As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht had been a pleasure craft used first by royalty and then by the burghers for the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts 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 monarchy in 1660, the city of Amsterdam sent him a 20-metre (66-foot) leisure boat with a beam (maximum width) of 5.6 m (18 feet), which he named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, ruled 1685–88), built additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 punt. Yachting became fashionable among the affluent and aristocracy, but after that time the fashion did not last.

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

Yacht racing was first seen in some organized manner on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to sovereignty in 1820, it was then named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht organisation had been formed 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 site of British yachting. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the accession of George IV. All members were required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for high stakes were held, and the social life was superlative. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to over 350 tons.

In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English had control. Sailing was for the most part for leisure and rose to its apogee 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 that area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht society, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts took the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The craft of bigger yachts was first heavily affected by the success 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.) was named after its win at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and built in the modern sense, with just a model being used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the research of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what it had previously done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats were individually manufactured, there arose a desire for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were designed. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which resulted in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In the present day, one of the fastest blossoming areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are built to standard requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for such boats can be had on an even par with no handicapping at all. A great example is the generic International America’s Cup Class adopted for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting was an activity primarily for the royal and the rich, expense was no problem, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller craft happened 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 proved the seaworthiness of less sizeable craft. Thereafter in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and leisure boats became more popular, down to the dinghy, a favourite 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, at which point steam began to emulate sail power in public craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly employed in leisure vessels. Large power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance cruising became a favourite pastime of the well off. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; they then gave way to boats powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. Like naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht archetype for several years. By the later half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were exclusively power yachts containing gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of more sizeable steam yachts. In particular among 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 more than 150. The Mayflower, purchased 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 during World War II.

As more sizeable and better quality internal-combustion engines were developed, many big boats started using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, was furthered in World War I. During the decade following, big power-yacht building flourished, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that point the best auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The construction of bigger power boats fell away in 1932, and the fashion after that was in preference of smaller, less pricey craft. Following World War II, a lot of small naval vessels were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting has become a internationally beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually manning and keeping their own small recreational craft. The amount of craft and yachtsmen is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas by the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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