As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the initial yacht became a pleasure craft used mostly by royalty and then by the burghers on the canals and the protected and unprotected waters of the Low Countries. Yacht racing was incidental, arising as private challenges. 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 then named Mary. Charles and his brother James, the duke of York (James II, ruled 1685–88), ordered for other yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and the same way back, on a £100 punt. Yachting was found to be fashionable with the wealthy and nobility, but after that period the habit did not last.

The first yacht club in the British Isles, the Water Club, was instigated at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard group, with large naval panoply and rigour. The closest thing to racing was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued an imaginary enemy. The club persisted, mostly as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, by joining with other clubs, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was first seen in some stipulated manner on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland founded the Cumberland Fleet for Thames racing in 1775. When George IV came to monarchy in 1820, it was then known as 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 organisation had been started at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in 1815, and royal patronage made the Solent - the strait between the mainland and the Isle of Wight - the continuing site of British yacht racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, also at the ascension of George IV. Every member was required to own boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing races for high stakes were held, and the social life was wonderful. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats grew in size to over 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and continued when the English had control. Sailing was for the most part for pleasure and found its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which sailed on the Mediterranean Sea and established a standard of luxury and elegance for the later yachts in that area from the late 19th century. The first enduring American yacht club, the Detroit Boat Club, was instigated in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens began the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
Early sailing yachts followed the style of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century until the second half of the 19th century. The craft of sizeable yachts was originally largely put upon by the success of America, which was designed by George Steers for a association led by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its success at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and manufactured in today’s sense, with merely a model for an outline. Not until the second half of the 19th century did what was called naval architecture come into being. Not until the 1920s did the use of the study of aerodynamics do for the design of sails and rigging what such science had done earlier for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats had to be individually built, there arose a need for handicapping boats as this was before the one-design class boats were built. Hence, a rating rule was decreed, which is found in the International Rule, adopted in 1906 and edited in 1919. In the present day, one of the most rapidly blossoming areas in sailing is that of one-design class boats. All boats in a one-design class are created to single requirements in length, beam, sail area, and other elements (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing between such boats can be done on an even basis with no handicapping necessary. A great example is the standard International America’s Cup Class taken on for participants in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

So long as yachting was an activity largely for the royal and the rich, cost was no problem, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The rise and popularity of smaller yachts occurred in the latter 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 journey around the world (1895–98) led single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray proved the value of small boats. Thereafter in the 20th century, notably after World War II, smaller racing and pleasure yachts became more common, down to the dinghy, a preferred training boat, of 3.7 m. In the late 20th century, yachts of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, during which steam started to replace sail power in commercial craft, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were employed increasingly in leisure boats. Sizeable power yachts were progressed to a high standard, and long-distance travel was a fond activity of the affluent. The earliest power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made way to boats powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller type of propulsion. Like naval and merchant craft, auxiliaries possessing both sail and power were the yacht standard for several years. By the latter half of the 20th century, a lot of yachts were still auxiliaries, but the majority were solely power yachts with gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a boom in the manufacture of bigger 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 manned by a crew of at least 150. The Mayflower, bought by the United States Navy in 1898, was the official yacht of the president of the United States until 1929 and saw active service for World War II.

As larger and more reliable internal-combustion engines were developed, many large yachts were using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed during World War I. In the decade that followed, bigger power-yacht creation flourished, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. In that point the biggest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The manufacture of large power craft lessened from 1932, and the style after that was for smaller, less pricey boats. Following World War II, lots of small naval boats were sold to private owners for conversion to yachts. At the late 20th century, yachting had become a widespread beloved activity enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen personally sailing and keeping their own small pleasure craft. The amount of yachts and yachtsmen has increased steadily, not only in the traditional locations on the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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