It will be gathered that the advantages of a yawl are mainly dependent on the general weight of her spars and rigging being less than are the weight of the spars and rigging of a similarly sized cutter. Taking a cutter and merely reducing her boom in length, whilst all her other spars and her rigging and blocks remain unaltered, and encumbering her with a mizen, would be no advantage at all, either for racing or cruising; in fact, the mizen would far exceed in weight the trifling reduction that had been made in the main boom; hence many " converted cutters " are failures as yawls. Neither has a racing yawl, as frequently sparred up to the present Y.R.A. main-boom regulation,* any advantage in point of weight of spars and rigging over the weight of spars and rigging of a similarly sized cutter— there are exceptions of course—and it could not be expected that such a yawl would obtain any advantage, even with rig allowance, in competitive sailing, so far as sailing by the wind goes. Down the wind and along the wind the inferiority is less patent, and occasionally a heavily sparred yawl, with her rig allowance, will beat the cutter.
Allowing—as there is not the least doubt about the matter—that a judiciously sparred racing or cruising yawl has less weight of spars than a cutter of similar tonnage, we come to the consideration of the usefulness of the mizen sail. About this matter opinions will widely differ. For sailing to windward, most sailors will agree that the mizen sail is not worth its attendant weight of spars and rigging ; but as to the extent it affects the handiness of the craft there will be no such agreement. In 1875 the Oimara was converted to a yawl for her winter cruise to the Mediterranean; but, before she was clear of the Clyde, the mizen went by the board. She proceeded without a mizen, and with her yawl boom sailed all over the Mediterranean, and for two seasons, in a similar guise, cruised in British waters. Her sailing master informed us that he never felt the want of the mizen in any weather that he encountered; and this is conceivable when we consider that generally, in heavy weather, the first sail to stow on board a yawl is the mizen. This brings us to consider whether, after all, the advantages of the yawl are not entirely dependent upon her resemblance to a very reduced cutter, with short boom and bowsprit ; and whether the advantages would not be increased by the absence of the mizen altogether? The fact that the mizen can be stowed in bad weather, to avoid reefing the mainsail, is hardly an argument in favour of having one; and, as what may be termed its active advantages in affecting the handiness of a vessel are not of much importance, we think that the " reduced cutter," as before hinted, has all the advantages of a yawl without the incumbrance of a mizen. Of course, a cutter with her main boom inside her taffrail is not a very sightly craft; but with the boom-end plumb with the taffrail, and bowsprit proportionately shortened, the beauty of the cutter rig would not be outraged, and the general weight of spars, rigging, and blocks could be very much less than the weight of spars of a yawl with similar sail area.
However, in a fashionable cutter, where the tonnage approaches 100 tons, the main boom becomes a very awkward stick to handle, and for cruising there is not the smallest doubt that a yawl of 80 or 100 tons with a main boom plumb with the rudder head is a much more comfortable craft to work than a cutter of similar tonnage. We have evidence of the objection taken to long booms in the case of the large pilot vessels and fishing vessels, as whilst they are invariably cutter-rigged up to about 80 tons, we find that the schooner rig is preferred above that tonnage.
A modification of the ketch rig is much in use by coasters, and we have often heard it recommended as superior to the yawl rig ; but with this we do not agree, as, owing to the narrowness of the mainsail, there is no rig which, area for area, yields such a heeling moment as does the ketch rig. The final conclusion which we arrive at is that, for the yawl to possess any advantages over a snug cutter, she must be very judiciously sparred, and it should be always recollected that the mere fact of carrying a mizen does not make a comfortable sea boat. The yawl's mast can be a trifle less in diameter than a cutter's (we are assuming that the sail area is to be nearly equal), the bowsprit can be very much less, the boom can be very much less, and so can the gaff ; the standing and running rigging can be lighter, and so can be the blocks ; but great care should be taken that the spars and rigging of the mizen do not exceed the total reduction that has been made in the weight of the main spars and rigging. The weight of mizenmast and rigging on the counter will not, it is true, punish a vessel like a heavy bowsprit outside the stem; but it must be remembered that almost the sole advantage of a yawl, so far as behaviour in a sea goes, depends upon her total weight of spars being less than would be the total weight of spars of a cutter with a similar sail area. The supposed require ments of a racing yawl are incompatible with the advantages generally claimed for the rig; it is, however some satisfaction to know that the yawls which have hitherto been most successful are those which have been sparred and rigged with an intelligent appreciation of the conditions upon which those advantages depend. Apart from behaviour in a sea, the principal advantage of the yawl rig is that, even if her spars as a whole be equal in weight to those of a cutter of similar size, she can be handled with a smaller crew ; but this advantage will not be very apparent until 70 or 80 tons are reached.