Do you own a yacht?

I thought it was related to OAL.... something like boats over 30 something feet.

"
A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a yacht, as opposed to a boat, such a pleasure vessel is likely to be at least 33 feet (10 m) in length and may have been judged to have good aesthetic qualities.

The Commercial Yacht Code classifies yachts 79 ft (24 m) and over as large. Such yachts typically require a hired crew and have higher construction standards. Further classifications for large yachts are: commercial—carrying no more than 12 passengers, private—solely for the pleasure of the owner and guests, or by flag, the country under which it is registered. A superyacht (sometimes megayacht) generally refers to any yacht (sail or power) longer than 131 ft (40 m).

Racing yachts are designed to emphasize performance over comfort. Charter yachts are run as a business for profit. As of 2020 there were more than 15,000 yachts of sufficient size to require a professional crew."

Theres a cultural difference in the word Yacht depending on what country you are from.
I know Americans will hit the roof but their common usage of the word Yacht is not the world wide use of it.

In the US it appears to ME (I'm not American) the word Yacht is used for a larger motor boat or a very large sailing boat (over the 24 meter LOA rule). Over 90 foot for Superyacht but does anyone actually say "I own a SuperYacht"?
The USA seems to call a sailing boat under 24m a "sailing boat". A motor boat appears more often called by its type: Trawler, center-consol, Bass Boat etc

In Australia any sailing boat above a dinghy is referred to as a Yacht. We'd more commonly say "Im going sailing on my yacht" that Im going sailing on my sail-boat or sailing boat.
In Australia if you own a motor boat thats 200 feet long you own a motor boat... but the media will call a 10 foot tender what they want "SuperYacht owner Arrested on his 10 foot SUPERGIGAYacht!!!!!!!".

I sail a yacht. But in American company I say Im sailing a sail-boat.

Mark

So, as most of you do, in general conversation I call my boat a boat. But in any official radio conversation, and particularly with the Coast Guard or DNR, I will say "This is the sailing Yacht Synergy...." when I make the first hail.

To me there is nothing pretentious about using the term yacht in its proper sense. But what has happened among people who don't know better, particularly in the US is that length gets mixed into the definition.

I can't speak to how other countries use the term. The British and South Africans seem to use the term as Americans historically used the term, to distinguish between a pleasure craft (i.e. a yacht) vs a commercial vessel. If you read American and British sailing fiction and non-fiction from the 1970's and before that time, length in no way figured into whether a boat was a yacht. Length only comes into play in the term boat vs ship. It also comes into play over the demarcation in the safety requirements for vessels. There has always been a sense that a yacht is a 'finer vessel' such that in the day it was not unusual to see the term "Yacht Finish" meant to distinguish between "Workboat Finish" or "Utilitarian" levels of finish.

Obviously, there has been some change in thinking on this in the US. Growing up, US Sailing was USYRU, which was the United States Yacht Racing Association which covered yachts of all sizes including Opti's. When the name change was debated in the late 1980's, there was a sense that the general public viewed the term 'Yacht' as connoting exclusivity. In an effort to move sailing away from a perception of an 'upper-class' activity, US Sailing was chosen a more egalitarian name was chosen.

Obviously, the internet plays a major role in adding to the misapplication of many sailing terms. If you do a Google search or go on Wikipedia, it is amazing how much they get wrong as compared to the firmly clear definitions within the sailing community that existed previously,

Jeff

The term is not in the least pretentious to an Englishmen’s ears. A yacht is any sailing vessel, and those who sail them are yachtsmen. It is a formal definition in England, and all sailing boats are yachts, but no self-respecting yacht owner, however large, goes round calling themselves “captain,” or wearing a brass hat with the rank emblazoned on it, as I have seen here. Now that’s pretentious!

When I came to America from the old country, I had never even heard the term “sailboat,” (although I do agree it is a more descriptive term then yacht, as it clearly differentiates from a “stink pot,” which by the way is also a yacht). Having now been here longer than some members on this forum have been alive, I describe my schooner to Americans as a sailboat, because the correct term “brigantine” falls on totally deaf ears, even to sailboaters.

However, I was asked by the editor of Practical Boat Owner in the UK, to refer to it as a yacht in my articles.

It’s just another of those, “Divided by a common language” things.