Is it a boat or a yacht? Handgrenade question

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In 2000 a sailor friend and I were inspecting a Philip Rhodes custom motorsailer I
was considering buying.
After an hour or two of poking around and marveling at the magnitude of effort it
represented to take ownership of such a vessel, he turned to me and said,
"This is a Yacht!"
 
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I always heard:

It's a boat if you're buying

It's a yacht if you're selling
 
BruceK said:
There`s a song for everything, Carly Simon`s "You`re So Vain" even mentions a yacht in the first lines....
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Of course, what else rhymes with apricot?
 
Pete Meisinger said:
I own a "Boat" which I often refer to as a "Trawler" but since so many non boaters have no idea what a trawler is I sometimes have to describe it as "Sort of a yacht".

pete
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Yours is a trawler yacht. An actual trawler would have nets and more seagulls.
 
Since I have a motor boat (dingy) attached to my vessel, I call it a yacht.
 
Delta Riverat said:
Per Wiki a yacht begins at 10 meters (33 feet) which is also the USCG line for "small craft"

So if you have a "forty" you have a yacht.

But due to the "current social conditions", most just call it a boat.

Well unless you really do have a yacht with a helo pad and a helo on deck and a captain and crew, yeah you have a yacht!
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Majority of TF members post while owning "tiny-little" yachts [err, "pleasure boats"]. They each have halos above not helos upon their "boat"! That's a big reason why [most of us] are still alive [enough] to find time to bother to discuss this way too meaningless topic... myself of course included!! :facepalm: :rofl: :dance:

Personally... I was brought up thinking of "boats" [similar to the vast majority of the floating-vessels on TF] as "pleasure cruisers" / "motor or sail boats" / "pleasure boats". IMO, the word "yacht" should be used only on very large "boats"... say, 100' WLL or more.

Happy 2023 - To Everyone! TF Member/Owners of "Floating Vessels" Especially!! :speed boat:
 
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Evolution. Were there always the same ratio of small and larger boats? When I think back the marinas I have used were built for under 30 footers and then over time started to reconfigure to accommodate more larger and less smaller moored boats.

I look at the current boat linage, when the 4550 was built in 1984 it became an affordable boat for the average boater and was labeled a motor yacht. A Yacht because it represented a size not common. Of course there was always 50'+ boats, but they were a smaller percentage.
I remember fairways 30-40 wide with mostly 20-25 foot slips.

My current marina has long term plans to add slips, all of which will be 50 foot. Another marina just finished adding 50 foot slips. Maybe I am only aware because I now have a boat that needs such a slip.
 
We thought we bought a new “2008” Beneteau power boat but after reviewing the check book balance it appears we must have purchased a yacht!
 
Interesting perspectives. I bought a 70ft MY for sure. But moored in Ft La de da, it was more like a dingy. Decided it was too big to maintain with just an old husband/wife crew so sold and now happy as a clam with a 39ft boat (35ft when paying for dockage LOL). It must be like pornography as the judge said," I can't define i, but I know it when I see it".
 
Cold Duck said:
Interesting perspectives. I bought a 70ft MY for sure. But moored in Ft La de da, it was more like a dingy. Decided it was too big to maintain with just an old husband/wife crew so sold and now happy as a clam with a 39ft boat (35ft when paying for dockage LOL). It must be like pornography as the judge said," I can't define i, but I know it when I see it".
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We state we’re a 12 meter, model is a Flyer 12, most do their math and charge us the 36 foot rate, as I don’t want to seem rude by correcting them so I just let it pass.
 
To us, within our busy life... boats are great play toys. Older and busier we get the less we've been traveling to go boating in SF Delta, 100 miles away form home. Covid-19 was an F-up too!! We've looked seriously at a few 45' to 60'ers... penciled out the numbers of all items concerned [costs, care-for efforts, times used, room needed to be comfortable aboard, and that we're not even coastal cruising]; realized mid range 34' to 38'ers work just fine.

After 14 + years we are going to sell our truly beloved Tollycraft 34' tri cabin. Appears funding will soon come through for a new business of mine; from thereafter I'll often be out of town, too busy to play with boats.

In the mean time... I/we will keep eyes open for our "next" boat. Don't know if it will be smaller, same or larger size, configuration/style, equipment, power train and/or speed.

June we cruised our Tolly down from her 14 years in an SF Delta freshwater covered berth; to SF Bay saltwater open berth. Had two in my construction company crew do a full week of cosmetic clean up, shine up, paint up and pretty up... I did some minor but needed item repairs and had a really good mechanic rework the fresh water cooling system on our 7.5 kW Kohler. This 1977 "vintage" Tollycraft "baby" looks and acts like new!

