yacht

yacht

1. a vessel propelled by sail or power, used esp for pleasure cruising, racing, etc.

2. short for sand yacht, ice yacht

Collins Discovery Encyclopedia, 1st edition © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

yacht

[yät]

(naval architecture)

A sailing or power boat used for pleasure cruises or racing.

McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Scientific & Technical Terms, 6E, Copyright © 2003 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

Yacht

 

a vessel powered by sail, motor, or both, with a displacement up to 3,000 tons, designed for racing or pleasure trips. Sailing yachts are the most common type.

The first mentions of sailing yachts used for racing date from the 17th century. Sailing yachts may be divided into vessels designed for extended voyages and races on the open sea and racing and pleasure yachts designed for use in coastal waters. Depending on the shape of the hull, yachts may be classified as keeled types, in which the bottom forms a fin keel (more precisely, a false keel) that improves the vessel’s stability and prevents it from drifting when under sail, and shallow-draft yachts with a sliding keel, or centerboard; some combination types have both a fin keel and a sliding keel. Twin-hulled yachts are called catamarans, and yachts with three hulls are called trimarans. Yachts may have one or more masts with various types of rigs.

Figure 1. The direct xerographic process: (a) electrophotographic paper, on which the copy will be printed, (b) distribution of charges in the paper, (c) exposure of the photoconductive layer, with arrows representing light rays, (d) paper after exposure, (e) development of the latent image, with small black circles representing particles of the dyed powder, (f) paper with a fixed image, with black rectangles representing melted powder particles bonded to the paper’s backing; (1) electrically conductive backing, (2) photoconductive layer

The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition (1970-1979). © 2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.