Tents and Marquees

marquees-pavillion-3Event Tents, such as wedding tents are used 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 fantastic
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 different 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 rudimentry
and your budget may be tight. Look for cheap tents that offers a waterproof Polyester roof and a solid warranty for under $600.

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

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 identical reproduction of their logo. Sign written or printed Tents can be as boring 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 enormous mountain ranges, endless coastlines, dense rainforests, deep fiords, snow capped mountains and steaming volcanoes. These panoramic wonders have all made New Zealand an appealing destination for all kinds of holidays.

Fantastic 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 cities in New Zealand, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland would definitely be there. Travel Online is a outstanding online specialist travel operator and provides wonderful 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 luxurious 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 attractive 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 colourful festivals, shopping spots, theaters and art galleries. Hotels overlooking Victoria Square provide visitors with an insight in to the city’s English history.

Individuals staying 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 wonderfulcountryside 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 endless 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 magnificent, 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 wonderful holidaying experience. Visitors to Auckland adore visiting the Antarctic Encounter, which showcases the only penguins present in the sub-Antarctic region. More encounters 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 allow an unprofessional 24 hour carpet cleaner show up to repair your carpets damaged by water. These are the worries you should be aware of:

Overcharging. An unprofessional water restoration restorer may load the job up with unnecessary steps. E.g. using dehumidification on the water damaged carpets isn’t always necessary.

Using the correct equipment. They can borrow equipment from hire businesses to dry the carpet. This is acceptable, but a professional water damage professional will possess all their equipment to provide a faster response and hopefully a better value job.

Proper moisture metre. If they don’t have the right moisture meter, they cannot see when the carpet is fixed. This furthers the risk of mould in future. Mould removal in future may be required.

They are not Specialised. There are many “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do water damage repair jobs on the “side.” i.e. they do not complete this kind of repair everyday. Be wary of that. Fixing water damage to carpets is an art. Reinstalling carpets on the gripper strips must be completed by a professional, otherwise it can be damaged irrepairably.

You might be wondering, how do I decide on a good Flood Restoration Business? Below I have selected some signifiers to look out for when you call around for a carpet flood damage business:

The size of their Yellow Pages ad: This can signify how much work they get already. A full-size Yellow Pages ad can cost upwards of $50 000. So if they have invested in a large ad, you can at least have some assurance that they will deliver the goods.

Where do they come up in Google? The higher they are in Google, the more webpage clicks there are for their business.

What Qualifications do they have? The fundamental qualification they require is a IICRC qualification for Applied Structural Drying and Water Damage Restoration.

Do Insurance companies hire them for carpet water damage jobs? This is a better indicator. If insurance companies hire them, the business is bound to be excellent at their skill. Insurance companies generally use the providers that give them the better value for money.

What kind of Equipment do they have? They should own a minimum of 100 Air movers. If they have this many, this indicates they have been up and running for some time. It took our business 8 years to acquire that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What sort of commitment can you get from them on a phone call? See if you can pin them down to a set price for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they don’t give you a price for just this, you know they are not interested in serving you, so look elsewhere.

Response Time – Our Water Damage business in Brisbane commits to a 59 minute response time for water damage emergency. The job needs to be responded to ASAP. Mould can appear inside a 24 hour period.

If you stick to these tips you are sure to come up with a Flood Damage Restoration technician who knows how to do the job right.

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 regularly asked by patients if podiatry would be a good career for a school leaver to consider . There are many things to recommend a career in podiatry including:

  • You can be self employed: This is a choice that is increasingly being denied to other health care providers such as optometrists and even GPs . 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 malpractice suits. 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 good news 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 dentist or medical practitioner, the salary is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
  • Instant Gratification: One of the most fulfilling facets of a career as a podiatrist is the instant gratification! People come in with pain and leave happy. You will consult on 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 rewarding when people leave you smiling.
  • Philanthropy: Podiatry will give 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 direction 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.
  • Like to travel? There are many places around 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 work your way around the world, Australian podiatrists can be registered in any Commonwealth country and are particularly in demand in Singapore, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and other far flung fields.
  • Variety: In any given day, a podiatrist will see a great range of complaints. There might be an ingrown toenail or two, an excruciating corn, a sports injury, some back pain and at least a couple of painful heels . The essence of being a good podiatrist is to be an effective problem solver. Each patient is an individual with a unique problem requiring a well considered solution.

How do you train as a podiatrist ?

