| Yawl's and Ketches
Jeff has some interesting analysis of Yawls and Ketches, which I do not completely agree with. I cut my sailing teeth with a 45' wood sailing Yawl of 14 tons, built by Bristol in 1935. Over the ten years of ownership, I learned some of the advantages and disadvantages of two masts. The ship had no winches for the sheet lines, depending upon wooden blocks.
In general, a Yawl or Ketch has shorter Main Mast than a ship having a single mast and carries somewhat heavier ballast. This combo serves to give less healing at sea during heavy weather. True, the Mizzen produces drag and provides little power when the wind is 40 degrees or less of the forequarter, but on a reach the mizzen is a power sail that adds horsepower to the sail plan. Moreover, the mizzen's placement far aft allows much more head sail to be added during light to moderate wind.
My Yawl often sailed with a Genoa on the fore wire, a sweeper on the second wire, and a club jib. Such high square footage of sails forward would not be practical for sloops and would require much rudder to compensate (Drag).
Also, in general, a Yawl or Ketch, if designed as such, has the main mast stepped further aft than the sloop mast. (Some two mast'ers are originally designed for a single mast and the Mizzen just added.) The proof is in the ship's performance.
A Yawl or Ketch is a "Reaching" blue water sailer, in that the mizzen is set to hold a steady course with the rudder streamlined.
Tending the sails is no problem, as at sea the wind is fairly steady. One hardly ever needs to tend to steering. A wind of 15-18 kts always put the Yawl at hull speed and the crew relaxed with no one at the helm. But perhaps the Yawl's extra ballast might result in a quarter kt slower hull speed than a sloop? I doubt that this would be the practical result because the sloop requires much more rudder steering (rudder drag)
Haven't had a lot of experience with a Ketch rig, but I would think that the Ketch with its smaller mizzen might not be as efficient as the Yawl?
For direct Down wind sailing you simply drop the mizzen and the ship becomes a Sloop, but an aft quarter wind provides good sail power for both the Main and Mizzen.
Bill
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