Editing Yacht (section)

==History==
The history of pleasure boats begins with rowed craft in Pharaonic Egyptian times, and other vessels in the waters of Myanmar, India, [[Mindanao]] and Japan. Anglo-Saxon royal ''pleg-scips'' (play ships) of the 8th-century featured ornamented bows and sterns and had the capability of cooking on board.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Folkard|first=Henry Coleman|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f9R-Qdgb_P0C&q=Sailing+yacht|title=The Sailing Boat: A Treatise on Sailing Boats and Small Yachts, Their Varieties of Type, Sails, Rig, Etc|date=1906|publisher=Chapman and Hall|location=London|language=en}}</ref>

===Sail===
[[File:America's Cup Racing, 1893-Fred S. Cozzens-IMG 5974.JPG|thumb|1893 [[America's Cup]] match between ''[[Vigilant (yacht)|Vigilant]]'' and ''[[Valkyrie II]]'']]
The history of sailing yachts begins in Europe in the beginning of the 1600s with the building of a pleasure vessel for the son of [[James VI and I|King James I of England]]. While other monarchs used naval ships for transportation and conquest, James I was the first English monarch to commission the construction of a yacht—for his son [[Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales|Henry, Prince of Wales]] in the early 1600s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Major, Alan P.|title=Royal yachts|date=2011|publisher=Amberley|isbn=978-1-4456-1107-5|location=Stroud|oclc=1100700087}}</ref>  Pleasure vessels acquired the name ''yacht'' after the time of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]], who spent time exiled in Europe and visited the Netherlands, where a variety of ''jachten'' were already well developed as pleasure boats for the elite classes since the beginning of the 17th century. Upon his restoration to the English crown, Charles was presented with a [[HMY Mary|yacht]] and later commissioned a series of royal yachts, which included at least one experimental [[catamaran]]. The first recorded yacht race between two vessels occurred in 1661, followed by the first open sailing competition in 1663 in English waters.<ref name="golden">{{Cite book|last=Herreshoff|first=L. Francis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q4RONp_1mrMC&q=history+of+sailing+yachts|title=The Golden Age of Yachting|date=2007|publisher=Sheridan House, Inc.|isbn=978-1-57409-251-6|pages=19–25|language=en}}</ref>

Starting in 1739, England found itself in a series of wars—a period that saw a decline in yachting. In Ireland, however, the gentry enjoyed yachting and founded the first yacht club in Cork as the [[Royal Cork Yacht Club|Cork Harbour Water Club]] in 1720. English yacht racing continued among the English gentry who founded England's oldest yacht club in 1775 to support a fleet at [[Cumberland]]. With maritime peace, starting in 1815, came a resurgence of interest in yachting. Boatbuilders, who had been making fast vessels both for smugglers and the government [[Cutter (boat)|revenue cutters]], turned their skills again to yachts.<ref name="golden" />

The fast yachts of the early 19th century were [[Fore-and-aft rig|fore-and-aft]] [[lugger]]s, [[schooner]]s, and [[sloop]]s. By the 1850s, yachts featured large sail areas, a narrow beam, and a deeper draft than was customary until then. Racing between yachts owned by wealthy patrons was common, with large wagers at stake. The [[America's Cup]] arose out of a contest between the yacht, ''[[America (yacht)|America]]'', and its English competitors. Both countries had rules by which to rate yachts, the English by tonnage and the American by length.<ref name="golden" />

In the late 19th century, yacht owners would base their choice of vessel upon preferred lifestyle and budget, which would determine the size and type of vessel, which would most likely be a fore-and aft, two-masted sailing vessel. A treatise on the subject, ''A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing'', provided detailed information on selecting, equipping, sailing, seamanship, management of the paid crew, and racing such vessels. It included a brief section on steam yachts, the recirculating coil steam engine just having made such yachts efficient enough for leisure travel on the water.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kemp|first=Dixon|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_vAOAAAAYAAJ&q=Sailing+yacht|title=A Manual of Yacht and Boat Sailing|date=1882|publisher=Horace Cox|location=London|language=en}}</ref>

