Yacht, meaning of the term and types of boats
The etymology of the term yacht comes from the Dutch word "jacht" which at the time was used to indicate the fast sailing boats used to hunt pirates along the coasts of northern Europe.
The term “yacht” today refers to all pleasure boats, whether sailing or motor, equipped with at least a cabin capable of allowing the crew to sleep on board.
There is no sworn definition that defines the length of this family of boats but, common usage tends to define a yacht as a boat longer than 33 feet, or approximately 10 metres.
As we were saying, a yacht can be equipped with sailing, motor or mixed propulsion. She can have more than one hull and, if she exceeds 25 meters, she also deserves the definition of superyachts. When the yacht is greater than 50 meters it is defined as a megayacht and, an increasingly frequent case, when it exceeds 100 meters it finally becomes a gigayacht.
A yacht normally displays a flag that corresponds to the nation in which the vessel is registered also because, if the vessel does not have one, it could be captured and taken to the nearest port to be subjected to a “flag investigation”. As for international maritime law, the yacht is considered to all intents and purposes the territory of the state of the flag it flies, to whose corresponding sovereignty the crew is subject.
A yacht flying the flag of a state, unless there is well-founded suspicion of illicit activity, can only be stopped for inspection by military vessels of the same nation. When a yacht enters the territorial waters of a nation other than its flag, it is obliged to display the courtesy flag.
This practice is equivalent to a declaration of subjection to the navigation laws of the state in which you are sailing.
Sailing and motor
The first major distinction must be made between sailing yachts and motor yachts. The current diffusion of these two families in the world has definitely shifted towards motor yachts which make up the sailing fleet at around 75% of the total.
Progress and design have generated many different categories of motor yachts, let’s discover them together.
Motor yacht
Flybridge
Seen from the stern, a flybridge yacht is often equipped with a so-called beach area, which is a platform that facilitates access to the sea and on which water toys are placed or simply used for diving. From the beach you can access the main deck via a staircase, or even two symmetrical ones. Sometimes between these two staircases there is a “garage” suitable for containing the engine room, a tender and other on-board equipment.
The main deck is characterized by the presence of the cockpit, inside which there is a large open-space lounge with sofas and kitchen. From the cockpit you often access below deck, also called the lower deck, where the sleeping area is normally located, i.e. the cabins.
On the bow deck there is often a large sundeck and to delimit it there is a “curmudgeon” for lifting the anchor. The bow is often “enclosed” by handrails, which are fundamental grips for safety at sea.
And let’s get to why a yacht is called a flybridge. The flybridge is an upper deck, open 360 degrees and often covered by a hard-top, a roof usually made of fibreglass. On the flybridge there is usually an additional control station which allows you to pilot from a more panoramic position. There is often an additional kitchen on the flybridge, but also other sofas and sun loungers.
Open
Open yachts have no flybridge and normally their main deck is completely open. The command post can frequently be covered by a T-Top. Below deck, depending on the length of the vessel, there are living spaces for the crew which may include dinettes, cabins and services. Open yachts can be walk-around, i.e. with the possibility of walking freely along the entire perimeter of the vessel, or they can have a closed bow and thus expose a raised deck surface.
Coupe
The coupé yacht is a flybridge-free yacht, characterized by a sporty design, which has the main deck open to the stern. Very often she is equipped with a sunroof and is always equipped with gangways that connect the stern to the bow. This is a vessel which, depending on its size, is suitable for medium and long-range cruises.
Lobsters
It is an important type of yacht, which has its origins on the American East Coast where it was used as a lobster fishing boat. It has a romantic, sometimes vintage aesthetic, and features sinuous shapes which, for some, recall the 1950s. Very suitable for navigation and conviviality, thanks also to a large sofa in the cockpit, the lobster is an iconic boat which offers plenty of comfort and space below deck for at least one cabin and a bathroom.
