A yacht is a boat specifically built for the conveyance of people for pleasure in luxury. Over the years, pleasure boats have gotten larger and larger, and in the great marketing scheme of things more luxurious. Back in the 1930's & 40's any boat built for pleasure over 34' long was considered a yacht. Then in the 1950's & 60's it was boats over 45 feet long, in the 70's, 80' and 90's you did not get into a yacht unless it was over 75 feet long. Today, the modern classification of yachts is as follows: Personal pleasure yachts are 75 to 100 feet, mega yachts are 100 to 200 feet and super yachts are over 200 feet. Pleasure boats are measured by length, whereas ships are measured by gross tonnage.
And yes, even by today's standards, 200 feet is not a large private yacht. It is not unusual to see yachts ranging from 250 to over 450 feet. The M/Y Eclipse above is an example.
People that own yachts don't go boating....they go yachting. I compare those terms with the more common eating out and dining. Most of us eat out once a week, we rarely dine out and if we do we usually mean a 4 or 5 star restaurant. "We'll be dining out this evening". Who you kidding, we are eating out at Denny's.
Yachting is really for the more affluent and wealthy familes of this world. Actually 95% of the owners of mega & super yachts only board their boats once or twice a year for a week or so. Those boats are specifically purchased as a charter vessel....meaning that they are rented out, some for a mere 200-300K per week including crew.
See, there again another word for the rich....we rent a boat when we go away on a vacation, maybe for a day or a half-day of fishing or just playing around.
The rich charter a yacht for a week or two.
That is another sign of a yacht...a crew. Usually a crew consists of a paid professional captain and at least one stewedess, who also acts as the chef. Paul Allen, the co-founder of Microsoft, owns 4 or 5 yachts. On his 416' M/Y Octopus, (pictured above) he has a permanent crew of 60 and a annual maintenance expense including salaries, of $20 million. Now...Thats a yacht, with both fore and aft choppers, 8 tenders (boats) and a slew of other toys. BTW, in 2007, Octopus ranked as the 3rd largest yacht in the world, in 2009 it is ranked as number 11. It doesn't take long to get outdone in the world of the Rich & Famous.
Our 27 year old boat, the Lucky Find III is a 38' trawler built back in 1984, and has a NADA book value equal to that of the price of a used two or three year old Cadillac....but remember, it's a boat, not a yacht.
