‘Ness Yawl’, designed by Iain Oughtred

There are boats that water your mouth; you just look at them and the saliva starts flowing, and before you know it you are drooling from your lips. A well-built Ness Yawl is such a vessel. Designed by Iain Oughtred, after the style of the Shetland Yoles, she is functional, but very graceful. She has a rather narrow waterline beam, and with her pronounced ‘V’ shaped bottom, and her long, straight, shallow keel, she rows very well. Under sail, in the hands of an experienced sailor, she can be made to fly when the sea dances and the wind pipes a tune.


Ian allows a choice of sail plan. Technically, when she’s rigged with two masts as shown on the plans, she’s a ketch, not a yawl. She’s a ketch, because her mizzen mast is stepped before her rudder*. I like the simplicity of a single balanced lugsail, but the gunter sloop version is appealing and this configuration looks promising for windward performance. Trailering a Ness Yawl would not present a problem, even to a small family saloon car. Launching and retrieval should be a piece of cake. (See last Link below) She’s too long to fit in the usual UK garage, but you might get a Jordan Boats 16’ 10” ‘Tirrik’ to fit. She’s a smaller version of the Ness Yawl.


*Ketch – Concise Oxford Dictionary definition: ‘A two-masted, fore-and-aft rigged sailing boat with a mizzenmast stepped forward of the rudder and smaller than its foremast.’


Notes

Ness Yawl Double-ended beach boat
LOA 19’ 2”
Beam 5’ 3”
Weight 275 lbs
Draught 8”
Sail Area 102 sq ft (Lug) 133 (Sloop)
Construction Glued lap clinker plywood
Building Time 300 hrs + Rig 90 hrs
Crew 1 – 2 (Two can camp aboard under tent)
Plans Available from Ian Oughtred, ‘The Piers’, Finhorn, Moray, 1V36 0YF, Scotland, UK.


Links


Jennie Henderson, Ness Yawl (Excellent Photos)

http://www.kosmoid.net/vh/jeanie


Ness Yawl pre-cut kits

http://www.nisboats.com/mainpages/oughtred.html


Ness Yawl Kits

http://www.jordanboats.co.uk/JB/iain_oughtred.htm


Giacomo de Stefano’s Ness Yawl Voyage on the River Po

http://unaltropo.files.wordpress.com/2009/01/29-331.pdf


Building the Iain Oughtred Ness Yawl

http://dory-man.blogspot.com/2009/01/im-flattered-by-your-interest-in-selkie.html


Tirrik – smaller version of the Ness Yawl – Jordan Boats

http://www.jordanboats.co.uk/JB/IainO_Catalogue/Tirrik.pdf


Trailering a Ness Yawl (See Page 23 ‘A Tale of Two Trailers by Alan Glanville
)
http://www.dca.uk.com/DCA_Bulletin_188.pdf