Image: Wikimedia Commons

ketch

Type of sailing boat

Instance of: watercraft type
, rigging
Subclass of: watercraft

Overview

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · Read full article · Text CC BY-SA 4.0

A ketch is a two-masted sailboat whose mainmast is taller than the mizzen mast, and whose mizzen mast is stepped forward of the rudder post. The mizzen mast being stepped forward of the rudder post is what distinguishes the ketch from a yawl, which has its mizzen mast stepped aft of its rudder post. In the 19th and 20th centuries, ketch rigs were often employed on larger yachts and working watercraft, but ketches are also used as smaller working watercraft as short as 15 feet, or as small cruising boats, such as Bill Hanna's Tahiti ketches or L. Francis Herreshoff's Rozinante and H-28.

Overview

On other databases

10 identifiers linking ketch across the web's reference databases

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Source last edited August 17, 2026. AIDB refreshes this page daily.

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AIDB. (2026). ketch (Q753784). Retrieved from https://aidb.si/e/ketch-Q753784