Types of sailboat, and what sets them apart.

A sailboat has to resist two things the wind does to it: push it sideways and tip it over. How a design deals with the second one is the cleanest way to sort boats into families. A dinghy relies on the people aboard, a keelboat on a weighted keel, and a multihull on the width between its hulls. Size helps less than you might expect, because Wikipedia notes that small keelboats and large dinghies overlap in length.

The three families at a glance

The rows come from Wikipedia's sailboat, keelboat and catamaran entries (secondary sources). The point about crew weight comes from a Sailing World study by Loe and Smith, which measured how much righting force different hiking styles produce.

Each approach has a price in handling. Wikipedia describes multihulls as lighter and faster than monohulls but harder to tack and harder to right after a capsize. UKSA, a UK sailing school, says keelboats are more stable than dinghies because the fixed keel adds weight and lowers the risk of capsize, while it calls dinghies small, adaptable and less intimidating for learning the basics.

Daysailers: a type defined by use

"Daysailer" describes what a boat is for, not how it is built. UKSA defines it as a boat for daytime and short trips, often with a small cabin. Discover Boating says most daysailers have an open cockpit, a simple sloop rig and a tiller, carry 2 to 6 people, and use a small outboard or electric motor when not sailing. It adds that most can be rigged and launched in about 15 to 20 minutes, can be towed by a standard SUV, and are best kept to inshore waters such as bays and sounds. With no plumbing to winterize and no complex electrical systems, Discover Boating says they need far less maintenance than cruisers.

Sources do not agree on how long a daysailer is:

• UKSA: usually 14 to 20 ft.
• Discover Boating: about 14 to 25 ft overall in one place, 14 to 23 ft in another section, and 16 to 22 ft in its FAQ.

Racers and cruisers

Within any family, boats lean toward racing or cruising. Wikipedia describes racing yachts as putting performance ahead of comfort, with high-performance rigs and efficient hulls, and cruising yachts as built with the comfort and amenities needed for overnight voyages.

Classes: identical boats or a handicap

When boats race, they are grouped either into one-design classes, where every boat is identical or nearly so and the first boat home wins, or into handicap fleets, where a formula adjusts finishing times so different designs can race together. Between those two sit box rules, development classes and formula classes. Our page on one-design and Olympic classes explains each, along with the equipment used at the Olympic Games.

The boats you learn on

Training bodies name the kind of boat each first course uses, which is a useful guide to where the families fit:

We did not find one agreed answer on whether a new sailor should start in a dinghy or a keelboat. Both routes have their own courses, and learning to sail covers how to choose a program.

Before you buy

If you are thinking about owning a boat, buying a boat covers size, new versus used, surveys and the running costs to plan for.