Ketch Barrymore. In the film, the boat was named the "Sea Serpent". Ketch A ketch is a two-masted sailing craft whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast). The name "ketch" is derived from "catch" or fishing boat. Historically the ketch was a northern European square-rigged vessel, often a freighter or fishing boat, particularly in the Baltic and North seas. Nowadays, a ketch tends to be a fore-and-aft rigged pleasure yacht, similar to a yawl; but a ketch's mizzen mast is taller and its mizzen sail is larger than a yawl's. The large fore-and-aft sail on the mainmast is
Ketch Sir Francis Chichester's earlier "Gypsy Moth" ketches had five staysails (each of almost equal size), none of which were boomed. If a ketch has no jibs, it is called a "cat ketch" or a "periauger". On older, larger ketches the main mast may in addition carry one or more square rigged topsails. The square-rigged ketch was largely supplanted by the brig, which differs from the ketch by having a forward mast smaller (or occasionally similar in size) than the after mast, and by the hoy, which was fore-and-aft rigged. Other similar craft include the snow and the pink. Both the