If you have looked in Gumtree for a boat you will know that they can be listed under yacht and/or sailboat and/or sail boat whereas a "motor boat" can be listed as a yacht, super yacht, motor cruiser or motor boat . Some say over 30 feet is a yacht and under is either a sailboat or motor cruiser whereas others say 20 . If all pleasure craft are yachts does that include jet skis? Finally if I have a sail boat , which I term it to be is it a sailboat or sail boat.

Bananabender said..
If you have looked in Gumtree for a boat you will know that they can be listed under yacht and/or sailboat and/or sail boat whereas a "motor boat" can be listed as a yacht, super yacht, motor cruiser or motor boat . Some say over 30 feet is a yacht and under is either a sailboat or motor cruiser whereas others say 20 . If all pleasure craft are yachts does that include jet skis? Finally if I have a sail boat , which I term it to be is it a sailboat or sail boat.

Hi BB,
The term yacht goes back to the Dutch jacht,which loosely translates to hunt or ship for hunting. They were small light and fast, and slowly became popular for taking out people rather than merely hunting and plundering.
King Charles II returned from exile in a Dutch supplied 60' jacht in the 1600's starting the link between royalty and 'jachting'.
So the proper definition and origin of a ' yacht' is a light and fast sailing vessel.
Sooo respectfully, if you are a stink boat or jet ski owner please go and find your own name. 'Brick' is freely available as an example, or 'mistake' springs to mind......

Has an enclosed cabin seems to be a favoured difference. (Talking about actual yachts)

Stink boats, dunno. I'd never refer to the cabin cruisers we have here in australia as a yacht. It seem to be attached to a boat of decadence. Eg the big sleek european types. (Not that they are actually yachts)

My son, who pilots a 14 metre work boat, will be thrilled to bits he can call it a ship now,

Me?
I'm definitely in the don't care camp,

It's not whether you can sleep on it; Etchells, Six Metres, the later 12 Metres and IACC boats are all yachts and you can't sleep on them. Flying 15s, Stars, Dragons etc are called yachts too.

Up to at least the '50s in NZ even racing dinghies were yachts. It seems to have been the same in Victoria for many years, which is why there are lots of dinghy clubs called yacht clubs.

In the 19th century in Victoria most of the yachts were open boats like Couta boats. They were basically called "yachts" because they were not working boats and were better maintained and finished.

Herreshoff and other sailors of the 19th century called steam yachts 'yachts' so it's not just motive power. Basically it seems there's no fixed definition