corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, principally because of uncertainty regarding the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of determining who bears the tax burden rests crucially on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being determined.

In considering the economic effect of taxation, it is essential to distinguish between several concepts of tax rates. The statutory rates are nominated in legislation; generally speaking these are marginal rates, but in some cases they are average rates. Marginal income tax rates denote the fraction of incremental income that is demanded by taxation when income is increased by one dollar. Therefore, if tax onus rises by 45 cents when income rises by one dollar, the marginal tax rate is 45 percent. Income tax legislation commonly contain graduated marginal rates—i.e., rates that grow as income rises. Heavy analysis of marginal tax rates are required to review provisions in addition to the formal statutory rate structure. If, for example, a particular tax credit (reduction in tax) reduces by 20 cents for each one-dollar increase in income, the marginal rate is 20 percentage points greater than specified by the statutory rates. Since marginal rates specify how after-tax income increases or decreases in response to changes in before-tax income, they are the important ones for appraising incentive effects of taxation. It is even more complicated to nominate the marginal effective tax rate to apply to income from business and capital, since it may rely on such considerations as the structure of depreciation allowances, the deductibility of interest, and the provisions for inflation adjustment. A basic economic theorem grants that the marginal effective tax rate in income from capital is zero under a consumption-based tax.

Average income tax rates signify the part of total income that is demanded in taxation. The pattern of average rates is the one that is important for considering the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate grows with income. Average income tax rates generally increase with income, both because personal allowances are allowed for the taxpayer and dependents and also because marginal tax rates are graduated; on the other hand, preferential treatment of income received predominantly by high-income households could dampen these effects, forcing regressivity, as indicated by average tax rates that lessen as income grows.

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