_______________________ THE CANOE YAWL (2) _____________________

The ironic thing about canoe yawls is that strictly speaking these wonderful little boats are not always yawls. Technically many are actually ketches because the mizzen mast is in front of the rudder head. Neither are they always canoes. Although the hull is double ended like a canoe the more evolved types are never paddled like a canoe, rather they are rowed with long sweeps. It gets even more complicated considering that many canoe yawls, although double ended, do not have the celebrated 'true' drawn out 'canoe stern', their sterns being more like that of the Colin Archer type. So the appellation 'Canoe Yawl' is a broad reference to a 'type' - both the early yawl rigged canoes that were also paddled and the bigger boats that evolved over many years in the UK of which a modern example is shown in the above photograph.

This particular canoe yawl (above) is the beautiful little 18 foot Nutmeg designed and built in the UK by David Moss. She is a modern build of the type and includes all the elements that make these little boats so enticing and pleasing to look at.

A brief history of the evolution of the canoe yawl which is inextricably linked to the Humber Yawl Club of the late 19th Century will be the topic of subsequent blog post.