What boat on Coast tonight?

I googled the sail number,no answer. A yawl I reckon. Nice work if you can get it! They should have used an older design but it's tv,at least it wasn't a rib.
 
Those classic bermudan yawls just use the little mizzen for trim don't they? The extra drag and faff from the little back mast would surely cancel out any contribution to forward motion?
 
I thought of the weather helm thing,then I thought again. I would guess you could use the mizzen for steering eg to help her head through the wind? I haven't had a go on a yawl,wouldn't mind messing about with her for a day or two though ;)
 
Those classic bermudan yawls just use the little mizzen for trim don't they? The extra drag and faff from the little back mast would surely cancel out any contribution to forward motion?

That's perhaps the case going upwind - the mizzen is in the dirty air off the mainsail and doesn't help all that much. Any other point of sail, the mizzen is a driving sail like any other. On a broad reach in particular, in Kindred Spirit, it feels like it's pulling like a horse. Plus in some boats (not ours) you can set a mizzen staysail which is supposed to be a good pulling sail on a reach.

In my early-80s edition of Heavy Weather Sailing, Adlard Coles gives a list of reasons he likes yawls, and regrets that they are "virtually penalised" under the racing rating rules so that he can't have one any more.

Pete
 
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