Does "yacht" sound pretentious?

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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Might have been true in the 70's
But I am sorry to tell you but if you look around you!!!!!
 
Daydream believer said:
Might have been true in the 70's
But I am sorry to tell you but if you look around you!!!!!
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I find Khamsin is a big boat when approaching a tight mooring space, when paying for surveys, antifoul, berth fees and the like, but she's definitely a tiddler when out in a F7 SW'ly off Ardnamurchan Point!

I still think of her as my little darling
 
Get over it - and never mind the gob-stupid press, inland pub regulars, and the other parents at your child's school.

Every last sailing-boat that isn't a dinghy, a racing keelboat, a day-sailer or a square-rigged ship is commonly understood by all water-users as a...

Y A C H T

So why be bashful or an inverted snob when talking to non-sailors?

I have a 27ft yacht.
My mate Paul has a 32ft yacht.
Kate has a 36ft yacht.
Kevin and Denise have a 42ft yacht.
Dennis has a 23ft yacht.
Ron has a motorboat.
Andy has a kayak.
Phillip has a speedboat.
Edward has a jetski.
Susan has a dinghy.
Harry has a surfboard.
Geoff has rowing skiff.


You can qualify it by saying its a "small 32-year old fibreglass" yacht, or a "classic wooden" yacht or a "new production" yacht in which you have a timeshare ownership, but its still a....
 
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we have a 36ft yacht, a sailboat, and lived for a year on a trawler motoryacht. Our yacht name was put on the hull by the original owner as The S/V Roxanne. If calling a bridge operator on the ICW we say the 'sailing vessel Roxanne', which gets the bridge lifted, with the trawler we said 'Motor Vessel or motor yacht Down Time' but they would wait to see if the bridge needed to be lifted and would occasionally argue whilst with 'sailing vessel' they assume a mast and open or lift the bridge with no argument. Seemples, even for a dumb Septic bridge tender.

When I raced dinghies they were called sailing dinghies or ' Merlin' or 'OK" or Enterprise or whatever, the sailboard was called 'that bloody thing', the tender was called 'the dink', now is called 'the RIB'.
 
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Babylon said:
Get over it - and never mind the gob-stupid press, inland pub regulars, and the other parents at your child's school.

Every last sailing-boat that isn't a dinghy, a racing keelboat, a day-sailer or a square-rigged ship is commonly understood by all water-users as a...

Y A C H T

So why be bashful or an inverted snob when talking to non-sailors?

I have a 27ft yacht.
My mate Paul has a 32ft yacht.
Kate has a 36ft yacht.
Kevin and Denise have a 42ft yacht.
Dennis has a 23ft yacht.
Ron has a motorboat.
Andy has a kayak.
Phillip has a speedboat.
Edward has a jetski.
Susan has a dinghy.
Harry has a surfboard.
Geoff has rowing skiff.


You can qualify it by saying its a "small 32-year old fibreglass" yacht, or a "classic wooden" yacht or a "new production" yacht in which you have a timeshare ownership, but its still a....
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That's sensible.
Qualification can be as down or up beat as the company decrees. Talking to my ex I shall refer to Khamsin as my recently-built 9metre four-berth auxiliary YACHT (she is hopeless with metric lengths.....). When discussing with the Benefits Agency I shall describe it as an old wee yacht-type thing only just afloat.
 
I've just referred to the style guides for all the major UK newspapers and the correct term for a private watercraft exceeding the length of a domestic bath and not propelled exclusively by oars is "luxuryyacht"
 
laika said:
I've just referred to the style guides for all the major UK newspapers and the correct term for a private watercraft exceeding the length of a domestic bath and not propelled exclusively by oars is "luxuryyacht"
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Hmmm. There are times when there is precious little luxury in/on Khamsin. But there again we all believe what we read in the newspapers, don't we? !!
 
Lakesailor said:
Talk about fear of being pretentious!

If you don't want to call it a yacht, but won't call it a sailboat (because that's an American expression) that is the definition of pretentious.
If a motorboat is so-called because of that is it's motive power then a sailing yacht is a sailboat. Unless you are pretentious, of course.
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Nope. I object strongly to coca colonisation. To youngsters using the word "gotten" for example. To fellow bikers talking about "fenders" and "tires". To car drivers talking about "hoods" and meaning the bonnet. If you wish to ape American useage thats your choice, but its not mine.

The problem with using the word "yacht" is not that it's pretentious ( it isn't) , but that in the minds of non boat owners it has connotations of wealth. It colours ( not colors) attitudes. And the open display of wealth is both very American and vulgar. So I have a "small boat", which is a pretty accurate description anyway.
 
You still don't explain why it's OK to call a motor boat a motor is it's motive power is a motor but not OK to call a boat that uses sails, a sailboat.
Except for some strange perception that because the Americans use the term it must be wrong.
 
It appears my favourite sailing forum is "Yachting Monthly scuttlebutt". Does it sound pretentious?

My first sailboat built by C&C yachts. 24ft and almost 40 years old.
Call it what you want.
 
Lakesailor said:
You still don't explain why it's OK to call a motor boat a motor is it's motive power is a motor but not OK to call a boat that uses sails, a sailboat.
Except for some strange perception that because the Americans use the term it must be wrong.
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Talking about motive power is a red herring - as I said above, there's no objection to "sailing boat".

The point is simple - "sailboat" is a word in US English, in my opinion it is not a word in British English.

Obviously English is an infamously flexible and acquisitive language, so if you happen to think that "sailboat" has crossed the pond then that's fine. I'm not telling you not to use it; I don't know why you're so keen to tell me that I should.

Pete
 
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