Sailing Yachts for Sale – Find Your Dream Yacht

Sailing yacht

Sailing yachts are sport or leisure boats with a fixed keel, equipped with a deck and a cabin (including berths), and usually also a galley and a head. Their hull is built from wood, steel, aluminum, fiberglass or other composite materials. As recently as 50 years ago, the rule was that a boat could only be called a yacht once it was more than 12 meters long. Today, even a 5.50 m cabin cruiser for coastal waters counts as a yacht.

So what exactly is a sailing yacht?

The "yacht" among sailboats is a term that can only be defined in broad outline. Historically, the word yacht, in its various spellings, was applied to the most diverse types of ships and boats. Dutch three-masted "jaghts" from the 17th century, with a transom stern and square-rigged foremast and mainmast, are considered just as much an origin of today's term as the stately sailing ships (Herenjacht) that served high-ranking personalities as travel and pleasure craft. In Denmark, a type of cargo ship was eventually developed under the (English) name "yacht", which was in use in the Baltic and North Sea until the late 19th century.

The most important feature of a sailing yacht

Perhaps the most important feature of a sailing yacht, however, is the keel. Even large and elegant-looking dinghies (made of wood, for example, but with a retractable centerboard to counter leeway) are rarely referred to as a sailing yacht (see also keelboat yacht).
Sailing yachts were naturally built of wood in the past, and from the beginning of the 20th century sometimes of steel as well. In modern series boatbuilding, composite materials such as GRP have become the standard. Sailing yachts with an aluminum hull are mainly built only for expeditions or adventure voyages in regions such as the Arctic or Antarctic. Carbon (which saves weight) is used exclusively for building (hull, deck, superstructure, mast) racing sailing yachts.

The largest sailing yacht in the world

Larger yachts (from around 20 meters in length), including super and mega sailing yachts, are often sailed and maintained by semi-professional or professional crews.
Although registered only as a "motor yacht with sail assistance", the sailing yacht "A", at 142.8 meters in length, is considered the largest sailing yacht in the world. Even if it is probably rather rarely sailed in the true sense.