Tents and Marquees

Event Tents, such as wedding tents are used when you want to make a daring 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 stunning
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 entertaining 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 fundamental
and your budget may be low. 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 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 exact 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 recognition 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 designing 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 brilliant array of breathtaking landscapes. Like imposing mountain ranges, endless coastlines, abundant 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.

Awesome travel packages and holiday specials are available on quality accommodation in modern city hotels and luxurious wilderness lodges at discounted prices. Among the top holiday destinations in New Zealand, Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland would definitely be there. Travel Online is a prominent online specialist travel operator and provides astounding 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 cutting-edge facilities, gyms, spas and fantastic views are available at various holiday retreats across the city. Larger 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 mesmerizing Avon River or towards the historic 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. Spacious 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 flexibility of sailing away on yachts to isolated nearby islands, living the sweet life in the casino, surfing at lots of beaches or tasting the exotic wines at local vineyards. Hotels come in stylish and comfortable studios, and spacious 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 stunning, 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 memorable holidaying experience. Visitors to Auckland love 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 let a novice 24 hour carpet cleaner show up to repair your water damaged carpets. These are the signs you need to be aware of:

Overcharging. An unprofessional water restoration carpet cleaner may pack the job up with extra inclusions. E.g. using dehumidification for the damaged carpets isn’t always necessary.

Correct equipment. They may borrow equipment from hire businesses for drying the carpet. This is permissible, but a professional water damage restorer will have all their equipment enabling a quicker response and hopefully a better value job.

Moisture metre. If they don’t have the right moisture meter, they cannot see if the carpet is dry enough. This increases the risk of future mould growth. Removal of the mould may be required.

Specialised. There are a lot of “Carpet Cleaners” in this industry who do repair work on the “side.” i.e. they aren’t the ones who do this type of task often. Be aware of this. Restoring a carpet is an art. Removing and repairing and reinstalling the carpet is best to be done by a professional, otherwise they can be permanently damaged.

You could be asking, how do I find a proper Flood Restoration Business? Below I have listed some signifiers to look out for when you hunt around for a carpet flood damage business:

The size of their Yellow Pages advertisement: This can indicate how much repair work they are doing already. A full-size Yellow Pages advertisement can cost around $50 000. When they have paid for a bigger ad, you can at least have some promise that they will deliver the goods.

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

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

Do Insurance companies source them for carpet damage jobs? This is a top indicator. If insurance companies source them, the business is likely to be efficient at their skill. Insurance companies often use the companies that give them the best value for money.

What kind of Equipment do they have? They should own at minimum 100 Air movers. If they possess this many, this means they have been in the game for a while. It took our business 8 years to build up that many wet carpet drying air movers.

What sort of commitment can you get with them with a phone call? Try to pin them down to a fee for water extraction, water removal and initial inspection. If they don’t give you a rate for this only, you know they are not willing to serve you, so keep looking.

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

If you follow these tips you are sure to come up with a Flood Damage Restoration company 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 frequently asked by clients 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 prospect that is increasingly being denied to other health care providers such as optometrists and even General Practitioners . 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 get sued . The nature of podiatry practice does not lend itself to accidentally harming one’s patients. Also, you never have to give your clients 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 doctor or dentist , the salary is generally commensurate with other allied health providers.
• Instant Gratification: One of the most rewarding aspects of being 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 give you plenty of opportunity to help relieve the suffering of your fellow human beings.
• Self – Determination: Podiatry gives a clinician 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 works under the instruction of a doctor.
• Clear Job roles: The only people who can work as a podiatrist are those with a podiatry qualification. The clear roles that this delineates 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 in the world that do not qualify their own podiatrists including Tasmania, the Northern Territory, all of Asia and all of the Middle East. If you want to travel 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 great range of complaints. There may be an ingrown toenail or two, a debilitating corn, a sports injury, some sacroiliac pain and at least a couple of painful heels . The primary skill required in being a good podiatrist is to be a great problem solver. Every patient is an individual with a unique complaint 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 established by a developer and know the process it will save you money and attain you a site that actually works the intended purpose!

1. Understanding 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 understanding 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 accomplish 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 realise not only what type of site to construct for you but your tolerance to colours, animations, layouts etc. for your requirements which will allow for fast 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 made, the developers will more than likely acquire the general layout of this concept and then construct the inner page template. It is this template that will be replicated 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 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 establishing with the reader but for Search Engine Optimisation.
One last tip for content; present a decent amount of content but formulate it in a way that a reader may get a summary of what you are trying to get 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 made for you. You can guarantee if it is has just been written for you then it will not operate 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 avialable on the internet for free!

7. Launch – going live
When the developers are ready to make your site onlive make sure you have completed the above testing step until you are certain 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 imperative step to forming a business. It is the face of your business. And like your face represents the tone of your business, indicates the service and displays 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 require 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 redone. This is needless and may cause difficulties when trying to recreate the logo exactly as completed 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 desired that if your service or product name is not in your business name then perhaps an icon will help in portraying 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 sighting for a more illustrative finish without losing recognition.

