A yawl is a two-masted sailing craft whose mizzen, or aft-most mast, is usually substantially shorter than the mainmast and is positioned aft of the rudder post. Historically, the term has also been used for a ship’s (rowing) boat.
A yawl is similar to a ketch, where the mizzen mast is forward of the rudder post. Additionally, the relative size of the mizzen sail to compared to the main sail tends to be significantly smaller on a yawl than on a ketch. A boat with a mizzen sail sized between that of the ketch and the yawl was called a dandy, although this term has fallen out of use.
An advantage of the yawl’s aft-positioned mizzen mast is that its boom does not swing across the deck.
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