Editing Yawl (section)

==Ship's boat==
[[File:26 ft Yawl RMG J0796.png|thumb|The plans for the hull of a 26-ft yawl built for the Royal Navy in 1809 in [[Portsmouth Dockyard]]. It is fitted for 10 oars.]]

The yawl as a type of Royal Navy ship's boat appeared early in the second half of the 17th century. In early mentions, they were sometimes referred to as "Norway yawls", so showing a Scandinavian influence. Later yawls were built in [[Deal, Kent|Deal]], Kent. Both were clinker built, but those from Deal had [[Stern|transom sterns]]. When Navy dockyards started to copy the Deal-built boats, they moved to [[Carvel (boat building)|carvel]] construction. The size of an individual yawl would vary depending on the size of the ship to which she belonged - though the yawl was usually the smallest of the several types of boat typically carried on each ship. In 1817, Royal Navy yawls were issued in eight different lengths between 26&nbsp;ft and 16&nbsp;ft. After this date, the yawl  was less commonly used. The sailing rig was two-masted, typically setting identical sprit-sails. The number of oars depended on the size of the boat, eight and six being common, with some pulling just four oars.{{sfn|May|Stephens|2003|pp=28, 53, 57, 71, 91}}