History of Gulets

The most famous among the boats and yachts in Turkey is the Gulet.

 

Today's luxurious Blue Voyage boats are separated into three different categories of gulet, tırhandil and aynakıç, but their ancestors the workboats, were much more diversified, both in the form of different hull types and sailing rigs. The purpose of this maritime museum is to bring this different but at the same time rich, though nearly forgotten, maritime heritage to the present.

 

Before tourism began in the South West of Turkey (Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye regions), the boats with lengths varying between 5 to 28 meters, using first sails and later engines, were used in fishing, sponge diving and maritime transportation. Among these old workboats the type tırhandil, whose design probably goes back thousands of years, is usually the first type to be noticed. One can define it as the Aegean double-ender. However, it would not be fair to end its description only with this piece of information, as there are different types of double-enders in the Aegean Sea, like in the other parts of the world. This type of double-ender, the tırhandil, has the following characteristics: a hull with a length to width ratio of 3 to1, a convex stem, a nearly straight stern with little slope, a short keel, a conspicuous sheer line all the way from both the stem and the stern to the middle frame, and a camber ratio of such proportions that make the sides of the boat appear as if almost touching the water. This hull type has been nearly the most favored one in the Aegean Sea for centuries. It was once built in great numbers as the industry of sponge diving expanded. There are still a few tırhandils among the Blue Voyage boats.