Do you have a "yacht "or a "sailing boat"?

[C08]

When talking about my boat I tend to feel yacht sounds uppity/gives a wrong impression of an old sailing boat so I use the term "old sailing boat". Am alone in feeling that the term yacht gives the wrong impression of a small sailing boat to the general public?

 

[laika]

You are not alone. I suspect many of us feel the same

 

[ash2020]

When talking about my boat I tend to feel yacht sounds uppity/gives a wrong impression of an old sailing boat so I use the term "old sailing boat". Am alone in feeling that the term yacht gives the wrong impression of a small sailing boat to the general public?

I agree, I never call it a yacht. Even though it cost far less than most peoples' cars and takes hours of hard work and has never been near the Mediterranean. I just get the impression that it would give the idea that you're minted.

 

[Poignard]

I don't much care what other people think.

A yacht is what I own, so that is what I call it.

 

[Stingo]

Ha! Neither. I referred to my floatie thing as my catamaran

 

[Wansworth]

I don't much care what other people think.

A yacht is what I own, so that is what I call it.

From the Dutch…..boat for pleasure ….

 

[ctva]

Ours is just ‘the boat’ as the yacht sounds a bit pretentious. I know it’s just perceptions but I prefer boat.

Need a poll for this question.

 

[webcraft]

Ha! Neither. I referred to my floatie thing as my catamaran

Aye, right

- W

 

[Poignard]

Is it a peculiarly British thing, this fear of being thought pretentious?

I mean, does it really matter what people think about trivial things when there are far more important things that ought to be being thought about; and talked about?

 

[Trident]

I use boat to the public and I think, yacht exclusively for VHF before the name of the vessel - and the vessel is a 50 foot catamaran so might be entitled to be a bit uppity (all be it an older one that I bought cheap and did up) but I think yacht just sounds like one is trying to hard ("It was raining so I took the Porsche to the shops" , when car would do fine in that context)

 

[Wansworth]

Is it a peculiarly British thing, this fear of being thought pretentious?

I mean, does it really matter what people think about trivial things when there are far more important things that ought to be being thought about; and talked about?

Even if it’s a mirror dinghy the Daily Mail will mark you down as a luxuary yacht owner…

 

[Trident]

Is it a peculiarly British thing, this fear of being thought pretentious?

I mean, does it really matter what people think about trivial things when there are far more important things that ought to be being thought about; and talked about?

I think its a British thing go with understatement - one wouldn't want to emulate those blow-hard colonials now would we?

 

[veshengro]

As a youngster engaged in hunting, to any likely prey it was a yacht. Now from a Wrinkly, totally over the hill, it's a Boat.

 

[RunAgroundHard]

Yacht and boat are used, never thought about the word yacht being considered pretentious. Then again, some folks are queer, and some British citizens have a problem with image, especially class. That's their issue, not mine.

 

[Refueler]

In actual terms - it depends on the century you are talking about - as each term / class of waterborne has a name .. and Yacht is a term of a specific class ...

Today of course it has lost its meaning ...

 

[Stingo]

Aye, right

- W

Isn't your inflatable known as bubble trouble?

 

[KevinV]

At 22' I only ever use yacht in jest - it's boat the rest of the time.

Funnily enough I find a lot of the non-boating public associate yacht with a gin-palace - as in the super yachts that make the news.

 

[john_morris_uk]

It’s our boat. We rarely if ever refer to it as a yacht.

 

[Stingo]

I'm surprised that no one has mentioned their Gin Palace.

 

[MADRIGAL]

At 22' I only ever use yacht in jest - it's boat the rest of the time.

Funnily enough I find a lot of the non-boating public associate yacht with a gin-palace - as in the super yachts that make the news.

Agreed. And at sixteen feet, calling Madrigal a yacht would definitely be a jest, though certainly meeting the definition of "a vessel used for pleasure". We generally use "sailing dinghy", to differentiate her from the rubber tenders that are now often called dinghies.