Lanteen

To most of us in England, the boats of the Mediterranean are characterised by the Lanteen sail with it's huge spar and a sail something in shape like a 30/60 triangle. Studies have shown it to be a very aerodynamic rig with good upwind performance, which sets a large amount of sail area on a relatively low mast.

Thanks to Jaume Escanellas in Mallorca who blogs at La Mar (Google Chrome will automatically translate for you as best it can from Catalan to English) for sending these pictures. Jaume originally posted comments on the recent post about a Greek Fishing Boat regarding the Mallorca Lanteen Association which has some great photographs of these boats. There are clear differences in boat type between a "bot" and a "lute" which are referred to on the site, bot refers to a transom stern boat as in the post on Capitan Valdes, so I'm guessing a lute is a double ender, perhaps someone more knowledgeable could confirm.


Below are a collection of traditional boats in the Mediterranean port of Sete in the south of France with many similarities to Jaume's Balearic boats, the flush deck to the bulwarks would have made a very effective platform for both fishing and sailing, the small hatches providing access below and a very secure way of keeping water out without the complication and potential weakness of cabin construction.

And of course there are those lovely long lanteen spars.