Achill Yawl festival

oscarBravo

I went out the the launch (!) of the Achill Yawl festival yesterday. Given the title of the event I was expecting to see more than three boats, but it was a lovely evening and some rather pretty boats.

They look more like gaff-rigged sloops than yawls to my untrained eye. I was intrigued to see one of the boats on a downwind run untie the clew and tack of the sail, and hold them in place on either side of the boat to use it like a spinnaker. It seemed to pay off in terms of speed.

hopscotch

Its always a bit slow to take off as a festival and unfortunately some of the races are not very spectator friendly, but when there's a good turn out of boats and the right weather conditions its a beautiful sight.

The original Achil Yawls were a double ender and alot smaller than the modern versions. The square stern yawls had already existed when the racing realy took off years ago and they were the ones returning the good results so that as a result any new boats being built were of that design.
They capped the size of boat and sail area around 8 or 10 years ago but at that stage the yawls didn't remotely resemble the original.
Theres still a few double enders butt only one actual original, built in 1923.

Its still fairly unique though and well worth a look later in the season when a few more boats turn out.

Lovely picture by the way...

ValerieR

Nice picture indeed.
Just a small question, would you happen to have a picture showing the rigging detail of the sails from a starboard tack side of things ?
Thank you

Valerie

oscarBravo

Like this?

Tabnabs

Beautiful boats and all, but why are they calling them yawls? Surely that is a lateen rig?

Oacla

I am Skipper and Owner of Saoirse a 25ft 10in square stern yawl.
My first yawl was an original doubl ender at just under 23ft. when built in the early 70's it was a very large yawl. More typical lenghts would be 20 or 21 feet.

My first yawl was not being sailed at the time I bought it. It had an inboard 8hp diesel and was used to dredge oysters. The OMalleys removed the engine and brought it back to its original glory.

There are three boat builders in Achill. In Currane there are the O Malleys who built the 2 yawls i have owned.
In Saula the extended patten families are boat builders.


Up to the advent of the outboard th eAchill Yawl was a standard carvell Yawl. Some existing yawls had wells fitted in the stern but this took up valuable space. As yawls were being built they migrated to "Square stern" as they are call locally.

As a result of the improved bearing, the square sterns could carry more canvass and handled better when comming about, Thus the demise of the original.

Until max dimensions were fixed for boat and sail a number of years ago there was a formula-1-esque development . Usually bigger each year. which meant money bought titles.

Something had to be done.

Max specifications;

BOAT LOA; 26ft

Sail; sheet to top of sail 30ft
foot 23ft 6in
Gaffe/Yard 23ft 6in

Skippers have pushed the envelope to it max by utilising the latest laminate and battened sails.

In your picture is the Yellow Rose owned and skippered by Michael Patten Bunacurry. This boat has true pedigree built sailed and maintained by the family for many years probably sixties.

If you wish to see some nice photos visit our facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Achill-Yawl-Sailing/187653031289229

Look up the entry for the Michael McLoughlin Memorial Cup to see Saoirse in all her glory:)

The opening race this year was dissapointing. Friday night does not help with many skippers and crew travelling from Dublin the UK and even Australia for the festival. I did not make the start either. the biggest turn out this year was 7 boats so far.

When work was better, skippers and crew thought nothing of abandoning work Thursday or friday afternoon to get to races in Achill. Work is farther up the priority list now and the Calander will have to recognise this in future.