To qualify as a podiatrist means 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 charge of getting your site produced by a developer and know the process it will save you money and aquire you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Knowing your business and how you are currently established in your market.
In order to author a site that truly meets your requirements; you first need to have a full comprehension 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 furnished 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 construct a good profile and analyze not only what type of site to actualize for you but your tolerance to colours, animations, layouts etc. for your requirements which will allow for efficient development. The more interaction and information you allow 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 take the general layout of this concept and then create the inner page template. It is this template that will be repeated for most of your pages for your site.
Provide your content in a pre-proofed word processed document; don’t get too creative with the document fonts etc. as these will not be preserved when the content is copied into the code of the site. It is inferred that you do use bolding, underlining, headings and sub heading though ,as these highlights are transferred into the site and are essential later on in not only interacting with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; formulate a decent amount of content but present it in a way that a reader may get 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 use 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 operates and test it as if you were normal website user. If it doesn’t make sense to you, chances 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 content 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 considered 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 central step to building a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face expresses the tone of your business, indicates the service and reveals the professionalism or lack there of.

People spend a lot of money on the creation of their logo and walk away with no artwork files. Then a couple months down the track when they need to put signage on their new building they cannot track the design studio down that created the original logo for them and so incur costs to have it recreated. This is unnecessary and may cause obstacles when trying to replecate the logo exactly as determined 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 obstacles.

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

Tip 2
Colour can be an crucial decision as it not only could alter the output costs but can also hinder your output use. Consider the end result and what you will be commiting your branding onto in the future. Make sure your designer is aware of this as they should design accordingly.

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

Creative software updates frequently and some programmes become obsolete. Assure 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 regulate. For example it is hard to 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
Make certain 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
readable

Tip 7
Insure that you acquire 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 receive 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 Bydaughters today for a free two hour consultation.

How to Create a Style Guide

How many times have you sent business cards to print and picked up yet another version of your corporate colour? Ever been enthusiastic to see your advert in the latest newspaper and then recognized that the crucial tag line is not present or your logo has been ruined.

There is only one way to prevent this from happening and that is to create a style guide. Not only will a style guide assist you steer the reproduction of your logo - it will also help you fortify 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 : Outline 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 : Outline what your output uses are. This is important because you will want 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 : Ensure 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 reprinted.

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

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

Step 7 : Insure 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 confirmed as correct.

Make your Style Guide completed and as tight as possible. Then have it saved in an email friendly file format and have a couple printed. Once this is done we strongly advocate 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 common question asked when acquiring a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: should I take an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, an acronym for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, short for ‘digital light processing’ are the two commonplace projector imaging technologies. With so many business brands and different types available, it can be confusing for customers to make a decision between both technologies. It comes down to the fact that LCD projectors offer far better image quality and colour accuracy. The next paragraph will tell you why DLP projectors struggle with projecting an equal grade of image quality.

Think of a set of blinds in your house on your bedroom window. With the twist of a rod you can make the shutters open or closed, according to whether you want to let light in or not. This is exactly how an LCD projector operates. Each pixel works like an individual shutter on a set of blinds to either allow light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is constructed of millions of microscopic mirrors or ‘pixel elements’ as the 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 vitally important to image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors project white light from the lamp by separating it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which direct the coloured light to 3 different LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels make the elements of the image by shining each pixel on and off. The pixels are then meshed in a glass prism to send the projector image. An important point to realise about LCD projectors is that all three colours are directed onto your screen all at the same time. The way a DLP projector operates is widely different and even the final product of how an image comes out is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is directed through a rotating colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This way of creating an image casts a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors as described above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to form the image elements. The elements of the image are displayed in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s vision will then pull together each coloured element of the image into the total image. With LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to create the highest brightness and great colour accuracy. In DLP, only one colour is available at once, and so causing lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some designers have included a white segment for the colour wheel to improve general brightness, but this goes and degrades colour accuracy.

I hear in forums all the time that DLP provides a higher contrast ratio and as such must be better. For those who are unsure, 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 projector is capable of producing. DLP projectors do provide high contrast specifications compared to many LCD projectors. At one glance, this can seem to be a benefit, however, in truth, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room while the projector is being used. Do not be hoodwinked by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you want to bring to life has moving images, DLP projection technology also creates image marks, or ‘artifacts’. The most typical artifact that a DLP projector forms with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is to be expected in DLP systems because moving images change up between the time red, blue and green colours are pulled up. LCD projectors do not have this problem because the colours are sent at once. DLP manufacturers have created 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to fix the colour break up issue, but the price 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 make up for the refractive qualities of light. Take yourself back to high school science, and remember when they taught you how different colours of light refract different amounts when directed through the same lens. The downfall with DLP projectors is that they have the one same panel with the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are obviously different and refract light at different levels. Generally with a DLP projector, some yellow colour will come through above and an extra blue will appear below an image as simple as a lone black line. While being built LCD projectors can be adjusted to minimize these effects on the projected image, because each colour is projected on isolated LCD panels.

The one real benefit (excluding price) with picking a DLP projector is its overall smaller size and weight. However, this is only relevant in regard to portability and cannot be traded off against the image advantages of LCD projectors. If the result of the picture quality is vital to you, then the decision is simple. Take an LCD projector! LCD projectors will always create bright, colourful images with fewer image imperfections. If you wish to find out more about LCD technology in more detail, have a gander at this fabulous resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any further questions, visit Projector Central and send me an email.

