Fun, this is from Wiki:
(of course we could all look this up)
Sailing yachts can range in overall length (
Length Over All—LOA) from about 6 metres (20 ft) to well over 30 metres (98 ft), where the distinction between a yacht and a ship becomes blurred. Most privately owned yachts fall in the range of about 7 metres (23 ft)-14 metres (46 ft); the cost of building and keeping a yacht rises quickly as length increases. In the United States, sailors tend to refer to smaller yachts as
sailboats, while referring to the general sport of sailing as
yachting. Within the limited context of sailboat racing, a yacht is any sailing vessel taking part in a race, regardless of size.
Modern yachts have efficient
sail-plans, most notably the
Bermuda rig, that allow them to sail towards the wind. This capability is the result of a sail-plan and hull design.
Yacht (pron.:
/ˈjɒt/, from
Dutch/
Low German jacht meaning
hunting or
hunt, compare
Standard German/
High German Jagd) was originally defined as a light, fast
sailing vessel used by the
Dutch navy to pursue
pirates and other transgressors around and into the shallow waters of the
Low Countries. They were also used for non-military governmental roles such as
customs duties and delivering
pilots to waiting ships.
[1] The latter use attracted the attention of wealthy Dutch merchants who began to build private yachts so they could be taken out to greet their returning ships. Soon wealthy individuals began to use their "jachts" for pleasure trips. By the start of the 17th century "jachts" came in two broad categories—
speel-jachts for sport and
oorlog-jachts for naval duties.
[1] By the middle of the century large "jacht" fleets were found around the Dutch coast and the Dutch states organised large 'reviews' of private and war yachts for special occasions, thus putting in place the groundwork for the modern sport of yachting.
Jachts of this period varied greatly in size, from around 12 m (39 ft) in length to being equal to the lower classes of the
ship of the line.
[2] All had a form of fore/aft
gaff rig with a flat bottom and lee boards to allow operations in shallow waters. The gaff rig remained the principal rig found on small European yachts for centuries until giving way to the "Bermudan sloop" rig in the 1960s.
Charles II of England spent part of his time in exile during the period of the
Commonwealth of England in the
Netherlands and became keen on sailing. He returned to England in 1660 aboard a Dutch yacht. During his reign Charles commissioned 24 Royal Yachts on top of the two presented to him by Dutch states on his restoration.
[2] As the fashion for yachting spread throughout the English aristocracy, yacht races began to become common. Other rich individuals in Europe built yachts as the sport spread. Yachting therefore became a purely recreational form of sailing with no commercial or military function (see, for example, the
Cox & King yachts at the beginning of the 20th Century), which still serves a broad definition of both the sport and of the vessel.
At 35' my Roughwater is a motor yacht or cabin cruiser I presume.
