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As the Dutch came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht became a pleasure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers for the canals and then in the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, borne from private matches. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English royalty 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, reigned 1685–88), made additional yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and back, on a £100 bet. Yachting rose as fashionable with the affluent and nobility, but after that point the fashion did not last.

The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was started at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and had large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club endured, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when joining with other organisations, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some stipulated method on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to the throne in 1820, it was known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht club 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 organisation at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the ascension of George IV. Each member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for great stakes were held, and the club life was wonderful. Ultimately 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 persisted when the English held power. Sailing was largely for pleasure and reached its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht group, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The first sailing yachts were within the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the second half of the 19th century. The design of bigger yachts was originally heavily put upon by the win of America, which was designed by George Steers for a association headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and crafted in the modern sense, with only a model being used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the science of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what such study had already done for hulls.

Because most of all sailboats were individually custom-built, there came a need for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which resulted in the International Rule, taken on 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 created to standard specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be done on an even playing field with no handicapping at all. A perfect example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting was done largely for the aristocracy and the wealthy, expense was no problem, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and desire of smaller yachts happened in the later half of the 19th century from the sailing of the Englishmen R.T. McMullen, a stockbroker, and E.F. Knight, a barrister and journalist. A voyage around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the seaworthiness of smaller craft. Following this in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and recreational boats 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 setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, when steam started to emulate sail power in commercial craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly used in pleasure yachts. Bigger power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance travel was a favoured pastime of the wealthy. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made way to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. Like naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were only power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the manufacture of bigger steam yachts. Notably among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, containing triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated 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 saw active service for World War II.

As more sizeable and better quality internal-combustion engines were produced, many bigger boats were using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, advanced in World War I. During the decade following, bigger power-yacht creation grew, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the largest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The construction of large power boats lessened in 1932, and the trend thereafter was in preference of smaller, less costly craft. After World War II, lots of small naval craft were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a widespread beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually owning and keeping their own small leisure boats. The number of craft and yachtsmen has increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas by the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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