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As the Dutch came to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a pleasure craft used initially by royalty and then by the burghers in the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, borne from private challenges. English yachting started with King Charles II of England during his exile in the Low Countries. On his restoration to the English throne in 1660, the city of Amsterdam gave 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, ruled 1685–88), made other 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 popular among the wealthy and nobility, but after that point the fashion did not last.

The first yacht club 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 much naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by joining with other organisations, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some ordered fashion on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV ascended to monarchy in 1820, it was then called the Fleet to His Majesty’s Coronation Sailing Society. The Thames Yacht Club seceded following a racing argument, 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 funding made the Solent - the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight - the continued setting of British yachting. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, likewise at the ascension of George IV. Every member was required to have boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for high bids were held, and the society life was splendid. Ultimately Royal Yachting Club boats increased 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 held power. Sailing was mostly for pleasure and rose to its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised on the Mediterranean Sea and created a benchmark of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in those waters from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht organisation, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens instigated the New York Yacht Club while aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts followed the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the later half of the 19th century. The style of large yachts was originally greatly impacted by the success of America, which was designed by George Steers for a syndicate led 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. The first yachts were not designed and built in the modern sense, with just a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the craft of sails and rigging what science had previously done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats were individually manufactured, there arose a need for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were built. Therefore, a rating rule was decreed, which ended up in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and amended in 1919. In the present day, one of the fastest flourishing areas in the field of sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to standard specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other areas (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between those boats can be had on an even par with no handicapping at all. A prime example is the generic International America’s Cup Class taken on for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

So long as yachting was done primarily for the royal and the rich, money was no object, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and popularity of smaller boats came in the second 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 value of small craft. Later in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure craft became more common, down to the dinghy, a favourite 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
Post the decade 1840–50, during which steam started to replace sail power in public craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly favoured in personal craft. Sizeable power yachts were progressed to a high degree, and long-distance cruising became a favourite occupation of the well off. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then gave way to boats powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries with 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 larger part were only power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.

In the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the manufacture of more sizeable steam yachts. Conspicuous 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 during World War II.

As more sizeable and more dependable internal-combustion engines were produced, many bigger yachts began using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, employing heavy oil for fuel, advanced for World War I. During the decade that followed, large power-yacht creation flourished, hitting a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that period the best auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The building of large power yachts lessened after 1932, and the trend thereafter was in preference of smaller, less expensive yachts. After World War II, lots of small naval boats were traded by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting is a widespread beloved competition enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually manning and maintaining their own small leisure craft. The popularity of boats and owners is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the seacoasts but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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