Does "yacht" sound pretentious?

Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson

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I have one of these boaty-floaty things. I think describing it as a yacht sounds pretentious and prefer to call it a boat/sailing boat.
Khamsin is 9m long, has a 10m mast, weighs 3.5t and so is definitely not a tiddler, but a yacht in my mind is something very large and probably a powered craft.

When does a boat become a yacht; be it sail or power? Anyone else feel a tad uncomfortable when referring to their craft as a yacht?
 
We tend to think of a 'yacht' as being a saily thing rather than a mobo but once mobos get BIG they call then 'superyachts'. I usually just say that we have a boat and let the listener ask for clarification or I say that we like sailing.
 
If I'm telling someone non-boaty what we do I refer to our 'small' yacht just in case they get other ideas.
Wouldn't be necessary in France. It's down to the UK press and the silly stuff they write about 'yachting'.
 
Robert Wilson said:
I have one of these boaty-floaty things. I think describing it as a yacht sounds pretentious and prefer to call it a boat/sailing boat.
Khamsin is 9m long, has a 10m mast, weighs 3.5t and so is definitely not a tiddler, but a yacht in my mind is something very large and probably a powered craft.

When does a boat become a yacht; be it sail or power? Anyone else feel a tad uncomfortable when referring to their craft as a yacht?
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No
 
MoodySabre said:
We tend to think of a 'yacht' as being a saily thing rather than a mobo but once mobos get BIG they call then 'superyachts'. ..
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Yup. A 30' sailing boat is a yacht. A 30' mobo is a mobo. Mobos only get to be yachts when they're huge, and come with staff.
 
I thought that the very definition of a yacht was a vessel owned purely for pleasure purposes, be it mobo or saily boat.
 
That depends on the listener. There is not much point in using a word by it's strict definition if that has been altered in perception in the natural evolution of language.


Bit like insisting that you use "gay" to mean jolly people. Nobody else will grasp your meaning.

I rather like the American term "sailboat". That is what it is, as opposed to a "motorboat".
 
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Robert Wilson said:
Anyone else feel a tad uncomfortable when referring to their craft as a yacht?
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Never used to - "yacht" simply meant "sailing boat with a cabin". But the bloody journalists have perverted the language so it now has connotations of undeserved opulence. And, canvassing non-boaty people in the pub on this very question the other month, most now assumed that a "yacht" is a motorboat, which is particularly annoying.

These days I generally tell people I have a share in a boat - and if they're non-boaty people I then show them a picture on my phone, which is a lot easier than trying to explain.

Pete
 
It is quite tricky without confusion. I call our boat a boat but then I feel I have to clarify that it has sails and a cabin with 'beds'. I always think of a yacht as being a sailing boat not a mobo and it annoys me that Google doesn't agree. If someone with a mobo called it a yacht I would feel they were being a tad pretentious. Language is there to get across meaning and the meaning of yacht has changed IMO.
 
I thought 'yacht' was applied to both sailing and motor vessels that are used for pleasure. I wonder if Wiki is accurate on this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht

I sail a yacht, I have never had any issues with pretension using the term, I do use 'boat' too, but mostly 'yacht'.
 
BlowingOldBoots said:
I wonder if Wiki is accurate on this; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht
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No, it isn't :)

Wikipedia generally struggles when the usage of a word varies across place and time. That "yacht" page is a bit of a mess, reflecting what various different people mean by the term without making the differences clear.

Obviously some people use "yacht" to mean motorboats; I think this might be an American thing. To me, the basic term always means a sailing vessel, though "motor-yacht" is perfectly acceptable. "Superyacht" could be either, with a bias towards power - but that's because it's fundamentally a journalist's word rather than a sailor's. Otherwise, a motor boat is a "motorboat", a "motor cruiser", a "powerboat" (which implies small and very fast), or to my parents a "stinkpot" or "gin palace" (which seems rather unfair).

Pete
 
Cardo said:
And as soon as you go abroad, you become the "Captain".
I still can't get used to being referred to as Captain. Skipper is far more informal, I can deal with that, but Captain? Bit pretentious, aint it?
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Totally, if someone called me 'captain', at the helm of my 24-footer, I would assume they were being sarcastic!
 
I think that the word 'Yacht' conjures up people with money. When I told some of my workmates that I bought a yacht, the reaction from one of the office girls was that I was being paid too much :D Even in my local, some of the regulars said I must be loaded. I felt embarrassed so don't mention it any more.
 
I read in these fora once that a yacht is a sailing vessel at least 24ft LOA. I refer to mine as a boat and it's 28ft LOA - calling it a Yacht would be rather pretentious imho...
 
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