SV vs SY

[DailyLunatic]

OK, so I've been watching a lot of youtube and reading forums and noticed the use of SV-Boatname (which I know to be Sailing Vessel) and SY-Boatname (which I take to be Sailing Yacht).
My confusion comes from the use interchangeably, sometimes from the same people.
Is one preferred over the other and when would you use each?

Thanx
-sterling

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[TeddyDiver]

IMHO vessels are build and operated practicality in mind, yachts for vanity and make the owner to look good on the helm. So even the same boat can be a vessel or a yacht depending of the mind set of the person on board or just looking at it ..

[nhschneider]

We have always used SV - Sailing Vessel - and have the S/V prefix printed on our boat's t-shirts. However, when we got to Australia, we found that the convention was to refer to a sailboat as a 'yacht' and a motorboat as a 'launch', regardless of size.

We have now switched to S/Y.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[conachair]

Originally Posted by TeddyDiver

IMHO vessels are build and operated practicality in mind, yachts for vanity and make the owner to look good on the helm. So even the same boat can be a vessel or a yacht depending of the mind set of the person on board or just looking at it ..

Also differs culturally, in the UK no one would bat an eyelid at someone calling his 21' correbee a yacht. Same for captain, anyone signing themselves off as "Captain" Fred blogs would be laughed at by one and all but it seems perfect normal in the states.

[Wotname]

Yep, it is very regional.
As others have posted, any sailboat bigger than say 18 feet is simply called a yacht in Oz.

[El Pinguino]

I truly loath the word 'vessel'.

Even when used in the sense 'motor vessel' I prefer the usage 'motor ship'.... we never ever did have 'steam vessels'... we had 'steam ships'

I own a yacht... which I sometimes refer to as my ship....

[zeehag]

i sail a ketch so mine is sk and boat name....
i am not so presumptuous as to call my home a yot. there is no helipad on it,. so how can it be a yot...it is a ketch.

[MarkJ]

Neither SY or SV are a necessity as far as I know. Really only used in the USA.


Mark

[montenido]

I'm with Zee on this one. Mine is S/V Odyssey. At least in the states, "yacht" sounds so pretentious. Don't need it.

Cheers, Bill

[RedHerring]

I think there is a simple criterion. If you own a pleasure craft and do the maintenance yourself, it's a boat. If somebody else does the maintenance, then it's a yacht.

[Tayana42]

To all of us from the USA, we have to get over this USA centric thinking. Not everyone else in the world ( not even English speaking countries ) uses the same words in the same ways we do. "Yacht" doesn't have the same luxury connotation in other places as it does in North America.

It doesn't matter if you call your boat a vessel or a yacht. If it isn't an aircraft carrier it is still a small boat on a big ocean.


S/V B'Shert

[mstrebe]

As for "Captain", unless you're in the military or a licensed captain, you shouldn't be using the term. "Skipper" is the correct term for unlicensed owner/operators in command of a pleasure vessel.


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[mstrebe]

A good summary of ship prefixes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_prefix

According to Wikipedia (for what that's worth), "SY" can also mean "Steam Yacht", whereas "SV" only refers to sailing vessels.


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[kriskret]

I grew up in Europe. I visited a lot of the European countries (Germany, Poland, Scandinavia, Greece, Italy etc. ) with a sea access. The S/Y abbreviation have been always used there. First time this idiotic SV term I heard in America. - Change it to Water Vehicle. - Buhahahahaa !!! - Language neoplasm.

[-bliss-]

Interesting topic!

Personally, I share the view of the ones referring to “Sailing Yacht” as a tad pretentious.
If I were the owner of a HR, Forgus, Najad, Malö or some other of the Swedish sailing vessel for that matter, it would definitely be a S/V, but as my boat is a Sweden Yachts, it kind of made sense to call it a S/Y, since “Yacht” is already in the name of the company. Therefore, my Sweden Yachts is a Sailing Yacht. The pretentious prefix before the boat name is compensated to, by referring to myself as the vagabond behind the wheel, or something similar.

By the way, I agree to the suggestion it´s a regional thing. Sailing Vessel is very unusual here in Scandinavia. Sounds way better in my ears though.

-kjetil-