Laminar Flow
Well-known member
Our current boat is a ketch. It is the second I've owned and I have sailed others and a schooner as well. In the seventies, blue water and ketch were synonymous. Whatever the handling benefits of a ketch may be, compared to a sloop the drag/lift ratio is not favourable. The multi-masted rigs seen on some really small boats back then, with a mizzen the size of a beach towel, were really just an affectation.
For a while the yawl was favoured for racing, because the mizzen area was not rated, as it was commonly accepted that it did not contribute to drive. One could, however, set a big stays'l from it, off the wind, at least until that loop hole was closed.
The real benefit for mizzens was at the time there were no effective means of self-steering - think of a yawl's mizzen as a large above deck wind vane.
On fishing vessels, a mizzen could be left standing to keep the boat pointed and control motion while the crew was at work. We still, on the occasion keep the mizzen up at anchor the cut down rolling.
Today, as we are obsessed with out and out efficiency and have effective sail handling systems on even the smallest units, the ketch or really any multimasted rig, except on very large boats, is pretty much obsolete, other than for nostalgic or aesthetic reasons, perhaps. Up or downwind, the mizzen is mostly just along for the ride.
For a while the yawl was favoured for racing, because the mizzen area was not rated, as it was commonly accepted that it did not contribute to drive. One could, however, set a big stays'l from it, off the wind, at least until that loop hole was closed.
The real benefit for mizzens was at the time there were no effective means of self-steering - think of a yawl's mizzen as a large above deck wind vane.
On fishing vessels, a mizzen could be left standing to keep the boat pointed and control motion while the crew was at work. We still, on the occasion keep the mizzen up at anchor the cut down rolling.
Today, as we are obsessed with out and out efficiency and have effective sail handling systems on even the smallest units, the ketch or really any multimasted rig, except on very large boats, is pretty much obsolete, other than for nostalgic or aesthetic reasons, perhaps. Up or downwind, the mizzen is mostly just along for the ride.