Wylo2 gaff rigged yacht

Welcome to a Wylo II boat yard.

I'm building a Wylo II gaff rigged cruising yacht.  This blog is mostly about wylos but also my interest in boats in general and a love of the sea.

This blog may have some usefull information for those fairly new to this kind of thing, contemplating a wylo building decision, are in the process of building or those who want to do some refitting of a wylo or similar yacht.   Many things on the build have a fair bit of leeway and there's quite a few mini-projects to think out and work through.

 

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About Wylo II s

The wylo2's designer is Nick Skeates from the UK.  In the 1970s while on his first circumnavigation, Nick needed to replace his original  28' yacht named Wylo . He decided to design and build his own boat so the original 32' gaff cutter centerboarder Wylo II took shape, was launched in Whangarei, NZ. She  sailed on to many world class destinations in 3 circumnavigations (at last count).  The classical design style of Wylo II has its roots in 19th century working craft around Cornwall, UK but has modern steel construction methods, materials and some fittings of more recent times.   Interested yachties contacted Nick and some began building and sailing wylos. A growing number of wylos are now sailing the oceans or under construction . Wylo II and Nick are still exploring the oceans today.

The design is  medium displacement, economical and practical to sail. It is sometimes referred to as the land rover of the oceans. The Wylo II design caught the imagination of yachties who like to be a bit more independent.  Designed with ocean passage seaworthiness and comfort in mind, wylos are also at home in a shallow tidal estuary, exploring an inland canal  or entering a South Pacific atolls lagoon pass. They arent slouches either and can get a fair daily run of 120-150 nm downwind or reaching. There is a standard accomodation plan but owner-builders can fit-out their boats to their own interior layout designs styles and budgets. It is a yacht for creative builders and adventurous sailors.

The hull shape and raised deck make it very strong and roomy for a boat this size. The keel is long and very solid. The origianl Wylo II has a 32' hull and centerboard with 3'3" shoal draft board up. Beam is 10' and displacement 6.3 tons. The deck is made of  wood attached to steel flanges on the cabin top sides. The advantages of this are a cooler naturally insulated decking material which is nice on bare feet and eyes down below. The minimal draft is handy for estuarine sailing, canal motoring or anchoring near shore inside most of the fleet in busy anchorages.

My hull design version is the longer 35'5"  hull with fixed keel. (Photo below) It has 4'3" draft which compensates the weight of an all steel deck. This version gives slightly more interior and deck space plus longer waterline length with displacement is up to 6.9 tons.  The beam remains at 10'. Besides the other advantages shoal draft in steel  will probably handle a grounding situation without too much damage.

Although the wylos keel is of  hydrodynamic cross-sectional design, extra leeway due to shoal draft when beating to windward may not help win any round the bouys races against fin keeled bermudan sloops with spade rudders. However in a cruising situation, a wylos 20-30 horsepower inboard engine with a good propeller should alleviate any upwind slogs to the next anchorage.

My rig plans are gaff rigged cutter similar to Wylo II s rig. There are 5 sails - Gaff main, boomed staysail, jib, flying jib and gaff top-sail. The mast and spars are wooden with traditional blocks and strops etc. The mast tabernacle, in conjunction with the bow-A frame rail  ( aka shearlegs) allows the mast to be lowered to horizontal and it rests on boom gallows at the stern for motoring under low bridges etc. The bowsprit can be dismounted for canal locks etc.

There are 2 other wylo rig versions. Bermudan cutter and Junk rigged ketch. The Junks have keel-stepped free standing masts and good rig handling charateristics. Bermudan rigs are more familar territory.

The rudder is transom hung, as far aft as you can get.  Coupled with the full length keel aft, it provides good downwind tracking ability, great thing for trade-wind passages. Self-steering on Wylo II is with a mechanical horrizontal axis wind-vane coupled to a trim tab on the rudders trailing edge. The rudder and tab are fairly well protected by the aft end of the keel in case of a grounding, accidental or intentional.

Most  fittings can be fabricated in steel. Galvanised to gleaming stainless or a combination  is possible.

Wylos can be beached upright for maintenance, a feauture usually only enjoyed by bilge-keelers, so few expensive haulouts are needed. Wylo II has two beaching legs which bolt on amidships. Middle to low tide gives a few hours for below waterline maintenance work such as hull scrub, zinc anode replacement, rudder checks etc.

