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As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht had been a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and then by the burghers on the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing yachts was incidental, borne from private games. English yachting started 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 presented him with 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, 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 rose as classy among the rich and royalty, but after that point the fashion did not last.

The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed in about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard organization, and had great naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to a race was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club endured, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by merging with other clubs, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated manner on the Thames in the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to the throne in 1820, it was then named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht organisation had been started 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 association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the ascension of George IV. Each member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for high bets were held, and the club life was superlative. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to more than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting was first accomplished with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and went on when the English held dominance. Sailing was for the most part for leisure and found its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and created a minimum of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first continuing American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while on board his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts were within the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the second half of the 19th century. The design of sizeable yachts was first greatly affected by the win of America, which was created by George Steers for a club started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and crafted in today’s sense, with just a model being used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the research of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what such science had already done for hulls.

Because most of all sailboats were individually built, there came a desire for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule was created, which is found in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and edited in 1919. Today, one of the rapidly blossoming areas in the field of 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 elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for these boats can be done on an even keel with no handicapping necessary. A great example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on board for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting was an activity mostly for the aristocracy and the wealthy, expense was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion 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 journey around the world (1895–98) sailed single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray demonstrated the seaworthiness of small craft. Later in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, in which steam began to emulate sail power in commercial craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in pleasure boats. Sizeable power yachts were developed to a high degree, and long-distance cruising turned into a favourite occupation of the well off. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave way to yachts powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. Like naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht fashion for a number of years. By the latter half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were exclusively power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the construction of large steam yachts. Notably among 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 more than 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 more sizeable and more reliable internal-combustion engines were produced, many bigger boats began using them for power. The development of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. During the decade that followed, big power-yacht creation flourished, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that point the biggest auxiliary yacht constructed was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The construction of bigger power yachts lessened after 1932, and the fashion thereafter was in preference of smaller, less costly yachts. After World War II, a lot of small naval vessels were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a internationally popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen who are actually manning and maintaining their own small recreational craft. The popularity of yachts and yachtsmen is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas by the beach but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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