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

Yachting and Yacht Clubs

As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a pleasure craft used mostly by royalty and secondly by the burghers for the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, borne from private challenges. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English throne in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with a 20-metre (66-foot) leisure 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, sovereign 1685–88), built other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 wager. Yachting rose as classy among the affluent and royalty, but after that period the habit did not last.

The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, with large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club went on, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by conglomerating with other societies, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was first seen in some organized fashion on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to sovereignty in 1820, it was named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association had been initiated 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 location of British racing. The club at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the rise of George IV. Every member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high bets were held, and the social life was wonderful. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to bigger than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English held power. Sailing was mostly for fun and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled on the Mediterranean Sea and set a benchmark of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts took the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The style of sizeable yachts was initially greatly affected by the win of America, which was designed by George Steers for a syndicate started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and crafted in today’s sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the application of the research of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what science had done earlier for hulls.

Because most of all sailboats had to be individually custom-built, there was a need for handicapping boats before the one-design class boats were designed. Thus, a rating rule came into being, which is found in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the rapidly flourishing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to single requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between those boats can be had on an even basis with no handicapping required. A great example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

So long as yachting belonged primarily for the aristocracy and the affluent, cost was no object, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and popularity of smaller craft occurred in the later half of the 19th century out of the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A voyage around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the hardiness of smaller yachts. Following this in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became more popular, down to the dinghy, a favoured training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were sailed single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, when steam started to replace sail power in public vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were favoured increasingly in personal craft. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance travel turned into a favoured occupation of the affluent. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made way to boats powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. As well as naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries with both sail and power were the yacht archetype for many years. By the latter half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were solely power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.

In the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the construction of more sizeable steam yachts. In particular of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was manned by a crew of at least 150. The Mayflower, commissioned by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and was used in active service in World War II.

As larger and better quality internal-combustion engines were created, many large boats started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, progressed from World War I. From the decade following, bigger power-yacht building blossomed, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that point the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of larger power boats declined from 1932, and the trend from then was in preference of smaller, less expensive yachts. From World War II, a lot of small naval craft were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a internationally loved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually sailing and upkeeping their own small leisure boats. The number of yachts and owners has increased steadily, not only in the traditional places on the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

Taxes are differentiated by the impact they have on the placement of income and wealth. A proportional tax is one that places the same relative onus on every taxpayer—i.e., when tax liability and income move in equal scale. A progressive tax is recognisable by a more than proportional increase in the tax liability in regard to the growth in income, and a regressive tax is characterized by a less than proportional growth in the related liability. Hence, progressive taxes are viewed as fighting the lack of equality in income distribution, but regressive taxes are found to increase these inequalities.

The taxes that are often considered progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are categorically progressive, however, might become less so for the upper-income group—in particular if a taxpayer is able to lessen his tax base by nominating deductions or by leaving out some certain income parts from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates if applied to lower-income groups can also be more progressive if such personal exemptions are claimed.

Income measured over the course of a given year might not necessarily give the most accurate measure of taxpaying requirement. For example, transitory rises in income can be saved, and during temporary declines in income a taxpayer could choose to finance consumption by reducing savings. Thus, if taxation is held in comparison alongside “permanent income,” it would be less regressive (or more progressive) than when held in comparison with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (save those on luxuries) tend to be regressive, because the dissemination of one’s income consumed or spent for specific goods declines as the amount of personal income is raised. Poll taxes (also called head taxes), levied as a fixed amount per capita, obviously are regressive.

It is hard to classify corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, due to a lack of certainty about the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of nominating who bears the tax burden rests for the most part on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being considered.

In analysing the economic purposes of taxation, it is important to differentiate between several ideas of tax rates. The statutory rates will include those specified in legislature; generally these are marginal rates, but sometimes they are average rates. Marginal income tax rates indicate the fraction of incremental income that is demanded by taxation when income is increased by one dollar. Therefore, if tax liability increases by 45 cents when income grows by one dollar, the marginal tax rate is 45 percent. Income tax legislation generally contain graduated marginal rates—i.e., rates that grow as income increases. Heavy analysis of marginal tax rates are required to consider provisions other than 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 higher than indicated in the statutory rates. Since marginal rates signify how after-tax income moves in response to changes in before-tax income, they are the necessary ones for assessing incentive effects of taxation. It is even more difficult to realise the marginal effective tax rate to apply to income from business and capital, because it may depend on considerations such 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 display the part of total income that is demanded in taxation. The pattern of average rates is the one that is relevant for considering the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate rises with income. Average income tax rates generally grow with income, both because personal allowances are permitted for the taxpayer and dependents and also because marginal tax rates are graduated; on the other side of things, preferential treatment of income received fundamentally by high-income households may dwarf these effects, forcing regressivity, as indicated by average tax rates that lower as income rises.

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