Yawl Yawl A yawl is a two-masted sailing craft whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast). Compared to a similar sized ketch, a yawl's mizzen mast is set further aft and its mizzen sail is smaller. Historically, the yawl was a commercial working vessel, but today, the yawl is a fore-and-aft rigged pleasure yacht. In Europe yawls are much less common than the more popular ketch. The yawl was originally developed as a rowboat with two small masts to assist the oarsmen. (When adding a sailing rig to a rowboat, the masts must not interfere with the rowers;
15,000 Miles in a Ketch 15,000 Miles in a Ketch 15,000 Miles in a Ketch is a non-fiction book written by French explorer and sailor Captain Raymond Rallier du Baty, published by Thomas Nelson and Sons in 1922. The book describes Captain du Baty's experience on the voyage of the "J.B. Charcot", a small French fishing ketch which weighed 48 tons. The aim of this voyage was to chart the subantarctic Kerguelen Islands, which they funded by hunting southern elephant seals in the local area and selling their oil. The crew set out from Boulogne in September 1907. and sailed across the South Atlantic, Antarctic