When is a yacht a yacht or not.

[Starbuck]

The guy hanging over my head here (KN) is right. Yacht indicates private ownership/pleasurecraft. Socio-economic considerations do not apply, though they are difficult to jettison from our thoughts.

So:
Mulit-million dollar cabin cruiser, with pretentious martini-swilling owner wearing blue blazer and white cap? Yacht.

15' West Wight Potter with a 2hp British Seagull, no standing headroom, an ice chest and a porta-potti, gunk-holing while its trailer waits in the parking lot next to the launch ramp? Yacht.

My mind wants to exclude open daysailers, because I see some type of cabin/accomodation as necessary to earn the yacht moniker. But technically, that might not be necessary.

Dang: now I have to modify my signature…

I would think there is a provision to indicate ocean going vessels, but I have never seen it. I took allot of crap when I started refering to my boats as S/Y's. People thought I was being pretentios, but I was just trying to be linguistically correct. I finally gave up and went with the flow

[delmarrey]

Soooooooooooooo, ya have to be pretentious to be a yacht owner?

[Starbuck]

No, that's just the common wisdom.

[Moby Dick]

Different usage in Uk compared to USA.

In UK, common (sailing) usage would have 3 classes: dinghy, dayboat/keelboat, yacht. A yacht having ballast and some sort of cabin, but could be any size/price. No pretensions implied. The name 'sailboat' is not used much. Of course a cat has no ballast but I think one with accomodation would be yacht too?

Motorboats: I have no idea and don't care.

[Alan Wheeler]

Yeah but you can't seriousely suggest that a Cat can ever be a Yacht can you???

[Tropic Cat]

When I'm speaking of my vessel.... it's my boat.
When others speak about it...... 'his yacht'

Rick in Florida

[irwinsailor]

I have a boat. It is 68' LOA, I have always thought of it as a boat.

[ssullivan]

Gunner... you might be pushing the envelope...

[irwinsailor]

I can't help it. Everytime that I have said something like "lets go check on the yacht" I have always felt stupid. I have a boat, maybe if it takes a few paid people to handle a vessel then it may be a yacht.

[Alan Wheeler]

Hey come to think of it, I am exactly the same. If I said to Dawn, lets go check on the Yacht, it sounds totaly pretentiouse. I would say lets go check the boat. Or I on own a boat, it's a yacht. I don't say, I own a yacht. But if two differing tyoes are in the marina and I was telling someone that didn't know anything about boats, I would say, that ones a yacht and that ones a launch.
I know Technicaly as in wikipedia there is a description, but it is interesting now, that it looks like the term is used as loosly and as compicatedly to fit what ever way we are speaking, all over the world. How fasinating.

[irwinsailor]

Also, I think a yacht must be paid off. If it is not then it is a liability and not a care free pleasure to own.

[Steve Kidson]

* Mast & sails for propulsion, open and no accomodation, galley etc = sailboat or dinghy (dinghy usually under 16' long)

* Mast & sails for propulsion, accomodation, galley etc, maybe an outboard and trailed to and from water = Trailer Sailer

* Mast & sails for propulsion, accomodation, galley, head, alternative propulsion from inboard diesel or perhaps outboard = yacht

If it doesn't have a mast & sails it has no right to be called a yacht!

[Starbuck]

I hate to begin street-fighting with dictionaires, but from Webster's New Collegiate:

yacht: any of various relativey small sailing or mechanically driven ships that characteristically have a sharp prow and graceful lines and which are ordinarily used for pleasure cruising or racing.

Well, seems as if the term is a bit broader than most of us would want to allow. It's the type of use that seems to be central here.

Trailer-sailing is exclusively a 20th & 21st Century phenomenon. Two generations ago, the term yacht would have been applied to these small, privately-owned sailboats, so there is no reason to exclude them now based on the manner in which they are launched & stored. There's no logic there.

Technically, open boats qualify, though I think many of us would to see some type of accomodation before we called it a proper yacht. I admit that is a qualification Webster doesn't mention.

They're called auxilliary engines for a reason: the existence of an auxilliary on a sailing craft doesn't disqualify it. There are men (and I know of at least one on this board) who remove their engines, but we can't say that their vessels are then neutered, and cannot be called yachts. A hundred years ago, there where no engines, but there were yachts.

If it doesn't have a mast & sails it has no right to be called a yacht!

Sorry, Steve, by Webster's definition, those motor-launches qualify as yachts, despite your very persuasive exclamation point.

The Navy's terms have to be seen as a specialized Jargon, and apt to confuse everyday understanding.

[Talbot]

It is no good quoting a definition and pretending that that closes the argument. There are probably another 5 different definitions that prove otherwise.

Personally I dont give a monkey what you want to call yours. Mine is a yacht.