At up to 525 feet (160 meters) in length, yachts today are a symbol of wealth and social success. Billionaires own one or several, and many luxury models are available on the market. What is a yacht?

Yacht Description

A sailboat or powerboat for recreation. Most yachts are privately owned and large enough to hold a cabin, but even small, cabinless dinghies are sometimes called yachts. The Dutch word "jacht," meaning hunt, originally applied to light sailing boats used to chase pirates. Such boats eventually became increasingly popular as leisure vessels.

Yachts

The term was later associated with steamboats and motorboats used for leisure purposes. During the Gilded Age, yachts became a status symbol among wealthy Americans. Yacht clubs, exclusive associations of sailors, also became popular around this time and helped link yachting with wealth in the popular imagination.

Common Types of Yachts

A yacht is first defined as either a sailing yacht, a motor yacht or a gulet yacht, and then as a sport yacht or a luxury yacht.

  • Sailing yacht: A yacht that is propelled mainly by wind and sails.
  • Motor yacht: A yacht that is propelled by one or more engines.
  • Gulet yacht: A hybrid yacht with sails and engines.
  • Cruiser: A standard yacht, otherwise uncategorized, for cruising and entertaining.
  • Luxury yacht: A yacht with high-quality finishes and features as well as state-of-the-art performance technology.
  • Sport yacht: A yacht geared toward fishing, water sports or cruising, with a sleeker design and a more powerful engine for faster cruising speeds.

What Does a Yacht Offer?

Yachts

The yachting craze faded during and after the Great Depression, but when conspicuous consumption came back into fashion in the 1980s and 1990s, American financiers competed over who could acquire the biggest motor-powered yacht. These large, expensive privately owned vessels, sometimes called megayachts or superyachts, are regularly longer than 200 feet and can cost tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars.

Very large yachts offer ample space for wine cellars, private screening rooms and basketball courts, but they also have drawbacks. Some of them are too big to get into smaller harbors and therefore have to dock at commercial marinas alongside oil tankers and other non-pleasure boats. Although part of a yacht's appeal comes from the privacy it gives its owner, the International Maritime Organization requires its location to be publicly transmitted at all times via an Automatic Identification System transponder.

How Much Does Yacht Maintenance Cost?

Maintenance of yachts of all sizes typically costs about 10 percent of their price per year. Large luxury yachts often require a full-time staff, including a captain, engineers, stewards and stewardesses, chefs and deckhands. Many yacht owners charter out their boats when they aren't using them in order to recoup part of the maintenance costs.