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A ketch

Ketch

A cutter-rigged ketch

A ketch is a sailing craft with two masts: a main mast, and a shorter mizzen mast abaft (rearward of) the main mast, but forward of the rudder post. (When the mizzen mast is located aft of the rudder post, the vessel is called a yawl.) Both masts are rigged mainly fore-and-aft. From one to three jibs may be carried forward of the main mast when going to windward. If a ketch is not rigged for jibs it is called a cat ketch, sometimes called a periauger. On older, larger ketches the main mast may in addition carry one or more square rigged topsails. A ketch may also carry extra sails, see below.

The lowest fore-and-aft sail on the main mast is called the mainsail, while that on the mizzen is called the mizzen sail. These may be any type of fore-and-aft sail, in any combination. The Scots Zulu, for example, had a dipping lug main with a standing lug mizzen.

The ketch is popular among long distance cruisers as the additional sail allows for a better balance, and a smaller more easily handled mainsail for the same overall sail area. It also allows sailing on mizzen and jib only without introducing excessive lee helm, and in an emergency can be quite well steered without use of the rudder. The ketch is a popular rig in northern European waters where sudden increases in wind strength sometimes require a rapid reefing: the mainsail can be dropped, reducing sail and leaving a balanced sail-plan with jib and mizzen set.

Running before the wind or reaching across the wind, a ketch may carry extra sails such as a spinnaker on the main mast, and a spinnaker or (mizzen staysail) on the mizzen mast.

Derivation of "ketch"[link]

Ketch was a "catch" or fishing boat. (Ketch from Middle English cache, from cacchen, to catch).^[1] The mizzen is bigger to hold the bow (front) of a boat toward the wind and oncoming waves. The mainsail at the front of the boat would have been dropped and the mizzen trimmed tight on the centreline. Set up this way most boats will point directly into the wind in a reliable way. It is also possible to ease the mizzen slightly to allow the boat to move slowly forward.

In a fishing boat this attitude allows the nets to be handled without the boat becoming "broadsides" to the waves allowing them to break over the sides of the boat. Fishnets can then be handled without putting the boat at risk.

For enough sail area to propel a fishing boat the mizzen mast has to move forward toward the middle of the boat which allows its sail to be bigger without upsetting the sail balance or distribution.

A "Ketch Rig" is simply the rig that matches the function of a "Ketch" or "Catch" or fishing boat.

Similar rigs[link]

The ketch rig is often confused with a yawl. The difference is that the ketch has her mizzen mast forward of the rudder post thus having more sail area, which contributes significant forward propulsion, whereas the mizzen on a yawl is aft of the rudder post and is used primarily to balance the sail plan (and as a riding sail while at anchor). This is often a matter of intent rather than a physical difference.

The ketch rig can be distinguished from the similar two masted schooner rig by the shorter aftermost mast on the ketch. A schooner has the shorter mast forward. In the case where both masts are approximately the same height, the rig with the larger sail forward is usually called a ketch, while the rig with the larger sail aft is a schooner.

Other variations include a cutter-rigged ketch. A cutter has a stay sail on a separate stay, forward of the main mast between the main sail and head sail. This sail plan can be adapted to a ketch.

History[link]

In the year 1775, various ketches were utilized as battleships by the Sultanate of Mysore during the rule of Hyder Ali.

The original Atlantis, the sea-going research vessel of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute commissioned in 1931, was a steel-hulled ketch.^[2]

Popular culture[link]

In 1947 a radio program called Voyage of the Scarlet Queen was set on a Ketch. The Scarlet Queen was a 78-foot, two-masted ketch, with a white hull, teak decking, brass bright-work, and sporting the 'Scarlet Queen' herself, on the bowsprit, naked as the day she was born, "a fresh, young body . . . looking forward, . . bold, teasing . . . dressed in only a crown, and painted brilliant red."

A William Garden designed Formosa 51 Ketch named "Wanderer" was the main setting in the 1992 cult classic "Captain Ron", a total of 3 Formosa 51s were used in filming.

See also[link]

• Sail-plan

References[link]

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• amazon.com, Jones, Gregory O. The American Sailboat.