Till this thread I'd never heard the term; now I find out the Music Choice channel on Comcast has an entire category called Yacht Rock.

Apparently we have J. D. Ryznar to thank for this silly appellation, which he coined in 2005 in his online video series. "..understood as a pejorative term..." (I guess "Soft Rock" wasn't pejorative enough) ... "..saccharine sincerity", indeed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yacht_rock

Reminds me of when the '50s started to become preciously referred to as "Mid-Century".