The Yacht Insider: Kim Kavin Intro
If all things yachts are what you're after, this bi-weekly column is for you.
January 17, 2008
Kim Kavin edits the websites CharterWave.com and BoatNameGame.com. She's the author of five books, the president of Boating Writers International, and a regular contributor to marine, travel, and luxury lifestyle magazines worldwide. (All photos copyright courtesy Kim Kavin.)
What is a yacht?
I ask you, dear reader, because as the newly hired columnist writing about yachts here on Boats.com, I honestly can't answer the question.
During the past 10 weeks, I've attended five boat shows where I've seen everything from a 45-footer to a 145-footer called a yacht. I spent a few days last month onboard a 200-plus-footer that is marketed as a yacht, but whose owner calls it a small ship. It was the opposite of the time a year ago when I met the owner of a brand-new 164-foot motoryacht. He insisted his yacht was a boat-and a production boat, at that.
So much for definitions.
Mind you, it's not that I haven't spent the better part of the past decade trying to figure out what defines a yacht, first as executive editor of Yachting magazine and most recently as a freelancer whose articles appear everywhere from Power & Motoryacht to Robb Report. I've traipsed to shipyards and marinas the world over, cruising onboard everything from mahogany-planked Turkish gulets to fiberglass Kiwi and South African powercatamarans. Almost all of them are called yachts, even though some of the biggest boats use some of the smallest as tenders. The 228-foot Floridian comes to mind. It's a motoryacht built to carry a 42-foot sportfishing yacht as a dinghy.
To my original question, then: For the purposes of this column, I intend to define yacht as any interesting power or sailboat from 40 to 400 feet-and beyond.
I'm going to write about them all, or at least as many as I can fit into this space. Bigger isn't always better, and I like yachts of all shapes and sizes. If you do, too, then you've come to the right place.
Welcome to your new resource for all things yacht-related.
