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As the Dutch rose to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht was a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and secondly by the burghers on the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, arising as private matches. English yachting originated with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his reaffirmation 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 named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, sovereign 1685–88), made other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 wager. Yachting was found to be fashionable for the rich and nobility, but after that point the fashion did not last.

The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, with much naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” when the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club persisted, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, when conglomerating with other groups, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was seen in some organized method on the Thames around 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 after a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association 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 continuing setting of British yachting. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the rise of George IV. Every member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great bets were held, and the social life was splendid. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to more than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English gained control. Sailing was largely for leisure and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and set a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first persisting American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated 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 style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the latter half of the 19th century. The craft of large yachts was originally greatly impacted by the win of America, which was designed by George Steers for a syndicate headed by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) found its namesake after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and manufactured in a contemporary sense, with merely a model for an outline. Not until the later half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the employment of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such science had earlier done for hulls.

Because most of all sailboats were individually built, there was a need for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were built. Thus, a rating rule was written, which is found in the International Rule, taken on in 1906 and revised in 1919. In modern times, one of the most rapidly flourishing areas in the sailing industry is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to single specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for those boats can be had on an even par with no handicapping required. A great example is the generic International America’s Cup Class adopted for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting belonged primarily for the aristocracy and the wealthy, money was no problem, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and popularity of smaller yachts occurred in the latter 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 value of smaller boats. Later in the 20th century, for the larger part after World War II, smaller racing and recreational yachts 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 setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
After the decade 1840–50, at which point steam began to replace sail power in public boats, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were used increasingly in leisure boats. Sizeable power yachts were progressed to a high standard, and long-distance travel became a preferred activity of the affluent. 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. As in the case of naval and merchant vessels, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht fashion for a number of years. By the latter half of the 20th century, several yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were exclusively power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the design of more sizeable steam yachts. Notably of 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, purchased by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and gave active service in World War II.

As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were produced, many large boats started using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, was furthered from World War I. From the decade after, bigger power-yacht creation grew, climaxing 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 manufacture of bigger power craft declined after 1932, and the trend thereafter was toward smaller, less costly boats. From World War II, many small naval boats were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a widespread popular activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually sailing and maintaining their own small leisure craft. The amount of yachts and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional places by the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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