Trawler/Shuttle
The shuttle or trawler is a prestigious cruising yacht characterized by the presence of a displacement or, an increasingly frequent case in modern yachts, semi-planing hull. Its design anciently originates from deep-sea fishing boats, famous for their seaworthiness.
The trawler is essentially a yacht intended for owners who wish to spend a lot of time on board, which is why the internal volumes are brought to their maximum and the upper deck is always present. The very famous Minorcan boats also belong to the trawler family, boats that draw inspiration from the llaüts of the island of Menorca.
Multihull
The multihull is increasingly popular among motor yachts due to its intrinsic characteristics of stability and capacity. In the vast majority of cases it is a catamaran intended for long stays at sea.
Sailing yacht
Sailing yachts are boats where propulsion should mainly be entrusted to the energy transmitted by the wind. In the past the engines of sailing yachts were of low power, mainly used to enter and exit ports but today, for obvious reasons of practicality and ease of use, they are present with sufficient power to make the sailing yacht sail at a speed cruising speed at least equal to its theoretical hull speed. This means that sailing boats can be used efficiently even in the total absence of wind.
The sailing yacht can be rigged in many different ways, these are the most widespread in the modern era:
Sloop: it is the most widespread rig in modern boats, it is characterized by the presence of a single mast where a mainsail and a jib or a genoa are rigged. The sloop rig has spread over the years because it is the simplest to manage with a small crew and it is also the one that offers the best ratio between ease of use and sailing performance.
Cutter: Widely used for long voyages, it is characterized by the presence of a mainsail and two rigged jibs on a single mast. Normally the two jibs are a genoa and a staysail which are used individually, depending on the weather conditions.
Ketch: it is the most used rig in two-masted sailing yachts and includes a mainmast, where a mainsail and a genoa are rigged, and a mizzen mast, placed forward of the rudder shaft, where a mainsail only. The splitting of the sails makes this type of vessel suitable for navigation in bad weather.
Yawl: it is exactly like the ketch but has the mizzen mast positioned aft of the rudder shaft.
Sailing yachts can be monohulls or multihulls, or catamarans or trimarans but in any case they can be divided into these categories of use:
Cruise
It is the most popular sailing yacht and is obviously devoted to comfort and long stays at sea.
Easy to sail and equipped with large spaces above and below deck, these yachts are normally characterized by a length/beam ratio unbalanced in favor of the latter, a limited sail surface and more powerful than average engines.
The interiors of these boats are complete and refined and often see each cabin having its own private bathroom.
The deck plan and the equipment intended for sailing are simplified, often electrified and reduced to a minimum.
Regatta Cruise
They are the yachts of owners who really like sailing and/or taking part in club regattas.
In these boats, although there are still luxurious and complete interiors, there are also all the equipment necessary for fine adjustments of the sails and the sail surface is generous.
This is a category where we begin to look carefully at both the overall weight of the boat and the shape of the hull.
the hull lines are in fact designed to favor performance and, inevitably, this leads to interiors that are slightly smaller in size than those of pure cruising sailing yachts of the same length.
Cruise regatta
They are boats that have complete but very, very light furnishings. In this segment the weight becomes very important as well as the predisposition to have an excellent rating for regattas.
The owner who purchases this type of boat has already done club racing and now wants to try his hand at the higher level. The hulls are light and can sometimes be made of carbon, all the sail rules are “fine” or aimed at achieving maximum performance.
The deck plan is decidedly designed for crew racing and the sail surface displacement ratio is unbalanced in favor of the first factor, this means that these yachts are more difficult to sail with a small crew but, vice versa, capable of expressing completely similar to those of pure racing boats.
Regatta
Pure racing yachts are sailing yachts built exclusively for racing. Free from any commercial constraints, they are created according to the type of regattas you want to tackle and, above all, the rating you want to obtain. The interiors of these boats are reduced to a minimum, often made with tubular or very light carbon. They are boats capable of planing and upwind at very small angles to the wind but are almost never used in the recreational sector.
