Here a Llault, There a Llault, Everywhere a Llault, Llault
As we sailed around the Balearic Islands the WARRIER SHIPS kept appearing. Each port seemed to have a collection of these small sailing vessels, cute in a way, wide in the middle but appeared to have a warrior demeanor. It possessed a distinctive spear-like mast with square sails, similar in looks to a gaffer rig but much smaller more like a bed sheet. This little vessel seemed to shout out it was battle-ready and no one shall mess with the little sailboat that Thinks It Can! Some ports had a few, some ports had a fleet. What were they, I kept asking myself? In the US I had never seen this design before. My curiosity got the best of me although my Spanish is nonexistent. I worked up the courage to ask 2 young men sitting at the port in Ciutadella de Menorca, “Does this boat has a name? Please do not tell me it is a SAILBOAT!”
Although they said they spoke some English, they did not understand the humor in my questions. Their reply was, that it is called what sounded like YHALT. I thanked them with a polite “gracias amigo”. As we walked away, I repeated the word YHALT? Did their reply sound more like they were saying YACHT? OH, very funny telling me this little boat was a YACHT! Silly lady you asked.
Joke on me, we laughed and carried on to dinner but, I continued on my quest to find out about this little boat. Nimble with full sails, I did witness a few zipping in and out of ports and it was intriguing how the sails were constructed and raised. Whole new meaning to “Raise the Main”.
Through a google search, I found this boat is called a LLault, almost YHALT or Yacht but not quite and its origin dated back to the late Middle Ages. They were typically 4-6 meters and varied in construction details. Although today they are built from fiberglass and standard plastic molded construction, they were originally built from wood by specialists called mestres d’aixa (ship’s carpenters in English) and of course handmade.
The Llault was known for transporting trade between the port of Soller and the South of France. Oranges, lemons, oil, wine, and nuts were the Llault’s frequent passengers. According to data from 2010, there were 653 units of traditional Llauts left in Mallorca at that time and I believe we saw 652 of them as we traveled to 9 ports of call in the Balearic Islands.
Mystery solved and knowledge expanded. Add Llault to your nautical vocabulary.
(Source information: Llault, Mestres d’aixa) Photos by, Thann Dauterive, Urs Rathgeb
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