Devon Yawl Sailboat Review, Specs, and Listings

Design and Construction

What gives the Devon Yawl its distinctive character is the clinker-moulded glassfibre hull, a technique that lets the modern boat look and sound much like the wooden Salcombe Yawl it descended from. The lay-up was robust from the start: the boat was never intended to be a lightweight flyer, and the clinker mouldings gave the structure stiffness and longevity that help explain why these boats hold value on the second-hand market. As a strict one-design the class used glassfibre hulls and lightweight aluminium spars, yet retained the wooden bowsprit of its ancestor and the heavy cast-iron centreplate shared with the Salcombe Yawl. Fixed internal lead ballast of about 144 lb combines with a substantial 175 lb aerofoil centreplate to give a 33 percent ballast ratio at a 950 lb displacement, making the boat markedly more stable than a 370 lb Wayfarer.

Rig and Handling

The two-masted yawl rig is genuinely flexible rather than merely traditional. The sail plan carries 150 sq ft with the jib and 167 sq ft with the genoa, so the boat can be sailed hard with the genoa for decent speed, or dropped down to jib and mizzen for gentle pottering. Owners report she sails close to the wind and is particularly good upwind; with the wind on the nose she points high and "talks" to the helmsman, the steady and positive helm telling the crew when a gust means she wants to point higher. Writing in Practical Boat Owner, the reviewer was caught off guard by her speed in a breeze that seemed too soft for a boat of this type, and owners report the class is quicker than similar-looking craft and can hold its own against lighter dinghies in mixed racing. The 11-inch draught with plate up and 4 ft 6 in with plate down, handled by a drum winch, lets her reach almost anywhere a shallow-draught centreboard boat can go.

Accommodations and Seagoing Use

Below the little decks there is stowage beneath the fore and stern, and the centreplate case is shaped to intrude little on the cockpit. A family crew has room to spread out without fouling the helmsman, and the boat can be kept safely on a mooring. Yachting World found the built-in stowage and sea-kindly behaviour made her an excellent cruising dinghy, while the same stability and the option of trolling under power or anchoring off a sandbank mark her as a versatile companion afloat. Owners report she will handle most seas and, in bad weather, still sails excellently under jib and mizzen thanks to that heavy plate and internal ballast.

Known Issues and Ownership Notes

The most safety-relevant point is structural rather than fault: providing the side tanks are sound, even a flooded Devon Yawl will not sink. An older example such as hull No. 85 shows a traditional wooden floor over a shallow flat bilge, a detail worth checking on early boats for rot or distortion. The class administration has long been active — the Devon Yawl Association, founded in 1979 and affiliated to the Royal Yachting Association, runs the National Championships and publishes a newsletter, "The Yawl," while active fleets stretch from Topsham and the Dart to North America. Production transferred to James Gough-Allen of Pennant Yachts in 2014, who built a fresh hull mould after finding the original distorted from outdoor storage and launched his first boat in 2015; he was, at the time of writing, modifying the cockpit for self-draining to gain a CE mark.

The Verdict

The Devon Yawl is a rare thing: a traditional-looking yawl that behaves like a proper boat, stable enough for a family, quick enough to race, and shallow enough to explore. Around 400 have been built, with about 20 of those from Andrew Siwik in Connecticut, and the class remains in build in both the UK and USA. For the sailor who wants heritage without the fragility of timber, she is an easy boat to recommend.

Pros