What Is A Two Masted Sailing Ship Called?

The brig is a two-masted sailing ship, originally built in the 18th century with square rigging on both masts and sometimes having a spanker on the aft mast. Sailboats with two masts include yawls, ketches, schooners, and brigs. A schooner is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts, with the foremast generally being shorter than the boat. Boats with two masts or more are the ketch, yawl, brigantine, brig, and the schooner, with the schooners having two, three, or in rare cases, four masts.

A two-masted sailboat is most likely a yawl, ketch, schooner, or brig. To determine which one it is, you must locate the mainmast (the tallest). A yawl is a type of boat that can have several meanings, including the rig (or sailplan), hull type, or the use the vessel is put. A yawl has two masts: a mizzenmast and the mainmast. A schooner is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts.

The most common monohull modern sailing yacht is the sloop, which features one mast and two sails. If the mast is stepped aft of the rudder head, the boat becomes technically a yawl not. Several types of sailing vessels boast two masts, including the ketch, the yawl, the schooner, and occasionally a variant called a lugger. The term originated with the two-masted ships, also powered by oars, on which pirates terrorized the Mediterranean in the 16th century.