YACHT - The Law Mind Legal Dictionary

YACHTAuthored

The Law Mind • 844 words

Definition

A vessel used for pleasure, recreation, or racing rather than for commercial trade or transport. In U.S. federal maritime law, yachts have historically occupied a distinct regulatory category from commercial vessels, with specific provisions governing their documentation, registration, tonnage duties, and navigation rights. The defining characteristic is noncommercial purpose: a yacht is privately used for leisure, sport, or personal transport, not for carrying cargo or passengers for hire.

Common Language

Modern common usage (Wiktionary): A slick and light ship for making pleasure trips or racing on water, having sails but often motor-powered; at times used as a residence offshore on a dock. More broadly, any vessel used for private, noncommercial purposes.

Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): A light and elegantly furnished vessel, used either for private parties of pleasure or as a vessel of state to convey distinguished persons from one place to another; a seagoing vessel used only for pleasure trips, racing, etc.

The common meaning tracks the legal meaning unusually closely for a maritime term, but the legal definition carries regulatory weight the ordinary word does not. In law, whether a vessel qualifies as a yacht determines its documentation requirements, duty obligations, and exemptions from commercial vessel regulations. A large motor vessel used residentially or for charter may be colloquially called a yacht while legally falling outside that category entirely.

Common Confusion

The boundary between a yacht and other vessel classifications — particularly "pleasure vessel," "vessel of the United States," and "coasting vessel" — has generated recurring legal disputes. Bouvier's notes that a steam pleasure yacht was held to be an ocean-going vessel rather than a coasting vessel, a distinction with significant consequences for applicable law and duties. Researchers should not assume that size, power source, or even predominant use settles the classification; courts have examined these questions on the specific facts and applicable statutory definitions of the period.

Why It Matters in Research

The primary research traps here are temporal and statutory. Federal yacht law in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was tied to specific statutory provisions — Revised Statutes §§ 4215–4218 and the Act of January 25, 1897, among others — that have been amended, repealed, or superseded. A researcher working with late nineteenth-century admiralty materials will encounter a body of yacht-specific law that no longer exists in its original form. The current framework is found largely in Title 46 of the U.S. Code and Coast Guard regulations, which reorganized and modernized the earlier patchwork.

The duty question is particularly significant for historical research. Before 1897, foreign-built yachts purchased by American citizens were not uniformly subject to tonnage duties; after the 1897 Act, they were. Cases decided on either side of that line may reach opposite results on the same underlying facts. Bouvier's flags the 1897 Act and the Supreme Court decisions construing it; researchers should verify the precise date of the transaction at issue before applying any authority from this period.

The Anderson's entry included in the source material appears to be a transcription error — the text provided is clearly from a different Anderson's entry (relating to ancient writings and adverse possession) and contains nothing on yachts. Researchers relying on Anderson's for this term should not expect substantive content there.

Jurisdictional variation in state law — particularly state registration requirements and taxation of pleasure vessels — also affects research into yacht ownership and operation disputes. State schemes vary considerably and have changed frequently.

Historical Dictionary Support

Black's (both editions) and Bouvier's agree on the core definition: a yacht is a light sea-going vessel used for pleasure, racing, and similar noncommercial purposes. All three sources cross-reference Webster's for the definitional baseline, reflecting the era's practice of borrowing from general dictionaries for terms not yet fully developed through case law.

Bouvier's is the most substantively useful of the historical sources. It adds the ocean-going versus coasting vessel distinction, the 1897 duty Act, and specific Supreme Court references — making it the first stop for any researcher working on late nineteenth-century federal maritime questions involving yachts. Black's both editions point to Revised Statutes §§ 4215–4218 and 22 Stat. 566 without elaboration; these provisions addressed the enrollment and licensing of yachts and their exemption from certain commercial navigation requirements.

None of the historical dictionaries address the modern regulatory framework, power-driven pleasure craft, or the treatment of large privately-owned vessels used for charter or residential purposes — all of which have become significant in contemporary maritime law.

Jurisdictional Note

Federal admiralty law governs the core classification questions for yachts operating on navigable waters of the United States. State law governs registration, taxation, and certain safety requirements for vessels operating within state waters. In international contexts, flag-state law and treaty provisions — including those governing yacht racing and cruising permits — introduce additional layers that neither the federal statutes nor the historical dictionaries address.

YACHTmain

Black's Law Dictionary • 1891

A light sea-going vessel, used only for pleasure-trips, racing, etc. Webster. See 22 St. at Large, 566; Rev. St. U. S. §§ the fee. Abrogated by St. 54 Geo. III. c. 4215-4218.

