How to Sail a Yawl

A yawl is a sloop rigged sailboat that has a mizzen (or rear) mast that carries an extra sail. The mizzen mast provides the boat with a little bit more propulsion and, importantly, an effective means of balancing the forces of the other two sails. Follow these steps to sail a yawl.

Instructions

1. Use the mizzen instead of the main. In stronger winds the mizzen sail and the jib (or whatever headsail you choose) make a very good alternative to the mainsail on a yawl. Using the mizzen and headsail to power the boat keeps the vessel balanced, reduces weather helm and helps prevent the boat from becoming overpowered in heavier winds.

2. Drop the mizzen in deep reaches or runs. In these cases, the mizzen serves only to disrupt the main and headsail. On downwind points of sail, dropping the mizzen will maximize hull speed. If dropping the mizzen present too much of a problem, keep it midships to minimize disruption to the larger sails.

3. Use large headsails downwind. Yawls have a relatively small rig compared to their hull dimensions. This requires you to be a little bit more creative on downwind sailing runs on which an asymmetrical spinnaker or regular spinnaker provide the extra power needed to get the boat moving forward.

4. Experiment with mizzen configurations. The best thing you can do to sail a yawl is understand how the mizzen sail affects the boat's performance in a variety of situations. Use different sails, different sail sets and even try reefing the mizzen and other sails to correctly balance the boat. You should generally be sailing without much helm to weather or leeward on a yawl, so play around until you learn comfortable configurations for different points of sail.