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

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

Tip 3
Make sure you get a back up disk of your logo as a master file and make certain that it includes all the files required 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 accomplish. For example it is difficult 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
Ensure 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
Confirm 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 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 graphic design Brisbane today for a free two hour consultation.

How to Create a Style Guide

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

There is only one way to thwart this from happening and that is to use a style guide. Not only will a style guide help you steer the reproduction of your logo - it will also help you strengthen 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 utilize 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 lies on all the different pieces of collateral that may be reprinted.

Step 5 : Make certain to insert any contributing logos or logos of business that are associated with you. It’s also important that you send a copy of the layout to these companies to ensure they approve 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 : Ensure 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 affirmed as correct.

Get 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 advise a training session – whereby your design studio arrives and trains your staff on how to utilize 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 typical question that is asked when buying a new projector for the home, office, or classroom is: do I buy an LCD projector or a DLP projector? LCD, an acronym for ‘liquid crystal device’ and DLP, an acronym for ‘digital light processing’ are the two commonplace projector imaging technologies. With so many different brands and models available, it can be difficult for consumers to pick between the two technologies. The simple fact of the matter is that LCD projectors have better image quality and colour accuracy. The article below tells you why DLP projectors struggle with reproducing a comparable rate of image quality.

Visualise a set of blinds in your room covering your bedroom window. By pulling on a rod you can have the shutters open or closed, according to if you want to let light in or not. This is exactly how an LCD projector functions. Each pixel operates like a unique shutter on a set of blinds to either shine light through or to block it. DLP on the other hand is made up 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 when the projector turns on to when the image reaches your screen is extremely significant with regard to image quality, brightness and colour accuracy. LCD projectors shine white light from the lamp by separating it into red, blue and green components, by three mirrors which direct the coloured light to 3 stand alone LCD panels. The 3 LCD panels cast the elements of the image by shining each pixel on and off. The pixels are then combined in a glass prism to send the projector image. A point to understad about LCD projectors is that all three colours are sent onto your screen all at once. The way a DLP projector works is totally different and even the produced image shows up is not the same. With DLP, white light from the lamp is sent through a turning colour wheel with transparent red, blue and green segments, at speeds up to 11,000 rpm/s. This approach to creating an image forms a sequence of red, blue and green light. The millions of micro mirrors described above reflect the coloured light on the pixels to form the image elements. The elements of the image are cast in sequence on the screen, one colour at a time. The viewer’s eye will then put together each coloured element of the image into a single total image. From LCD projectors, all colours are available all the time to form high brightness and fantastic colour accuracy. In DLP, only one colour is available at any given time, and so causing lower colour brightness and accuracy. Some developers have added a white segment into the colour wheel to improve general brightness, but this goes and damages colour accuracy.

I hear in forums all the time that DLP provides a higher contrast ratio and ergo must be better. For those who don’t know, 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. DLP projectors do possess high contrast specifications when compared to a majority of LCD projectors. At a glance, this seems to be a plus, however, in truth, the true black level is determined by the ambient light in the room while the projector is utilised. Do not be hoodwinked by contrast specifications on websites and in brochures.

When the content you plan to project needs moving images, DLP projection technology can also have image imperfections, or ‘artifacts’. The most often seen artifact that a DLP projector forms with moving images is colour break up. Colour break up is unavoidable in DLP systems because moving images change between the time red, blue and green colours are projected. LCD projectors do not have this problem because the colours are processed at once. DLP builders have developed 3DLP solutions using 3 chips to resolve the colour break up issue, but the price of these projectors make them almost impossible for many businesses and consumers.

Another point of difference between LCD and DLP is how they balance for the refractive qualities of light. Remember back to high school science, and remember how the different colours of light refract various amounts when directed through the same lens. The disadvantage with DLP projectors is that they take the one same panel for the same lens to project Red, Blue and Green. All 3 colours are different and refract light in a different way. Usually with a DLP projector, some extra yellow colour will come through above and an extra blue will come through below something as simple as a single black line. In building LCD projectors can be set to remove these effects on the projected image, because each colour is refracted on a separate LCD panels.

The only real advantage (excluding price) with choosing a DLP projector is its smaller total size and weight. However, this is only relevant for transporting the device and needs to be traded off against the image benefits of LCD projectors. If the result of the picture quality is crucial to you, then the decision is easy. Go with an LCD projector! LCD projectors will consistently create bright, colourful images with fewer image mistakes. If you need to ask more about LCD technology in more detail, check out this tremendous resource website: Explore 3LCD. If you have any other questions, visit Projector Central and send me an email.

Jonathan King is the sales and marketing manager of Projector Central, Australia’s number one online retailer for projectors. Brisbane based, Projector Central has served 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 came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht was a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and secondly by the burghers on the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private challenges. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation to the English royalty 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 then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, ruled 1685–88), built more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 bet. Yachting became classy for the affluent and aristocracy, but after that period the fashion did not last.