YACHTmain

Black's Law Dictionary (2nd Ed.) • 1910

A light sea-going vessel, used only for pleasure-trips, racing, etc. Webster. See 22 St. at Large, 566 (U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 2845); Rev. St. U. S. §§ 4215-4218 (U. S, Comp. St. 1901, p. 2847).

YACHTmain

Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890

other deeds, but to receipts, letters, entries, -all ancient writings. Compare POSSESSION, Adverse. Public writings. The recorded acts of public functionaries, in the executive, legislative, and judicial departments of government; the transactions which official persons are required to enter in books in the discharge of their public duties, and which occur within the circle of their personal knowledge.2 Also spoken of as judicial or non-judicial, and, as to their proof, as those which are of record or not of record. See generally ALTERATION, 2; BLANK, 2; CANCEL; CERTAINTY, 2; CONSTRUCTION; DEED, 2; DOCUMENT; FALSE; FRAUDS, Statute of; GRAMMAR; HANDWRITING; ILLITERATE; INSTRUMENT, 2, 3; MAIL, 2; OBLIGATORY: OBSCENE; PAROL; PHOTOGRAPH; READING; RECORD; REFORM; SUBPOENA, 3, Duces; UNDERWRITER; WILL, 2. A light sea-going vessel used only for purposes of pleasure, racing, and the like. The secretary of the treasury may cause yachts employed exclusively as pleaure vessels, and designed as models of naval architecture, if entitled to be enrolled as American vessels, and built and owned in compliance with Rev. St. §§ 4133-35, to be licensed on terms which will authorize them to proceed from port to port without entering or clearing at the customhouse; the license to be in such form as the secretary may prescribe; the owner to first give a bond in such form and amount as the secretary shall prescribe, conditioned that the vessel shall not engage in trade, nor violate the revenue laws, and shall comply with the laws in all other respects. Such vessel shall not transport merchandise or carry passengers for pay; and shall have the name and port placed on some conspicuous portion of the hull. For any violation of the laws on the subject of commerce and navigation the vessel may be seized and forfeited. Provided, that all charges for license and inspection fees shall not exceed five dollars, and for admeasurement ten cents per ton.¹ All such licensed yachts shall use a signal of the form, size, and colors prescribed by the secretary of the navy; and naval architects in the employ of the United States may at all times examine and copy the models.2 Yachts, belonging to a regularly organized yacht club of any foreign nation which shall extend like privileges to the yachts of the United States, may enter or leave any of our ports without entering or clearing at the custom-house or paying tonnage tax. For the identification of yachts and their owners a commission to sail for pleasure in any designated yacht belonging to any regularly organized and incorporated yacht club, stating the exemptions and privileges enjoyed under it, may be issued by the secretary of the treasury, and shall be a token of credit to any United States official, and to the authorities of any foreign power, for privileges enjoyed under it. Every yacht visiting a foreign country under the foregoing provisions shall, on her return, make due entry at the custom-house of the port at which she arrives. Yachts which are propelled by steam must have their hulls and boilers inspected.. A licensed yacht of four hundred and eighty-one tons burden, propelled by steam, and having two high masts, is an "ocean-going steamer" and a "steamer carrying sail," within Rule 3 of the rules of navigation prescribed by Rev. St. § 4233, and should carry the Act 3 March, 1883: 22 St. L. 566, repealing R. S. § 4214-parts of Acts of 1848, 1870. 2 Act 7 Aug., 1848: R. S. § 4215. Act 29 June, 1870: R. S. § 4216. Act 20 June, 1870: R. S. § 4217. Act 29 June, 1870: R. S. § 4218. Act 28 Feb., 1871: R. S. § 4426.

YACHTn.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

A light and elegantly furnished vessel, used either for private parties of pleasure, or as a vessel of state to convey distinguished persons from one place to another; a seagoing vessel used only for pleasure trips, racing, etc. Yacht measurement. See the Note under Tonnage, 4.

YACHTv.

Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913

To manage a yacht; to voyage in a yacht.

yachtnoun

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

Wiktionary contributors • CC BY-SA 4.0 • via Kaikki
Extracted and formatted for display by Law Mind. Source link opens the current Wiktionary page and its contributor history; it is not a frozen copy of this extract.

A slick and light ship for making pleasure trips or racing on water, having sails but often motor-powered. At times used as a residence offshore on a dock. | Any vessel used for private, noncommercial purposes.

yachtverb

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

To sail, voyage, or race in a yacht.

Yachtname

Wiktionary (English) • 2026

A type of dice game, similar to the Latin American game Generala.

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