25HP is the max design horse-power for Wylo II . The recommended location of the iron topsail is below the main companionway hatch. A good position for maintenance, the engine box can be removed for access all around it in a large space (no crawling into claustrophobic holes). The motor can be lifted in or out using the yachts main boom with a block and tackle (or chain block), then swung over the side onto a jetty or into a pickup truck on the beach at low tide. Wylo II has a keel-cooler system this means that only fresh water ever gets inside the engine and there's no saltwater coolant intake to get blocked up by weeds when steaming up rivers (also a few less holes through the hull, any of which have potential to let water in when you least expect it).

The hatches are larger than usual to allow for  extra ventilation below decks. They have 3" high coamings with fully welded 3/4"  pipe tops to help keep water out. Rubber sealing strips bedded onto the pipe tops should provide water tightness. My coamings are cambered with the deck, similar to the original. It should be a slightly stronger, lighter and lower windage shape than the alternative flat-hatch design which are also popular because they're likely to be easier to build and seal.

In particular i liked the large forehatch which on Wylo II was big enough to allow a 250cc motor bike to be garaged in the forepeak next to the workshop bench. The forehatch is hinged, front or rear opening for different climates, weather and circumstances. 

Though not on the plans, I added central skylight hatch coamings. The skylight was a later modification to Wylo II and many other wylos have done likewise either during or after building. It gives extra light and air above the main saloon table. A dinghy is often stowed upsidedown on this part of the deck at sea. 

The raised cabin  gives good internal space and a  wide flush main deck. No side decks, the cabin sides join the gunwales. A rub rail of channel steel is fully welded to the hull 4" below the gunwale as per plans (Some builders have moved the rub-rail up to gunwale level for more practical effect)

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The RIG

The wylo II gaff cutter rig  has some practical advantages.

• It can be home built and rigged
• The boat can be handled and sailed solo, with crew they can get more rest off watch.
• The mast can be raised and lowered  by one person.
• The main boom doesn't have to be de-rigged when raising-lowering the mast.
• The gaff drops easily into lazy jacks under its own weight, even when sailing downwind. The main sail won't blow back up the mast in a squall either.
• The stay sail has a self tacking boom and sheet system, which makes for easier manoevering in tight anchorages.
• No expensive winches are required, block and tackle with leverage thrown in does alot of the work.
• The rig has lower strains and stresses than modern rigs.
• Smaller sails to handle.
• Sails can be set or lowered quickly as required to control boat speed and angle of heel. Handy in a tight anchoring situation or when a squall hits. Small-sail drops and raises are easier than putting in-shaking out large mainsail reefs and changing larger headsails.
• Mainsail reefing  is less often than conventinal bermudan rigs because small sails up high or forward are dropped first,  full main can be held onto longer than normal.
• The staysail has reefing points which is easier than unhanking - hanking on different sized jibs.
• In big swells the topsail and gaff peak present alot more sail area up high to keep the power on when the hull is down in troughs between waves.. 
• Hanked jibs nearly always come down when the wind blows up, especially with a downhaul on the other end of the halyard. The outer jib can be bought aboard and the staysail can be lashed to its boom.
• The hull and gaff rig complement each other.
•  The jibs are inter-changeable.
• Most of the maintenance of the rig can be done by the crew with old-tech methods off the beaten track

Nothings perfect, there are some disadvantages ,  and some ways to minimise them

• Alot of ropes aloft  = more windage - Its hard to stop windage but the alot of ropes on deck is reduced by  two belaying pin racks on the shrouds, not clustered at the mast or turning the cockpit into spagetti.
• Can't point as high to windward - Its a bit of a problem for coastal crusising at times. I heard that proffessionally cut and made sails make a big difference.

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Deck Layout

Wylos are all tiller steered from the aft deck. The tiller can be pulled out of its socket once the windvanes engaged at sea or when anchored in port, which frees up alot of aft deck space at these times.

I went for a conventional aft cockpit as per the plans (above),  somewhere to put your feet, fish and maybe take a bath following a tropical downpour?, A cockpit makes the safety rails higher and makes it a bit more comfortable for sailing. However, it does cut into aft peak bunk space below deck a little. The cockpit drains directly through scuppers in the transom. The quarter berth area is below deck to starboard and the lazarette hatch is to port.

Other wylos have a flush after deck and i often wonder if this would have been better, certainly simpler to build this way. This gives plenty of deck room, no cockpit to fall into and good headroom for a wide quarter berth below. Two fore and aft toe rails are fitted where a cockpit edge would normally be, to keep crew in place when heeling or rolling.