Define "Yacht"
 

An aquiantance of mine today was introducing me to someone while I was
looking at sailing books at barnes and Nobles and he told the other
guy I had a "yacht" and I was insulted. I told him that rednecks who
drive battered old pickup trucks did not own "yachts" and he replied
that any pleasure boat could be considered a yacht. I replied that by
that definition people in Carabelle should consider themselves as
yachtsmen when they carried a six pack in their oysterboats. So,
whats a yacht?

These days I think that the definition is kind of muddy. The
definition I have heard most often is a vessel 30' or longer
that is used for pleasure or racing. I guess that excludes
workboats, tugboats, pilotboats, etc. I'm sure that exceptions
exists. In my experience a yacht is whatever anybody
chooses to call a yacht. The term has never had any really official
meaning.

Doug
s/v (Yacht) Callista

"Parallax" wrote in message
om...
An aquiantance of mine today was introducing me to someone while I was
looking at sailing books at barnes and Nobles and he told the other
guy I had a "yacht" and I was insulted. I told him that rednecks who
drive battered old pickup trucks did not own "yachts" and he replied
that any pleasure boat could be considered a yacht. I replied that by
that definition people in Carabelle should consider themselves as
yachtsmen when they carried a six pack in their oysterboats. So,
whats a yacht?

Doug Dotson wrote:
These days I think that the definition is kind of muddy. The
definition I have heard most often is a vessel 30' or longer
that is used for pleasure or racing. I guess that excludes
workboats, tugboats, pilotboats, etc. I'm sure that exceptions
exists. In my experience a yacht is whatever anybody
chooses to call a yacht. The term has never had any really official
meaning.

Actually, it has...a yacht is any pleasure vessel--to distinguish it
from commercial vessels. It's just not used that way much any
more...today, in the US it typically refers to any pleasure boat over
40' (Chapmans)...in the UK, it's any SAILboat.

My favorite definition is, "how you refer to your boat when trying to
impress anyone you know will never see it." :)

--
Peggie
----------
Peggie Hall
Specializing in marine sanitation since 1987
Author "Get Rid of Boat Odors - A Guide To Marine Sanitation Systems and
Other Sources of Aggravation and Odor"
http://69.20.93.241/store/customer/p...40&cat=&page=1

On Mon, 11 Oct 2004 19:44:08 -0400, "Doug Dotson"
wrote:

These days I think that the definition is kind of muddy. The
definition I have heard most often is a vessel 30' or longer
that is used for pleasure or racing. I guess that excludes
workboats, tugboats, pilotboats, etc. I'm sure that exceptions
exists. In my experience a yacht is whatever anybody
chooses to call a yacht. The term has never had any really official
meaning.

Doug
s/v (Yacht) Callista

"Parallax" wrote in message
. com...
An aquiantance of mine today was introducing me to someone while I was
looking at sailing books at barnes and Nobles and he told the other
guy I had a "yacht" and I was insulted. I told him that rednecks who
drive battered old pickup trucks did not own "yachts" and he replied
that any pleasure boat could be considered a yacht. I replied that by
that definition people in Carabelle should consider themselves as
yachtsmen when they carried a six pack in their oysterboats. So,
whats a yacht?


By the Random House unabridged, 2d edition: "A vessel used for private
cruising, racing, or other noncommercial purpose."

That plainly includes all Sunfish, Optimist, etc. and excludes "World
Yacht" dinner boats, and the like.

The OED (1928) seems to exclude vessels powered by oars.

5-0-5, Star, Soling, Finn are all yachts in the purest sense.




Rodney Myrvaagnes J36 Gjo/a


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