As the Dutch came to dominance in sea power during the 17th century, the early yacht became a pleasure craft used first by royalty and secondly by the burghers for 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 reaffirmation to the English royalty in 1660, the city of Amsterdam sent 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), made more yachts and in 1662 raced two of them from the Thames, from Greenwich, to Gravesend, and returning, on a £100 wager. Yachting became fashionable among the affluent and nobility, but after that time the trend did not last.

The first yacht group in the British Isles, the Water Club, was formed at about 1720 at Cork, Ire., as a cruising and unofficial coast guard association, and held large naval panoply and formality. The closest thing to racing boats was the “chase,” in which the “fleet” pursued a fictional enemy. The club went on, for the large part as a social club, until 1765, and in 1828, after joining with other groups, it became the Cork Yacht Club (later the Royal Cork Yacht Club).

Yacht racing was seen in some stipulated fashion on the Thames about the mid-18th century. The duke of Cumberland instigated 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 following a racing dispute, to become the Royal Thames Yacht Club in 1830. The first English yacht association 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 continued site of British racing. The society at Cowes became the Royal Yachting Club, again at the accession of George IV. Every member was required to possess boats of at least 20 tons (20,321 kg). Sailing matches for great bets were held, and the club life was superlative. Eventually Royal Yachting Club boats increased in size to more than 350 tons.

In North America, yachting began with the Dutch in New York in the 17th century and persisted when the English gained control. Sailing was largely for leisure and reached its high point in George Crowinshield’s Cleopatra’s Barge (1815), which cruised 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 formed in 1839. In 1844, John C. Stevens founded the New York Yacht Club aboard his schooner Gimcrack.

Kinds of sailboats
The Early sailing yachts took the design of such naval craft as brigantines, schooners, and cutters from the 17th century through to the latter half of the 19th century. The design of large yachts was first largely affected by the victory of America, which was drawn by George Steers for a group started by John C. Stevens, and it was the boat for which the America’s Cup (q.v.) had its namesake after its win at Cowes in 1851. The first yachts were not designed and manufactured in the modern sense, with only a model used. Not until the latter half of the 19th century did what was known as naval architecture come about. Not until the 1920s did the use of the science of aerodynamics do for the structure of sails and rigging what such science had earlier done for hulls.

Because almost all sailboats were individually built, there was a need for handicapping boats previous to the one-design class boats were made. Thus, a rating rule came into being, which ended up in the International Rule, taken on 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 created to the same specifications in length, beam, sail area, and other aspects (for an example of a two-person sailboat, see illustration). Racing these boats can be held on an even basis with no handicapping necessary. A prime example is the generic International America’s Cup Class adopted for racers in the 1992 America’s Cup race.

As long as yachting belonged largely for the royal and the wealthy, money was no issue, and the size of boats developed, in both length and weight. The ascendancy and preference 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) captained single-handedly by the naturalized American captain Joshua Slocum in the 11.3-metre Spray made plain the value of small boats. Following this in the 20th century, for the larger part 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, boats of less than 3 m were setting sail single-handedly across the Atlantic Ocean.

Kinds of power yachts
Following the decade 1840–50, at which point steam started to emulate sail power in commercial vessels, the steam engine, and later the internal-combustion engine, were favoured increasingly in personal yachts. Large power yachts were furthered to a high degree, and long-distance travel turned into a fond occupation of the affluent. The first power yachts were paddle-wheel boats; these then made way to yachts powered by the completely submerged screw or propeller kind of propulsion. As in the case of naval and merchant yachts, auxiliaries carrying both sail and power were the yacht standard for many years. By the later half of the 20th century, many yachts were still auxiliaries, but the large part were exclusively power yachts that had gasoline or diesel engines.

From the last decade of the 19th century there was a push in the design of large steam yachts. In particular within these was the Mayflower (1897) of 2,690 tons, that had triple-expansion engines, twin screws, and a compartmented iron hull, and was operated 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 was used in active service during World War II.

As larger and more dependable internal-combustion engines were created, many big yachts began using them for power. The creation of the diesel engine, with heavy oil for fuel, progressed for World War I. During the decade following that, large power-yacht creation grew, climaxing in the Orion (1930) at 3,097 tons. From that period the biggest auxiliary yacht manufactured was the four-masted, steel, barque-rigged Sea Cloud (1931) of 2,323 tons.

The construction of bigger power boats lessened from 1932, and the trend thereafter was in preference of smaller, less expensive boats. After World War II, a lot of small naval vessels were bought by private owners for conversion to yachts. In the late 20th century, yachting has become a widespread beloved sport enjoyed by thousands of yachtsmen individually sailing and upkeeping their own small recreational yachts. The popularity of boats and yachtsmen is increasing steadily, not only in the traditional locations along the sea but also on inland waterways and lakes.

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