The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and had great naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club persisted, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by merging with other societies, it became known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some ordered fashion on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to monarchy in 1820, it was then known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht club 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 yacht racing. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the accession of George IV. All members were required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for great bets were held, and the society life was lovely. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to bigger than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English had dominance. Sailing was for the most part for fun and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and established a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was started in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts were within the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the later half of the 19th century. The style of sizeable yachts was first heavily impacted by the success of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a club headed 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. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what it had previously done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats had been individually custom-built, there arose a desire for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were designed. Therefore, a rating rule was decreed, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and amended in 1919. In the present day, one of the most rapidly blossoming areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to standard dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for those boats can be had on an even playing field with no handicapping necessary. A perfect example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on board for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

For the time that yachting belonged largely for the aristocracy and the wealthy, expense was no issue, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and popularity of smaller yachts came in the latter half of the 19th century in 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) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the value of small boats. Following this in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and recreational craft became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, when steam began to emulate sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were favoured increasingly in personal boats. Large power yachts were progressed to a high element, and long-distance cruising turned into a favourite pastime of the wealthy. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave rise to boats powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. Like naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht archetype for a number of years. By the later half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were only power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the design of more sizeable steam yachts. Conspicuous of these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, with 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 gave active service in World War II.

As bigger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were created, many big boats started using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed for World War I. From the decade following, big power-yacht manufacture flourished, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of big power yachts fell away in 1932, and the fashion from then was toward smaller, less pricey craft. After World War II, many small naval vessels were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting is a globally popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally sailing and maintaining their own small pleasure yachts. The popularity of yachts and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas on the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

Looking for yacht transport Sunshine Coast ? Talk to Elite Yacht Services. We do great work at competitive prices.

Proportional, Progressive, and Regressive taxes

Taxes can be categorized by the effect they have on the placement of income and wealth. A proportional tax is the kind that applies the same relative onus on all the taxpayers—i.e., in the case where tax liability and income grow in equal proportion. A progressive tax is recognised by a higher than proportional rise in the tax onus relative to the growth in income, and a regressive tax is recognisable by a less than proportional rise in the related onus. Thus, progressive taxes are seen as reducing a lack of equality in income distribution, whereas regressive taxes can have the effect of increasing these inequalities.

The taxes that are often regarded as progressive include individual income taxes and estate taxes. Income taxes that are initially progressive, however, may become less so within the upper-income categories—particularly if a taxpayer is able to lessen his tax base by claiming deductions or by taking certain income elements from his taxable income. Proportional tax rates if applied to lower-income classes could also be more progressive if exemptions of a personal nature are made.

Income measured over the period of a given year may not absolutely come up with the most suitable measure of taxpaying requirement. For example, transitory increases in income might be saved, and within temporary declines in income a taxpayer could choose to pay for consumption by taking from savings. So, if taxation is compared alongside “permanent income,” it should be less regressive (or more progressive) than when held in comparison with annual income.

Sales taxes and excises (except those on luxuries) are generally regressive, because the portion of personal income consumed or spent for specific goods lowers as the amount of personal income is raised. Poll taxes (also called head taxes), calculated as a fixed amount per capita, patently are regressive.

It is not easy to classify corporate income taxes and taxes on business as progressive, regressive, or proportionate, principally due to a lack of certainty regarding the ability of businesses to shift their tax expenses (see below Shifting and incidence). This difficulty of determining who bears the tax burden is dependant for the most part on whether a national or a subnational (that is, provincial or state) tax is being considered.

In analysing the economic effect of taxation, it is essential to differentiate between several points of tax rates. The statutory rates include those dictated in law; generally speaking these are marginal rates, but sometimes they are mean rates. Marginal income tax rates note the fraction of incremental income taken by taxation when income rises by one dollar. Ergo, 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 rise as income increases. Heavy analysis of marginal tax rates should regard provisions apart from the formal statutory rate structure. If, for example, a particular tax credit (reduction in tax) reduces by 20 cents for each one-dollar growth in income, the marginal rate is 20 percentage points higher than indicated within the statutory rates. Since marginal rates specify how after-tax income is changed in response to changes in before-tax income, they are the necessary ones for considering incentive effects of taxation. It is even more difficult to understand the marginal effective tax rate to apply to income from business and capital, because it may rely on factors 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 nothing under a consumption-based tax.

Average income tax rates indicate the fraction of total income that is required in taxation. The pattern of average rates is the one that is important for judging the distributional equity of taxation. Under a progressive income tax the average income tax rate increases with income. Average income tax rates commonly rise with income, both because personal allowances are granted for the taxpayer and dependents and also because marginal tax rates are graduated; on the other hand, preferential treatment of income received fundamentally by high-income households could dampen these effects, producing regressivity, as shown by average tax rates that lower as income increases.

For MYOB Brisbane expert advice, contact Stone Consulting today. Stone Consulting also runs MYOB training in Brisbane.