Solent Old Gaffers Annual Race - 50th Anniversary

Back in the Autumn of 1958 some local yachtsmen sat in the back bar of the Jolly Sailor pub in Bursledon and agreed to hold a race specifically for gaff rigged boats. Gaff rig describes a boat with a square main sail, which has a wooden spar both at the top and bottom of the sail. It was common on traditional English working boats, but even back in the 1950's wasn't competitive against the triangular "Bermudan" sails which were ubiquitous among more modern racing craft.

The first race had only three entries and was the first Old Gaffers Association OGA race. Since then the race has been held annually with increasing numbers.


Sunday saw the 50th anniversary of the race, with a fine turn out mostly from the local Solent OGA. The sky's were low and grey with a stiff breeze blowing from the south west which made for an exciting and fast race.


Running off from the East Knoll buoy the fleet was spreading out on a fast run, despite the strong winds most boats were setting as much sail as they dared.

Back in Bursledon for the prize giving, everyone had enjoyed a thoroughly good race and returned without any major breakages.

Winner of the class 1 was the yawl Iseult which in addition to winning the 50th anniversary race, also celebrates her 100th year.

Bursledon Regatta August 29th 30th

Our local Bursledon Regatta takes place at the end of August (29th/30th). The regatta which celebrates it’s 139th year , starts on Saturday 29th in the Elephant Boatyard and has the theme “Pirates of the Caribbean” which should provide a colourful backdrop to the event.

On Saturday (29th) morning dinghy races run from Lands End Hard down river, past Hamble and Warsash villages and out around the cardinal buoy in Southampton water, before turning back to the finish at Bursledon.

In the afternoon the rowing races will take place in Bursledon pool between the Elephant yard and the Jolly Sailor pub. I’ll be racing Gato Nego against the Hamble gigs, as I did in the Hamble River Raid in back in May, so please come and cheer me on.

If previous years are anything to go by, the dinghy parade promises to be interesting, expect at least a couple of pirate ships to turn up for the parade.

Photo’s below are from last year’s regatta when the theme was “Camelot”. The winning entry was a castle complete with damsel in distress and working drawbridge – not bad for a 12 foot dinghy!!

The evening event kicks off with a torch lit dinghy parade, hog roast and music, followed by fireworks.

Sunday (30th) has the bigger yachts racing out in the Solent, as an additional attraction the Solent Old Gaffers will be attending the regatta to mark the 50th anniversary of their first race which was run from the Elephant Boat Yard.

I’d also like to extend a thank you to the regatta committee and the many sponsors who make this annual event such a success.

Start 'em young

I had so many nice comments and emails over my post about baby Joseph, that I thought indulgent or not, you might like to know about his first trip afloat.

Here he is at 16 days old, kitted out in his new life jacket aboard the yacht club launch on his way up the Hamble River to our yacht Greta.




Completely unfazed by the motion or the new surroundings, he settled into a peaceful sleep until it was time for a feed.

Similarly undisturbed by the trip back to the club, he was the star attraction in the bar.

Back in the Water

One of the good things about living close to the boatyard, is being able to take equipment off the boat and store it safely for the winter. Here's my father-in-law wheeling the main mast back to the boat. It's been in the garage since November, safe and dry. With four new coats of varnish as a "touch up" over winter, the spars are looking really nice (see post Winter Work).

Greta is a Cornish Yawl, built by Cornish Crabbers she was in fact the prototype which was owned and fitted out by the designer Roger Dongray and exhibited at the Earls Court Boat show London in 1988. Over winter she's been ashore at a local boatyard where I replaced the cutlass bearing and repacked the stern gland along with the normal winter work of polishing and anti fouling.

When we arrived with the mast, Greta was already on the slipway, there was a big spring tide and the yard was taking the opportunity to launch as many boats as possible ahead of the upcoming Easter weekend.

Just as I was motoring her down the river to her berth there was an unexpected hailstorm and of course I had forgotten my wet weather gear. I got completely soaked. However the sun eventually came back out once she was safely on her mooring.

This is Greta at the end of last season, one of the really frustrating aspects of a counter stern is the water splashing over the boot line staining her otherwise gleaming topsides. This year I'm going to make much more of an effort to keep her well scrubbed. But then again I might just go sailing!!!

Whats in a name?

Well actually quite a lot.

I was recently in discussion about a prize that is to be offered for the first “Yawl” to finish a race for traditional and working boats.

Sounds pretty simple, because most sailors know what a yawl is, right? Well maybe not.

The yacht club bore piped up "what's the problem, a yawl has the mizzen aft the rudder stock, a ketch has it forward !"

Well that may be a widely accepted definition, but if we agree that premise, then no boat with a stern hung rudder could be said to be yawl rigged – where would the mizzen go?

Since the prize was offered by the family of someone who famously sailed (well famous in local circles) a yawl rigged working boat of precisely this type, that couldn’t be correct.

Perhaps one of the most famous of this type of working boats is the Falmouth Quay Punt - stern hung rudder, therefore the mizzen must be forward of the rudder post - sorry can't be a Yawl - hmmm.

