What you need
Five ordinary dice, a pencil and a score sheet with twelve categories. Our printable yacht score sheet has two tables of six player columns per page. Any number can play, and it also works as a solo game where you try to beat your best score.
Yacht was described in print in 1938. The commercial game Yahtzee came later and borrowed most of it, adding a bonus and a few categories. Yacht itself has no owner.
Setup
Write each player’s name at the top of a column. Each player rolls the five dice; the highest total starts and play goes to the left.
How to play
- On your turn you may roll the dice up to three times.
- After the first and second roll, set aside any dice you want to keep and re-roll the rest. You can stop after one or two rolls.
- After your last roll you must write a score in one empty category of your choice. If the dice do not fit the category, you score 0 there.
- Each category is used once. After twelve turns every box is full and the game ends.
The twelve categories
| Category | Dice needed | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Ones to Sixes | any | sum of the dice showing that number |
| Full House | three of one number and two of another | sum of all five dice |
| Four of a Kind | at least four the same | sum of those four dice |
| Little Straight | 1-2-3-4-5 | 30 |
| Big Straight | 2-3-4-5-6 | 30 |
| Choice | anything | sum of all five dice |
| Yacht | five the same | 50 |
A Yacht may be scored as Four of a Kind (the fifth die does not count) but not as a Full House.
Scoring and winning
Add up the twelve boxes. The highest total wins. The best possible score is 297.
How Yacht differs from Yahtzee
- No 35-point bonus for the upper section and no separate upper and lower sections.
- No three-of-a-kind category, and no four-dice small straight.
- Full House scores the dice, not a flat 25; Four of a Kind counts only the four matching dice.
- Straights are fixed sequences worth 30 each (Yahtzee’s large straight is 40).
- No extra Yahtzee bonuses or joker rule.
Common variants
- Straight values: some groups score the Big Straight 40 or count straights as the sum of the dice; there are no official rules, so agree first.
- Yahtzee-style sheet: dice-play.com prints a combined sheet with an upper bonus of 35 for 63 or more, for players who want the later rules.
- Generala and Yatzy: close cousins from Latin America and Scandinavia with their own categories.
Tips for first games
- Aim for four or five of a number early; it can fill Fours, Fives or Sixes as well as Four of a Kind or Yacht.
- Keep Choice as your safety box for a bad turn late in the game.
- When a turn goes wrong, score 0 in Yacht or Ones rather than wasting a valuable box.
- Chasing a straight with three dice already in sequence is usually worth the two re-rolls.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to use all three rolls? No. You can score after the first or second roll.
What if my dice fit no open category? You must still fill a box, scoring 0 in it.
Can I score a Yacht twice? No. Each category is used once; a second Yacht can go in Four of a Kind or a number box.
Is Yacht the same as Yahtzee? Very close, but Yahtzee adds an upper bonus, a three-of-a-kind and small-straight category, and fixed values for the full house and straights.
How long is a game? Always twelve turns per player.
