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As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the first yacht had been a leisure 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. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private matches. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English monarchy in 1660, the city of Amsterdam presented him with 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), ordered for other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a 100 wager. Yachting became classy with the rich and nobility, 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, with much naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the chase, when the fleet pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other groups, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some stipulated method on the Thames around the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to sovereignty in 1820, it was known as the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded after a racing argument, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht society had been formed at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal sponsorship made the Solent - the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight - the perpetual site of British racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the accession of George IV. Each member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for high bids were held, and the social life was splendid. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats grew 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 gained dominance. Sailing was mostly for leisure and rose to its apogee in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and established a standard of luxury and sophistication for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts took the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the second half of the 19th century. The style of sizeable yachts was first largely affected by the success of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a association led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its success at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in today’s sense, with just a model used. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was labeled naval architecture come into action. Not until the 1920s did the use of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such science had done earlier for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats had been individually manufactured, there arose a requirement for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were made. Hence, a rating rule was created, which is found in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and revised in 1919. In the present day, one of the fastest flourishing areas in the sailing industry 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 elements (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 necessary. A prime example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on board for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

For the time that yachting was done primarily for the royal and the wealthy, expense was no issue, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and popularity of smaller craft came in the latter 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 voyage 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 boats. Following this 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 preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were traveled in single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840 50, at which point steam was set to emulate sail power in market vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were favoured increasingly in leisure yachts. Bigger power yachts were furthered to a high standard, and long-distance cruising was a favoured occupation of the affluent. The early power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made way to yachts powered by the fully submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. Like naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for a number of years. By the latter half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were only power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.

In the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the manufacture of more sizeable steam yachts. Notably among these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, that had triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was sailed by a crew of more than 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 bigger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were developed, many large craft were using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. From the decade after, large power-yacht building grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that period the biggest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The construction of bigger power yachts fell away in 1932, and the trend thereafter was toward smaller, less pricey craft. From World War II, many small naval vessels were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a widespread popular sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually owning and maintaining their own small pleasure yachts. The amount of craft and yachtsmen has increased steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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