More curious still, take the Salcombe Yawl – oops that too has the mizzen forward of the rudder – what a dilemma, maybe they need to rename it the Salcombe Ketch!!

Given that so many English working boats had both a stern hung rudder and a small mizzen, maybe the position of the mizzen relative to the rudder isn't the whole story. This seems to be confirmed by some further research.

yawl / yôl/ • n. a two-masted fore-and-aft-rigged sailboat with the mizzen boom overhanging the stern.

Well that's a possibility which offers more flexibility and accommodates the many traditional working boats with the rudder fitted to a transom stern. But, while this description relieves the problem of mizzen location relative to the rudder, I’ve seen plenty of ketches where the mizzen overhangs the stern, so this can’t be correct.

The famous American Naval Architech Francis Herreshoff appears to support the view that relationship between rudder and mizzen are not critical when he states: “"Yawl had nothing to do with rudder placement relative to the mizzen - a yawl rig is the sail and mast configuration that suits a Yawl boat". A helpful if a somewhat circular argument, but you have to take Mr H seriously.

One of the problems seems to be that the accepted use of "Yawl" comes from the yachting fraternity, where the counter stern has been common place since the beginning of the 20th century. Stepping the mizzen on the counter stern, behind the rudder made sense and avoided all the complicated and un-yacht like contrivances such as a cranked tiller, which is necessary if the mizzen is stepped immediately ahead of the rudder.

This influence from “yachtsmen” was also very strong in America, where Yawls came into prominence under the CCA rating rule in the 1950s. The CCA rule did not measure the sail area carried between the main and the mizzen. This meant that the added sail area of the mizzen staysails or mizzen spinnakers was free of any rating penalty. These designs were most definitely yachts with counter sterns and the mizzen stepped behind the rudder. Memorable examples are Ondine, Figaro, Maruffa, Escapade, Dorade, Sabre and Carina II. All clearly Yawls by any definition.


Not surprisingly some designers took things to extremes, Bill Luders created a yawl that had no mainsail and sailed under genoas and mizzen flying sails. It was called Storm, and without a mainsail, it had a very low rating and won everything in sight. This upset the rule makers so they changed the rule to require a mainsail. Next season Luders showed up with Storm — at 44 feet LOA — sporting a mainsail the size of a Laser's. He won again.

Going further back to the early part of the 20th Century, Henry Coleman Folkard, in his book Sailing Boats from Around the World; says of the yawl rigged boat, “the mizzen is stepped further aft (than the ketch) near the stern post - and is much smaller in proportion to the mainsail (in comparison with a ketch mizzen)”.

This seems a most useful definition for our purpose, which applies to working craft and yachts alike.

Coleman Folkhard was enthusiastic about the yawl rigg in his summary "For comfort and convenience the yawl rigg is one of the best and handiest that is known, whether for yacht or pleasure boat large or small” – he goes on to say -“ it (yawl rigg) is admirably adapted for a shooting or fishing yacht; in fact no better rigg is known for either purpose".

In summary a reasonable description of the yawl therefore might be “a two masted fore-and –aft rigged sailing boat, where the mizzen is smaller than the main mast and is stepped close to the rudder stock; and where the mizzen is small in proportion to the mainsail”.

Or at least it might be if it were not for the fact that Francis Herreshoff , Coleman and others distinguish between yawl and yawl rigged. If then our definition above describes a “yawl rigged “ boat what then is a yawl?

Warrington Baden-Powell commenting on "canoe yawls" in Forest and Stream, 10/17/1889: refers to -" a double ended boat as used by a man-of-war similar to a ship’s jolly boat or pinnance, normally rowed by four to six oars".

He continues "The term yawl has nothing to do with rig; it is an indefinitely old sea term for a sea-coast model of boat which was of long form and light construction, used for both sailing and rowing, without fixed ballast; such boats to this day are the Yarmouth yawls, the Norway yawls and the coble.”

"A work on naval architecture of 1793 describes the 'yawls' carried then on men-of-war 'for sailing and rowing' (like this one on Gavin Atkin's In the Boatshed Blog)as practically of a form we should now call whaleboats, i.e., sharp at each end; and further, the same authority says of the Norway yawl: 'Of all such boats this yawl seems best calculated for a high sea; it will venture out to great sea distances when a stout ship can hardly carry any sail."

In conclusion are we agreed, the yawl being a type of boat while yawl rigged describes the sail plan which accommodates both yachts and working craft?

Not so fast.

Here is a delightful 1903 Long Island Oyster Sound Sloop looking very much yawl rigged.

And finally my favourite is “Favourite” a “Whitstable Oyster Yawl” which is certainly not a rowing boat. Nor according to the restoration team is it yawl rgged.

“Favourite is an oyster yawl. The rig, perhaps surprisingly, is a gaff cutter and not a yawl which would usually mean a second smaller mast abaft the rudder post. As far as we know few, if any, of the Whitstable oyster yawls had a second mast rigged as a true yawl. We do not really know the origin of the term yawl in this usage - can you help?"

If you have comment or input on any of the above I’d be delighted to hear from you.

Please email me