Model of an East coat "Beach Yawl"

Model of an East coat "Beach Yawl" from Southwold rigged. Made by Mr W.H. Hall for the museum. This model represents one of the Beach Yawls employed to supply and tend saling vessels in Yarmouth Road. They worked between Winterton in Norfolk and as far south as Southwold. Scale 1:24

These boats were peculiar to the stretch of the East coast extending from Winterton to Southwold. They were employed to supply and tend the fleets of sailing ships which regularly anchored in Yarmouth Road.

In hull form, the beach-yawl showed a marked resemblance to the long-ships of the Vikings, but were given less sheer, while the stem and stern-posts were more vertical. They probably owe their origin to the boats which the Noresemen introduced to this country during their hostile raids on the East coast during the 8th and 9th centuries. Beach-yawls were of unusual size, some extended 50ft in length, and were the largest type of open boat used round the English coast. Furthermore, those designed with particularly fine lines as pilot boars possessed the reputation of being the fastest undecked boats.

At the beginning of the 19th century they were rigged with three masts and required large crews to man the ten or more pairs of oars and handle the large lug-sails with which they were fitted. But at a later date the central or main-mast was discarded and to compensate for this the area of both foresail and mizen was increased. The mizen was a standing lug-sail; the foresail a dipping lug which had to be lowered and set again on the other side of the mast whenever the vessel went about.