The term Salcombe Yawl refers to a small sailing dinghy restricted class native to

Salcombe Salcombe is a popular resort town in the South Hams district of Devon, south west England. The town is close to the mouth of the Kingsbridge Estuary, mostly built on the steep west side of the estuary. It lies within the South Devon Area of ...

in South

Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...

, and also to the traditional sailing vessel from the area upon which that class was based, with a 200-year history. The current class of vessel has about the size of a

Merlin Rocket The Merlin Rocket is a dinghy sailed in the United Kingdom. It is an active class, now with over 3700 boats built. The boat designed around a box rule, meaning that all class boats need to be within a certain length and width, but can be any sh ...

, that is and about 180 have been built of which 80% are still in use. It is built traditionally by hand from mahogany, and is clinker built. The centre plate is cast iron, but more recent Yawls have bronze plates. While it is rigged as a

ketch A ketch is a two- masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast (or aft-mast), and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch fr ...

with the

mizzen 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 ...

ahead of the rudder post, the label yawl is probably derived from a corruption of the word yole, meaning a small inshore fishing boat. Designers, work within the class restrictions, adding innovations to each vessel. It is raced in two classes depending on the age of the boat. A newly built boat in 2009 would cost £40,000 while a second hand vessel would be half of that. There is a glassfibre derivative with aluminium spars called a Devon Yawl. The mould for this was taken from a 1968 Salcombe Yawl and because of the nature of its construction is a one-design. There are approximately 300 Devon Yawls and they are built both in the UK and USA.

References

External links

Salcombe Yawl Owners' Association
{{Sailing dinghies and skiffs, state=collapsed Dinghies Salcombe