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

The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, and had large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imagined enemy. The club went on, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other clubs, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was first seen in some organized method on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to sovereignty in 1820, it was then called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht society had been initiated at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal funding made the Solent – the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight – the continued setting of British racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the accession of George IV. Every member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great stakes were held, and the club life was lovely. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to over 350 tons.

In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English gained power. Sailing was mostly for leisure and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and set a minimum of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in the area from the late 19th century. The first enduring 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 followed the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the second half of the 19th century. The design of sizeable yachts was initially heavily put upon by the success of America, which was created by George Steers for a association started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and built in the modern sense, with only a model being used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the study of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what such science had already done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats had to be individually custom-built, there came a need for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which ended up in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and amended in 1919. In the present day, one of the rapidly growing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to single dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between these boats can be done on an even playing field with no handicapping at all. A great example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class adopted for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting was an activity largely for the aristocracy and the affluent, expense was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The rise and desire of smaller craft happened 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 trip around the world (1895–98) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the hardiness of small yachts. Thereafter in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and recreational craft became more popular, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, boats of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Post the decade 1840–50, in which steam started to take the place of sail power in public boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed more and more in leisure vessels. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high element, and long-distance sailing turned into a favourite activity of the well off. 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. Like naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht fashion for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were exclusively power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

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

As bigger and better quality internal-combustion engines were produced, many bigger craft began using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered for World War I. From the decade following that, big power-yacht manufacture grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that point the best auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The building of big power boats declined from 1932, and the fashion thereafter was in preference of smaller, less costly yachts. Following World War II, many small naval boats were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a widespread popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually sailing and maintaining their own small recreational craft. The amount of craft and sailors has increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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