===Power===
[[File:WIlliam L. Harkness Steam Yacht Gunilda - sunk in the great lakes.png|thumb|Steam yacht, ''[[Gunilda]]'', {{c.|1910}}]]
[[File:Savarona, yate de Ataturk.JPG|thumb|Turkish state yacht, ''[[Savarona]]'' in 2014, a steam-turbine yacht re-engined with diesels]]
While sailing yachts continued to exist, the development of reliable power plants created a new category of pleasure craft. The power plants started with the [[steam engine]] and transitioned to the [[internal combustion]] engine. Whereas sailing yachts continued to be steered from the after portion of the vessel, power yachts adopted the [[Bridge (nautical)|bridge]] in a forward cabin structure that afforded better forward and sideways visibility.<ref name="golden" />

==== Steam ====
The history of steam yachts starts with large sailing yachts with a [[Steam engine|steam auxiliary engine]]. Early examples, driven with paddle wheels, had a railed platform from which the person conning the vessel could walk across the vessel above the main deck, the origin of the [[Bridge (nautical)|bridge]]. In the late 18th century, steam engines became more efficient, spars were removed and [[Propeller|screw propellers]] became standard.<ref name="steam">{{Cite book |last=Evers |first=Henry |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CTcDAAAAQAAJ&q=Sennett,+Richard+and+Oram,+Sir+Henry+J.+(1918):+The+Marine+Steam+Engine:+A+Treatise+for+Engineering+Students,+Young+Engineers,+and+Officers+of+the+Royal+Navy+and+Mercantile+Marine,+Longmans,+Green+ |title=Steam and the Steam Engine: Land and Marine |date=1873 |publisher=Putnam |language=en}}</ref> Steam yachts evolved with the [[History of the steam engine|development of the steam engine]]. Ultimately, engines employed pistons driven by steam within cylinders, connected to a crank shaft, which drove a propeller.<ref name="steam" />

Near the end of the 19th century, [[compound engine]]s came into widespread use.<ref name="steam" /> Compound engines exhausted steam into successively larger cylinders to accommodate the higher volumes at reduced pressures, giving improved efficiency. These stages were called expansions, with double- and triple-expansion engines being common, especially in shipping where efficiency was important to reduce the weight of coal carried.<ref name="Hunter">{{cite book|last1=Hunter|first1=Louis C.|title=A History of Industrial Power in the United States, 1730–1930|publisher=University Press of Virginia|year=1985|volume=2: Steam Power|location=Charlottesville}}</ref> Steam engines remained the dominant source of power until the early 20th century, when advances in the design of the [[steam turbine]], [[electric motor]]s and [[internal combustion engine]]s gradually resulted in the replacement of reciprocating (piston) steam engines.<ref name="Hunter" /><ref name="Wiser">{{cite book|last=Wiser|first=Wendell H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UmMx9ixu90kC|title=Energy resources: occurrence, production, conversion, use|publisher=Birkhäuser|year=2000|isbn=978-0-387-98744-6|page=190}}</ref>

Large steam yachts were luxurious; their staff included a [[captain]], [[Engine officer|engineer]], and stewards, as well as deck hands.<ref name="golden" />

==== Internal combustion ====
[[Nicolaus Otto]] and [[Gottlieb Daimler]] developed practical [[Four-stroke engine|four-stroke]] gasoline engines, starting in 1876. Beginning in 1898 engines increased in horsepower from {{Convert|25|hp|kW|abbr=}} to {{Convert|500|bhp|kW|abbr=}} by 1906. Some were destined for [[Motorboat|speedboats]], other for motor yachts.<ref name="rudder">{{Cite book|last=Day|first=Thomas Fleming|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nsU6AAAAMAAJ|title=The Rudder|date=1916|publisher=Fawcett Publications|pages=299–303|language=en}}</ref> [[Diesel engine|Diesel power plants]] for boats were demonstrated in 1903.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Sass|first=Friedrich|title=Geschichte des deutschen Verbrennungsmotorenbaus von 1860 bis 1918|publisher=Springer|year=1962|isbn=978-3-662-11843-6|location=Berlin/Heidelberg|pages=532|language=De}}</ref> Diesels became a more prevalent type of power plant in the 20th century thanks to their low cost of operation and reliability.<ref name="rudder" />