Ketch for sale

What is a ketch?

Main features of a ketch

A ketch is a sailboat whose rigging has 2 masts: the main mast (also called mainmast) and the mizzenmast (or aft-mast), which is shorter and located at the rear of the boat in front of the helm station. This stabilises and increases the sail area. The first mast, with a cutter rig, supports the mainsail as well as several headsails on a bowsprit, while the second mast carries the mizzen sail. Ketch rigs can be used on a monohull or multihull (slightly rarer). This rig is often compared to the yawl (or sloop) since they look very similar. The only difference is that on a yawl, the mizzenmast is positioned behind the helm station.

A ketch can be rigged in three different ways:

• a double-spreader ketch: the main mast and mizzenmast both have a square-topped gaff rig with a spreader;
• a single-spreader ketch (or gaff rig) : the mainmast will have a mainsail with a spreader and square rigging while the mizzen mast has a marconi mainsail;
• Bermudian ketch (or marconi): this is the rigging found on modern ketches. Both masts have a marconi sail and the foremast may have one or two headsails.

The history of ketches

Etymologically, ketch is derived from "catch", which refers to a fishing catch. This is because, traditionally, ketches were fishing vessels whose rigging setup made it easy to fish with nets.