Ketch 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 the mainsail, while the sail on the mizzen mast is the
Ketch mizzen. To assist going to windward, a ketch will usually carry at least one foresail such as a jib or genoa. Although both the single-masted Bermuda sloop and cutter have simpler rigging and are more efficient, the sails on a ketch are smaller and more easily handled, and its mainmast is shorter. A modern ketch's sails may be any type of fore-and-aft sail, in any combination, and most are Bermuda rigged. The modern ketch is popular in northern Europe and among long distance cruisers. Both the ketch and the yawl rig have proved generally to be more suitable for motorsailers