This is the first motor yacht ever built. And it is more than 130 years old

A brief excursion on the history of motor yachts: from the first prototype made in 1886 by German engineer Gottlieb Daimler to the mass production developed after the war, to the undisputed dominance of this type of boat in today’s nautical market.

Motor yachts are by far the most popular boats in the world. But when did they first appear in nautical history? The first motor yacht was the “Rems” built in 1886 at the German shipyard Lürssen by order of inventor Gottlieb Daimler, who wished to test his new gasoline engine. A year earlier, Daimler himself had patented technology to force air into an internal combustion engine using a gear pump.

Daimler’s engine was single-cylinder, weighed 60 kg and produced only 1.5 hp at 700 rpm. The powerplant was then transported by 11 people to a lake near Stuttgart, where it would be tested. The people of Stuttgart, however, protested against the launching of the motorboat. They had heard, in fact, that the craft moved via explosions and considered the experiment deadly. However, Daimler managed to convince the Stuttgart residents that his craft would not kill anyone.

In 1887 Daimler tested a motorboat with an improved engine: he equipped the invention with a second cylinder, placing it at a 15-degree angle to the first. Daimler’s new engine had an output of 4 hp. Thus a V-shaped engine was born. Lurssen continued to collaborate with Daimler, and in 1896 their joint effort launched a 12-meter Daimler-powered yacht.

Early diesel-powered yachts

While Daimler was experimenting with gasoline-powered internal combustion engines for automobiles on boats, another German, Rudolf Diesel, was inventing and testing the first diesel engine. Diesel’s “know-how” was based on the fact that it was not the fuel itself that was compressed inside the engine’s pistons, but air, and during the compression of the air, heat was generated that promoted self-ignition of the fuel. The first working diesel engine was assembled, under Diesel’s supervision, by the MAN company.

Diesel engines proved to be much more efficient than the steam engines used in commercial and military fleets at the time. As early as 1903, the first ship with a diesel engine was built: the river tanker “Vandal.” The first diesel engines were huge and very heavy, which prevented their use on pleasure boats. Such thrusters began to spread in the boating world only from the second half of the 20th century.

Mass production starts in England

Motor yachts were developed simultaneously in different countries. In 1888, in England, the Priestman Brothers company tested the first motor yacht. Its engine was powered by kerosene and used an innovative high-voltage ignition system. Priestman Brothers was the first to begin mass production of motor boats, and by 1890, Priestman boats were being successfully used to haul goods on canals.

In 1903 the first ever speedboat races were held in Cork Harbor, Ireland. British publishing magnate Alfred Charles William Harmsworth was the founder of these racing competitions. The latter was more far-sighted than Prince Albert I of Monaco, who also dreamed of organizing such a race in 1903, but the idea failed.

Baglietto makes first super yacht in Italy

Dorothy Levitt, aboard a 12-meter, 75-horsepower steel motor yacht built in “Napier,” set the first-ever speed record at 31.1 mph. The engine of this yacht was already a 4-cylinder. Prince Albert managed to catch up with the agile journalist in 1904. Monaco later hosted a speedboat race in which crews from Italy, Germany, France, Sweden and England participated. The races were held in two classes: cruising (cabin cruisers) and racing (open boats).

In 1906, Cantiere Baglietto in Italy launched the largest motor yacht with an internal combustion engine: the 22.6-meter “Giuseppina,” which, however, was still equipped with a sail that played an auxiliary role. The following year Ole Evinrude invented the first outboard engine. This momentous invention in yacht building has a very curious story: Ole had gone out rowing to get ice cream for his wife, but the ice cream melted while he was rowing. That’s when he came up with the idea of mounting compact engines on ordinary rowboats. As early as 1909, outboard motors for boats went on sale.

The market for motor yachts between the wars

Two world wars led major yacht builders to work for government contracts. After World War II, a ban on yacht building was imposed in several countries. The situation did not normalize until the middle of the century. In 1949, after a long hiatus, the Feadship shipyard launched the 13-meter motor yacht “Ibis” with Perkins diesel engines. In the 1950s, Perkins diesel engines were used in the Thames River Police fleet.

The real revolution of small thrusters

In 1952 the Yanmar company succeeded in creating the first small diesel engine. To solve the weight problem, the Japanese developed high-strength cast iron with spheroidal graphite and increased engine speed by reducing the piston stroke. The first “small” diesel engine still weighed 125 kg, but over the years the technology was improved and refined. The result was a series of engines with the initials K (from the German Klein). These diesel engines with power from 1 to 7 hp weighed just over 50 kg. By the mid-1950s, Yanmar was producing compact marine diesel engines suitable for yachts. Thus it was that diesel engines arrived on boats.

In 1958, Jim Wynne assembled the first propeller in his Miami garage. The technology was purchased by Volvo Penta, which improved on Wynne’s idea by orienting the propeller toward the bow. Mercury Marine joined propeller production, quickly conquering the small motor boat market and supplanting outboard engines.

The speedboat “boom” in the 1970s and 1980s

In 1961, Correct Craft launched the first fiberglass yacht on the market. It was the 5.5-meter-long “Ski Nautique,” a water ski tow boat designed by Leo Benz. It was Benz’s idea to build fiberglass boats, although it was initially dismissed as an extravagance. Today the vast majority of yachts, not only motor but also sailing yachts, are built of fiberglass.

By the 1960s, the motor yacht market had acquired a modern face. The Fort Lauderdale Boat Show, the world’s largest boat show, was organized in 1959 by local yacht builders and dealers and featured only 13 boats. In 1969, the first Boot Düsseldorf Boat Show, now the world’s largest boat show, was held in Düsseldorf, Germany. The first year 116 companies (mostly local, with only 7 shipyards from other countries) participated. Within a year, however, the number of participants grew to 183 from 25 countries. In 1977, the Cannes Yachting Festival was held in France for the first time.

Who has the current market leadership

Today, power boats up to 10 meters dominate the market, with planing hulls used for fishing, short trips along the coast, or water sports such as water skiing and wakeboarding. Such boats are mostly equipped with outboard motors and planing hulls. Compact motor yachts, between 10 and 15 meters in length, have 1-3 cabins, a small galley and a bathroom, and at the hull level can be planing, displacement or semi-displacement. In the medium-sized motor yacht segment, 15 to 20 meters, the leading position belongs to planing yachts with flybridge. In this case, only inboard diesel engines are used.

The leading motor yacht producing countries are the United States, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands. Italy, Germany and the Netherlands are leaders in the super and megayachts segment. According to Boat International, the Italian Azimut-Benetti group is the leader in the superyachts market, while the also-Italian shipyard Sanlorenzo ranks second, followed by the Dutch Feadship.