When does a boat...

[gunnarsilins]

....become a yacht?

I´ll always thought a boat was something with oars and/or a small outboard.

But many of you refer to your nice, glossy prides as boats. Still many of you are members of different 'yachtclubs' - with your 'boats'....reading Yachting Monthly - and Practical Boat Owner.....

'A silly question from a confused swede'

 

[sailbadthesinner]

I think a yacht is something that can convey 2 people and stay over night in relative comfort with headroom to cook and sit. you can walk around without totally putting it on its side.

If it F***s Flies or Floats. Rent it. For god's sake don't marry it.

 

[jamesjermain]

I seem to have droned on a bit here

The English language, being rich and varied (or a sloppy mongrel or just plain mad, depending on your view point), has many word with similar, or overlapping meanings.Thus it is with boat, yacht, sailing cruiser etc.

A boat is just about anything that floats - the Royal Navy calls its aircraft carriers boats and the Queen Elizabeth II liner could loosely be called aboat.

A sailing cruiser is a boat in which one or more people can spent time afloat, even live on permanently, and travel some distance, along the coast or across oceans.

A yacht is, today, a smart word for a sailing cruiser and certain very large motor boats. Some would say it's a class thing. The dictionary says a yacht is a 'private craft whether sail or motor used for cruising, voyaging and racing but not for commercial, fishing or naval purposes'. The one I have adds: 'there is an implication that the boat is of a certain minimum size', but no one has ever been precise about what size.

I woud say it is simply traditional terminology. The English word yacht comes from the old Dutch 'jagen schip' or chase ship, via jahtschip and jaghte.

When 'yachting' first appeared in Britain in the 17th century, the term referred to the private ships owned by weathly aristocrats which were used as private warships. The owners got together to conduct imitation navy manoeuvres (hence the Royal Yacht SQUADRON, originally the Duke of Cumberland's Fleet) from which the first yacht clubs developed.


JJ

 

[Johnjo]

Call mine the boat, Think it sounds less pretentious than yacht,
boat can mean just about anything that floats,plus not many people want
to go out in the boat, but lots would like free trips on the yacht!
and that would never do! bit mean Iknow,guess it comes with age.
mike

 

[Robin2]

On a warm summer evening when you have a gin and tonic in your hand.

 

[pkb]

Re: I seem to have droned on a bit here

I've never heard of carriers being called boats but I'm pretty sure the RN refers to submarines as boats.

Peter

 

[Col]

Re: I seem to have droned on a bit here

I think I read somewhere, that a boat becomes a ship, when it has lifeboats.
Correct???

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/colspics> Cols Picture Album</A>

 

[TheBoatman]

Re: I seem to have droned on a bit here

I was always told that the difference between a boat and a ship was that a ship has at least one continuous deck running the entire length whereas a boat doesn't.

 

[tcm]

Yacht : a term of abuse! good form

1. You never ever refer to your own boat as a "yacht". Even if it's 100m long, it is "my boat" or "our boat".

2. You never ever refer to a someone else boat as a Yacht - to do so implies that they are pretentious. "You have a fabulous boat there" would be the safest way to address he owner of a 30 metre boat, regardless of whether it has a mast and sails, is a "classic", or is purely a motor boat.

3. otherwise, very very big boats with passengers or with guns are ships, and boats with masts can be sailing boats, but...

4. Even great big sailing boats , even those called "S/Y Whatever" should be refrred to by the correct type - "that sloop", "that ketch" and so on.

hope this helps!

 

[NigeCh]

S/V Birgitta --- Period (and even then in the diminuitive)

 

[NigeCh]

Boat to Yacht >> S/V ...

Imagine a call on channel 16: How would you speak to describe your boat ??? ... Would anybody in their right mind say openly "Yot Pussy Flussy Puss" ... or whatever on the open airwaves ?

Well no and a sort of qualified yes ... all you have to do is to keep channel 16 open and in and around the kindergarten solent. It's a laugh a second. How the Coastguard put up with all the airwave nonsense is beyond me: " ... There's an aircraft carrier crossing my bow and it's stolen my wind .... I'm racing. Tanker Fawley Pride, get out of my way ...Etc."

Viva Lagavulin, Loch Nevis, Little Loch Broom, + ; et al (for the Munro'ists)

 

[pugwash]

Vessel covers it

In all contexts, "vessel" is safe, exact and accurate, be it the Ark Royal or the Tinkerbelle. To my mind, a "yacht" is a vessel you sail for fun. A "boat" has a workmanlike meaning, as in fishing boat, lifeboat, powerboat or even sailing boat (but spare me the American sailboat). When I say I'm going out in my boat today, it's really a shortened form of "sailing boat."

 

[Guest]

Re: SAIL-BOAT

Dear Lord,

Preserve and Deliver us all from the term 'SAILBOAT'.

 

[trev]

Re: I seem to have droned on a bit here

Thats quite correct PKB

Trev

 

[david_e]

..call it what you will

In the pub you talk to your mates about your boat

At the golf club it becomes a yacht

Tell your work colleagues you are off to the boat

Invite your customers onto your yacht

..get the drift)