Yoal

The yoal, often referred to as the ness yoal, is a clinker-built craft used traditionally in Shetland, Scotland. It is designed primarily for rowing, but which also handles well under her traditional square sail when running before the wind or on a broad reach.

The word is cognate with yawl.

Until about 1860, yoals were imported in kit form from the area around Bergen in Norway. The traditional small wooden boats were known as either Strandebarmer or Oselvar from Os in Hordaland, Norway. The wooden boats were taken apart and then 'flat packed' for shipping to the Shetland Islands. Instead of sending complicated assembly instructions, they sent Norwegian boatbuilders to re-build them. However, increasing customs duty meant that Shetland builders took over the building but stayed mostly with the original Norwegian design.

All the parts of a yoal have a name, perhaps to make assembly easier when they came in kit form, or to make it easier to order spare parts. In many cases, the names of the parts bear a closer relationship to Norwegian than British usage. The descriptive text on this page names most of these parts.

There are six boards to the construction of a yoal, they are from the keel up, the gabbard straik; the Hassen Straik; the lower sool; the upper sool; the sand straik, and the upper wup.

The boards were fixed to three main frames baands which curved across the keel between gunwales, underneath the tafts (seats), and also to the stammerin or cant frame, near both bow and stern, before fixing to the fore and aft stems. The upper wups were joined by the hinny spot where they met the horn, at the top of the stem, for added strength.

The baands were not fixed to the keel, this again adding to the flexibility of the yoal.

The baands divided the boat into four sections: the fore room, for fishing tackle etc.; the mid room, for ballast; the owsin room, which was kept clear for bailing, owsin, any water which came aboard, using an owsekerri; and the shot room, which is where the catch was stored.

To save the gunwales from wear, at each aer, (oar), position a block of hard wood, the routh, was fixed in position with two wooden pegs called routh pins. Sticking up from the routh was the kabe, a hardwood peg, against which the oar was rowed. The oar was held in position against the kabe by a loop of rope called the humlieband.

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Wikipedia