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As the Dutch rose to preeminence in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht became a leisure craft used mostly by royalty and later by the burghers in the canals as well as 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 return to the English monarchy 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, sovereign 1685–88), built other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 punt. Yachting became classy among the rich and aristocracy, but after that period the fashion did not last.

The first yacht association in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, and had large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” for which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, largely as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after merging with other clubs, it was known as the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing began in some organized method on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland funded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV rose to the throne in 1820, it was called 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 continued site of British racing. The association at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the rise of George IV. All members were required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing tests for large bets were held, and the society life was wonderful. Eventually 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 held power. Sailing was for the most part for fun and rose to its epitome in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed 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 persisting American yacht club, 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 first sailing yachts followed the lines of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through the second half of the 19th century. The design of bigger yachts was initially largely impacted by the success of America, which was created by George Steers for a syndicate led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) was named after its success at Cowes in 1851. Early yachts were not designed and manufactured in the modern sense, with just a model being 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 application 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 to be individually custom-built, there came a need for handicapping boats as this was previous to the one-design class boats were built. Therefore, a rating rule was written, which resulted in the International Rule, accepted in 1906 and revised in 1919. In modern times, one of the fastest growing areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are manufactured to single requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between those boats can be done on an even playing field with no handicapping necessary. A prime example is the standard International America’s Cup Class adopted for yachts in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

For the time that yachting was an activity largely for the nobility and the rich, expense was no issue, and the size of boats increased, in both length and weight. The promotion and preference 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 seaworthiness of small craft. Following this in the 20th century, particularly after World War II, smaller racing and leisure craft became more popular, down to the dinghy, a favourite training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, craft of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Post the decade 1840–50, during which steam was set to replace sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were increasingly used in pleasure yachts. Bigger power yachts were progressed to a high standard, and long-distance travel was a fond pastime of the wealthy. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; those then gave rise to those powered by the wholly submerged screw or propeller sort of propulsion. Like naval and merchant boats, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht fashion for several 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.

During the last decade of the 19th century there was a rise in the design of large steam yachts. In particular 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 during World War II.

As bigger and better quality internal-combustion engines were developed, many big craft began using them for power. The establishment of the diesel engine, using heavy oil for fuel, was furthered during World War I. During the decade following, large power-yacht manufacture blossomed, reaching a climax in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. During that time the largest auxiliary yacht built was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of large power craft declined in 1932, and the fashion thereafter was toward smaller, less costly yachts. Following World War II, lots of small naval vessels were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting is a globally popular activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally manning and upkeeping their own small recreational yachts. The amount of boats and sailors is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional areas along the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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