The Tartan 27 Yawl is an American trailerable

sailboat A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture. Types Although sailboat terminology ...

that was designed by

Sparkman & Stephens Sparkman & Stephens is a naval architecture and yacht brokerage firm with offices in Newport, Rhode Island and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, USA. The firm performs design and engineering of new and existing vessels for pleasure, commercial, and milita ...

as a

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

and first built in 1961. The Tartan 27 Yawl is a development of the Tartan 27 sloop, with a shorter main mast and the addition of a

mizzen mast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation ligh ...

with a sail of mounted in the

lazarette The lazarette (also spelled lazaret) of a boat is an area near or aft of the cockpit. The word is similar to and probably derived from lazaretto. A lazarette is usually a storage locker used for gear or equipment a sailor or boatswain would us ...

. The Tartan 27 series was developed into the Tartan 27-2 in 1976. Darrell Nicholson of ''Practical Sailor'', noted of the Tartan 27 Yawl, "a small number of 27s, for what we assume was quaintness rather than any practical reason, were rigged as yawls with handkerchief-sized mizzens on a mast stepped into the lazarette."

Production

Production was initially by

Douglass & McLeod Douglass & McLeod was an American boat builder based in Grand River, Ohio. The company specialized in the design and manufacture of fiberglass racing sailboats.Henkel, Steve: ''The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats'', page 166. Intern ...

at their

Grand River, Ohio Grand River is a village in Lake County, Ohio, United States, along the Grand River. The population was 394 at the 2020 census. History A post office called Grand River has been in operation since 1890. The village was named after the nearby G ...

factory, starting in 1961 and ending in 1971 when the plant burned down. Production was then assumed by a new company, Tartan Marine, established in nearby

Painesville, Ohio Painesville is a city in and the county seat of Lake County, Ohio, United States, located along the Grand River northeast of Cleveland. Its population was 19,563 at the 2010 census. Painesville is the home of Lake Erie College, Morley Libra ...

, in 1971. Only about 25 Tartan 27 Yawls were built.

Design

The Tartan 27 Yawl is a recreational

keelboat A keelboat is a riverine cargo-capable working boat, or a small- to mid-sized recreational sailing yacht. The boats in the first category have shallow structural keels, and are nearly flat-bottomed and often used leeboards if forced in open wat ...

, built predominantly of

fiberglass Fiberglass (American English) or fibreglass (Commonwealth English) is a common type of fiber-reinforced plastic using glass fiber. The fibers may be randomly arranged, flattened into a sheet called a chopped strand mat, or woven into glass cloth ...

, with wood trim. It has a masthead

yawl A yawl is a type of boat. The term has several meanings. It can apply to the rig (or sailplan), to the hull type or to the use which the vessel is put. As a rig, a yawl is a two masted, fore and aft rigged sailing vessel with the mizzen mast p ...

rig, a

raked stem The stem is the most forward part of a boat or ship's bow and is an extension of the keel itself. It is often found on wooden boats or ships, but not exclusively. Description The stem is the curved edge stretching from the keel below, up to ...

, an angled

transom Transom may refer to: * Transom (architecture), a bar of wood or stone across the top of a door or window, or the window above such a bar * Transom (nautical), that part of the stern of a vessel where the two sides of its hull meet * Operation Tran ...

, a

keel The keel is the bottom-most longitudinal structural element on a vessel. On some sailboats, it may have a hydrodynamic and counterbalancing purpose, as well. As the laying down of the keel is the initial step in the construction of a ship, in Br ...

-mounted

rudder A rudder is a primary control surface used to steer a ship, boat, submarine, hovercraft, aircraft, or other vehicle that moves through a fluid medium (generally aircraft, air or watercraft, water). On an aircraft the rudder is used primarily to ...

controlled by a

tiller A tiller or till is a lever used to steer a vehicle. The mechanism is primarily used in watercraft, where it is attached to an outboard motor, rudder post or stock to provide leverage in the form of torque for the helmsman to turn the rudder. ...

and a fixed modified long keel with a cutaway

forefoot The forefoot is the anterior aspect of the foot, composed of the five metatarsal bones, the fourteen phalanges and associated soft tissue structures. It is a common site of pathology in podiatry, and is the anatomic region involved in such condi ...

and a retractable

centerboard A centreboard or centerboard (US) is a retractable hull appendage which pivots out of a slot in the hull of a sailboat, known as a ''centreboard trunk'' (UK) or ''centerboard case'' (US). The retractability allows the centreboard to be raised t ...

. It displaces and carries of ballast. The design has a draft of with the centerboard extended and with it retracted, allowing operation in shallow water or ground transportation on a trailer, when towed by a vehicle with enough power to safely accommodate the boat's weight. The boat is fitted with a

Universal Atomic 4 The Universal Atomic 4 is a four-cylinder, gasoline engine produced by the Universal Motor Company between 1949 and 1984 for use as auxiliary power on sailboats. Both and versions of the engine were produced. Over 40,000 of the engines were pro ...

gasoline engine A petrol engine (gasoline engine in American English) is an internal combustion engine designed to run on petrol (gasoline). Petrol engines can often be adapted to also run on fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas and ethanol blends (such as ''E ...

for docking and maneuvering and has a

hull speed Hull speed or displacement speed is the speed at which the wavelength of a vessel's bow wave is equal to the waterline length of the vessel. As boat speed increases from rest, the wavelength of the bow wave increases, and usually its crest-to-tro ...

of . The design has a

of .

Operational history

Robert Manry Robert Manry (June 2, 1918 – February 21, 1971) was a copy editor of the Cleveland ''Plain Dealer'' who in 1965 sailed from Falmouth, Massachusetts, to Falmouth, Cornwall, England, in a tiny sailboat (an Old Town "Whitecap" built by the Old ...

, along with his wife Virginia, his son and daughter, a German shepherd dog and a cat, sailed his 1967 Tartan 27 Yawl, named ''Curlew'' from

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, across the

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

, down the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

, through the

Gulf of Mexico The Gulf of Mexico ( es, Golfo de México) is an oceanic basin, ocean basin and a marginal sea of the Atlantic Ocean, largely surrounded by the North American continent. It is bounded on the northeast, north and northwest by the Gulf Coast of ...

to the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

, north along the US east coast and then back to his point of departure, Cleveland. The voyage was accomplished from July 1967 until July 1968.

References

External links

* {{Trailer sailers and Trailer yachts worldwide Keelboats 1960s sailboat type designs Sailing yachts Trailer sailers Sailboat type designs by Sparkman and Stephens Sailboat types built by Douglass & McLeod Sailboat types built by Tartan Marine

Production

Design

Operational history

See also

References

External links