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As the Dutch came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht became a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and then by the burghers in the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Racing was incidental, borne from private challenges. English yachting began with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his return 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, sovereign 1685–88), made more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 bet. Yachting was found to be classy among the affluent and royalty, but after that point the fashion did not last.

The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed around about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held great naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club persisted, largely 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 first seen in some organized fashion 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 sovereignty in 1820, it came to be named the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded with a racing fight, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht group 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 continuing location of British yachting. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the ascension of George IV. Each member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for great bids were held, and the society life was lovely. It came to be that the Royal Yachting Club boats were raised in size to more than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting started with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English took dominance. Sailing was largely for leisure and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which traveled 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 club, the Detroit Boat Club, was formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club aboard 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 through the latter half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was originally largely put upon by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a association started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its victory at Cowes in 1851. Earlier yachts were not designed and crafted in the modern sense, with merely a model used. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was known as 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 it had already done for hulls.

Because most of all sailboats had to be individually built, there was a need for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were made. Thus, a rating rule was created, which ended up in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and revised in 1919. In the present day, one of the fastest growing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to standard dimensions in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing for such boats can be done on an even par with no handicapping necessary. A prime example is the uniform International America’s Cup Class taken on for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting was done largely for the aristocracy and the affluent, expense was no problem, and the size of boats grew, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and popularity of smaller yachts happened in the second 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 trip around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the seaworthiness of smaller craft. Later in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure yachts became commonplace, down to the dinghy, a favoured 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
Post the decade 1840–50, during which steam started to emulate sail power in public craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in personal craft. Large power yachts were developed to a high standard, and long-distance travel became a fond occupation of the affluent. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave rise to boats powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for several years. By the second half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the larger part were exclusively power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the construction of large steam yachts. In particular within 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 gave active service in World War II.

As more sizeable and better quality internal-combustion engines were produced, many big yachts were using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, was furthered for World War I. During the decade after, big power-yacht building grew, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that period the biggest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of bigger power yachts declined from 1932, and the fashion from then was in preference of smaller, less pricey craft. Following World War II, many small naval craft 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 who are actually manning and maintaining their own small pleasure boats. The number of craft and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional places along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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