Why are Sailing vessels much shorter than their motorized counterparts?

Question

Motorized yachts seem to be quite a bit larger with much more Sq footage built above the water level than their masted brethren, why is this?

I’m assuming the masts have something to do with it. Is it because they would torque the boat too hard if they were higher up? They already seem pretty high up as is and older vessels like Galleons in pirate movies seem just peachy with a ton of room above the water level. Why is it that most luxury yachts now are so low?

Edit: to clarify I mean shorter as a function of verticality not the length of the boat.

In: 21

Answer 1

Are you mixing up length and height? You question seems a bit confusing, you ask why shorter then discuss height above waterline.

Length is a question of economy and legality plus the need for way more crew if you’re going to operate a large sailing vessel compared to a motor yacht. There’s a length limit of 50 feet or so, in most countries, for what an ordinary person without special licenses can operate. So virtually all privately owned yachts, sail or motor, that are operated by the owners without paid crews will be 50 feet long or less.

Height is a different matter, and stability is one big part of that. Minimising wind forces acting on the hull is another consideration, as is making as much room for sails as possible.

Motor yachts generally dgaf about some wind pushing on the hull and superstructure, as long as they don’t roll over too much.

Sail yachts need to ensure as much of the available wind force as possible acts in the desired direction to help propulsion, rather than blowing the boat off course or slow it down. So you want a low, sleek hull and superstructure with a huge sail on top. Stability and leverage also matters, for a given sail area you get less stability the higher up the center of sail effort is. It’s safer to have most of your sail area low close to the waterline than high up. And you want to maximize the available sail area, especially down low, so you can’t have a large deck house like you would on a motor yacht as it would get in the way of sail and boom.