Canal we dock in, out to SF Bay shipping channel, just finished being dredged. Yahoo!! When we came in last June that canal was way too shallow. Soooo, hopefully before boat sale, we [and others in our family] can hardly wait till weather clears early 2023 to cruise around areas of SF Bay! :speed boat: :dance: :thumb:

Sorry - I can't make the photos initially show upright. But! - When I click to enlarge they all straighten up. Hope the same works for you!
 

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Pierre, as you said, you need to get away from those elite snow drifts and grub it up on the docks with the rest of us boaters who wear torn tee-shirts and oil-stained shorts. Soon all thoughts of Y versus B will just seem, well, silly.
 
rgano said:
Pierre, as you said, you need to get away from those elite snow drifts and grub it up on the docks with the rest of us boaters who wear torn tee-shirts and oil-stained shorts. Soon all thoughts of Y versus B will just seem, well, silly.
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This makes me laugh. It brings back memories of my parents doing the loop in my little trawler in their 80's back in 2006.
I often think of you when I am looking at the GB woodie docked next to me.
I am certainly not dressed will on the boat.
 
IMHO the dividing line between a boat and a yacht depends on whether the bartender is single or not and how attractive she is.
 
PierreR said:
I went home today and looked up the definition of a yacht and now I am not sure. My friends may not be entirely wrong but emotionally, it sure don't feel like my conjured up image of yacht.
I seem to be running head long into a number of nautical definition problems lately. What say you?
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It all depends on how pretentious you want to be! Anything in the water is either a boat or a ship (depending entirely on size). Beyond that . . . !
 
I have personally struggled with this issue for many years. Many folks insist my OA 43 is a yacht. Some days I can accept that when she is all spruced up and burgies are flying. She has nice lines and beautiful treak accents and interior. Other days when I am mucking out the bilge or spending money on things I have replaced before, B.O.A.T. "break out another thousand" serms more appropriate. I have developed my own definition: if the vessel has an engineer, skipper, cook and some deck hands I definiteky consider it a yacht. In my case I have all those, but the tasks are all rolled into one, ME! So, most days, I don't think of Darlin as a yacht. I hope this helps.
 
A few years ago we were on Defever 41 entering the Lunenbur harbour in Nova Scotia and called a harbour master on ch16 about the moorings. He replied: "Are you on the white motor yacht with a burgundy top just coming in?"
I was speechless - no one called my good old 1985 Defever a "motor yacht" before and that guy was an old soul who saw all kind of big and small floating things in that harbour.

So, my "newer" Mainship 43 and OP's Hatteras 42 are obviously motor yachts ?

One definition I recently saw (don't know how official it is):
If a pleasure vessel carries a smaller boat on it's deck, it's a yacht.
Which makes sense because a "boat" carrying another "boat" is just silly.
 
in Europe anithing that flots with a motor is a boat, i had trouble with cauling my a trauwler, the discription of a boat is not simple, some name us a speed cruiser, its not a harbour hopper, but the name is wath the caller define.
 
Lots of great (and funny) answers to this often-posted question.. But I had always understood in order to be called a 'yacht', three things had to be present: a 'dedicated' place for cooking (not just a hotplate brought on board), a dedicated place for sleeping (not just a seeping bag and air mattress brought on board), and a dedicated 'bathroom' (not just a porta-potty brought on board). If you meet all three of those conditions, you have a 'yacht' regardless of length or budget.
 
To Yacht or not to Yacht

If you call yourself a yachtie, your boat is a Yacht.
 
I referred to my 46' Cheoy Lee LRC Trawler as a boat.

Marinas looked at it as a yacht.
 
Arc said:
yacht ‘N’ definition
1- boat you can’t afford
2 - how you described your boat after 1:00 AM
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See above.

That word should be struck from everyones lexicon. Its only used by the ignorant and always in bad taste.

Not flaming anyone, and if. Anyone is offended, i apologize in advance
 
I'm at my limit, I've got my first (and last) yacht.

It just fits in a 50x17 berth, has a dedicated galley (fridge, stove/oven, microwave and counter space), a full queen master with full head (sink, shower and throne), a forward V berth that fits two up to 6'-5" with another full head right next.

I like to call it my yacht as I've only had outboards under 21 feet since I started owning boats. I needed a captain to teach me how to navigate and operate it. But that didn't take long as I'm a fast learner - :)

Nah, I'm proud to call her my yacht! First and last. One last time to go for the dream!
 
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