Pros and Cons of Ketch?

[MicHughV]

ya, some men like blondes, other like brunette's...and n'ever they'll meet in the middle...

I like 'em all.....sailboats that is....but ketches hold a special place in my heart...I recognize they are not the most modern, fastest or latest....but certainly, the most alluring...for me.....

so, at the end of the day, you like what you like, and I like what I like...we can still be friends...

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

ya, some men like blondes, other like brunette's...and n'ever they'll meet in the middle...

I like 'em all.....sailboats that is....but ketches hold a special place in my heart...I recognize they are not the most modern, fastest or latest....but certainly, the most alluring...for me.....

so, at the end of the day, you like what you like, and I like what I like...we can still be friends...

I dare you to say that in a Covid thread..

[akopac]

Funniest thing I’ve heard all day. Thanks

[MicHughV]

aja, Boatman, I'm fortunate that I live in an area which takes this Covid thing with a grain of salt. A walk on our area beaches will demonstrate that....1,000's of beachgoers, but not a mask to be seen.....no "social distancing" either. You do, off course, get the odd person (most likely a visitor to the area) arriving at the beach, mask on, dressed from head to toe in some or other protective gear.
I have yet to see any of the marina staff wear a mask in the past year....not once...not ever..neither do the hoards of people coming to use their boats...
Interestingly, I fished in a kingfish tournament recently, probably 400 boats, people from every neck of the woods...not a mask to be seen...
What is to be inferred from this, I cannot say......but I'm not standing in line for a vaccine shot....so you lead the way...

[sailingunity]

Originally Posted by dfelsent

Ahh ketch, ketch, ketch, ketch.
...

Pros again? More places to put stuff to maintain, like radar, and wind generators, and antennae, and radar reflectors, and foghorns, and halyards.......

Ditto, our ketch had radar, VHF antenna and wind generator atop the mizzen.

[sailingunity]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Ah, yes, the triatic stay... kinda awkward for drying the linens, but Ooohhh so handy for the cormorants and shags to roost upon whilst taking their hourly dumps.

Priorities...

Jim

Ours didn't have a triatic, but had backstays on both the main and mizzen mast. Redundancy I guess?

[MicHughV]

I always had this idea, that if I ever lost the main mast overboard while out on the high seas, I could remove the mizzen and re-position it where the main stood. The mizzen was relatively lightweight so moving it would not have been an issue.
Never had to test this theory...thank goodness....but....I was prepared.

For this reason, I never installed a triatic stay..I wanted the masts to be independent of each other.

The ketch....it's a good setup !!! Now a Yawl makes no sense to me at all, but a Ketch has got it right.

[dfelsent]

I’ve a ketch with no triatic. But I ended up with something I always said I never wanted. Runners. They are on the mizzen. Easy to manage. The main backstay is an inverted Y shape.
When dressing ship I end up putting halyards with flags where the triatic would be.

[alaskanviking]

The book "Further Offshore" was written in the 50's to 60's post WW2 and right as race rules started to influence boat designs. They're doing offshore races with mostly cutters and ketches and have a lot of really good information about both setups. It is more a Bible on the cutter rig but he talks about ketches quite a bit too.

Cutter was more of a reaching rig, power mostly from the front sails. Lot of information you don't see on how to sail a cutter effectively, that we are only just starting to see again with the newer America cup boats.

Ketches he said was more of an off wind rig and couldn't perform on the reach as well as a cutter. He described the advantages similarly to what many have posted here. Smaller sails, easier to balance, can really change your sail plan around to adapt to different situations, can leave one man on watch to run the whole rig or single hand easily.

What I didn't see mentioned yet, and applies to yawls as well. You can sail backward using the mizzen. Sail back out of a slip or off a mooring ect instead of using the engine. Nice redundancy there. The book also says ketches are also cabable of putting out some serious sail in light winds. He goes into a couple sail plans, including an interesting 2 spinnaker setup with large bow spinnaker and smaller mizzen spinnaker.

From what I have seen and sailed on, I think I prefer the cutter rig. maybe a schooner is the better option. Ketches generally have shorter heavy masts. A lot of wood spars that I think is too much maintenance and work. I have seen a small handful that had taller rigs as large as a cutter and some sloops. Those puppy's moved. I read about a ketch with tall carbon spars and lightweight rigging that I would be very curious to see how it sailed.

[MicHughV]

true...on my ketch I often sailed with only the spinnaker and mizzen staysail up, neither the main nor mizzen interfere with the wind flow over either of these sails, so keeping them up, full and flying was a piece of cake..

long live the ketch !!!

[dfelsent]

Yes for the backwards mizzen only move. It’s not so much backwards as always pointed into the wind.
When I drop sails it’s down wind to furl the jib, upwind to drop the main into the lazy jacks and gallows. Only then bother to start the engine. Because the mizzen keeps her into the wind. If the engine doesn’t start? Jib and jigger.
Picking up a mooring, or dropping the anchor, mizzen is up. And trimmed hard. Keeps the bow into the wind.
Hauling anchor or dropping mooring, mizzen is up too. Mizzen up and trimmed, main up but not trimmed, slide back,jib out, main in, sail away.

[geoleo]

Originally Posted by sailingunity

Ditto, our ketch had radar, VHF antenna and wind generator atop the mizzen.

I had a wood garden 35 ketch for 21 years. Seldom hoisted the mizzen -but the mizzen boom was very useful to hold the fixed awning over the cockpit. (Actually I had raised the mizzen boom 16" for more headroom . )

[fourlyons]

After sailing my cutter many miles offshore and coast wise, I love my ketch even more. Won't go into the pros or cons, they've been covered (except, lower center of effort means less heeling).
But I will add, all of Dashews personal sailboats, after the first two, were ketches, and he knows a thing or two about sailing fast and far offshore.

[Mainstreet]

Aside from all the legitimate functionality of the ketch in terms of sail selections, ease of handling and mast height; in spite of all these pluses, they’re just so much more pretty than sloops or cutters!. There a downright magnificent, dropdead gorgeous vessel. You can even cross the main with a square sail if you choose or rig her as a wishbone ketch. Go for the the heart stopping beauty of the rig!

[pcmm]

Originally Posted by dfelsent

I’ve a ketch with no triatic. But I ended up with something I always said I never wanted. Runners. They are on the mizzen. Easy to manage. The main backstay is an inverted Y shape.
When dressing ship I end up putting halyards with flags where the triatic would be.

Ok, I’ll bite...if you’re using halyards as a Triatic, how do you get them back down when you want to use them as...halyards? You can’t be climbing to the top of your mizzen mast all The time.