Sail plan the helm and capable of driving the boat. The ketch is a classic small cargo boat. A fore-and-aft rig having at least two masts, with a foremast that is usually smaller than the other masts. Schooners have traditionally been gaff-rigged and in small craft are generally two-masted, however many have been built with marconi rigs (and even junk rigs) rather than gaffs and in the golden age of sail, vessels were built with as many as seven masts. One of the easiest types to sail, but performs poorly to windward without gaff topsails. The extra sails and ease of the
Ketch the latter part of the 18th century. The ketch continued in use as a specialized vessel for carrying mortars until after the Napoleonic wars, in this application it was called a bomb ketch. The original "Atlantis", the seagoing research vessel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution commissioned in 1931, was a steel-hulled ketch. In 1989 Bruce Farr designed the Maxi ketch "Steinlager 2", the first maxi yacht built of composite carbon construction. This revolutionary lightweight design went on to win the Whitbread Round the World Race in 1989/90. In 1947 a radio program called "Voyage of the Scarlet Queen" was