The history of Gullets

The history of Gullets:

There are various types of Gullets as English, Italian, and French Gullets emerged from the form change of the Xebecs in North Africa. All Mediterranean Italians in World War I dominated them. Italians started to make gullets in the 1860s. In 1962, an able seaman Ziya Usta initiated the first production of the Bod rum gulet, which was based on the examples from Greece. Gullets are boats where the rear sail pole is longer than the front pole. Typical features of the Bodrum Gulet are the round stern, grill seating on the stern called sun deck and the dipper gourd shaped ship-nose, which extends forward. It developed much more over time. The apprentices of Ziya Usta, Erol Agan, Junior Ziya and Ethem Mehmet, have progressed much in this profession. The first made gullets are called Heyamola (shanty) by Ziya Usta and Balik (fish) by Erol Agan. As they were manufactured for fishing, they did not have any cabins and they were 18 meters tall. They were extremely big for that period. Apart from them, the biggest wooden boats were Tirhandils 7.5 meters long. The first gullets had a scoop aft until 1986.

Listening to everything about the sea is a distinct pleasure from someone who knows it and lives with it. In this edition of our magazine, we approached the harbor with “Bodrum Gulet” and we listened to the generation, whose roots extend to the sea, about the legendary “Bodrum Gulet”. : Erol Agan, known as “the father of gullet “; Yucel Koya gasioglu, an architect, writer, boat designer, captain and instructor of maritime and sailing; and Hasan Demiroz, a marine gullet master and lover of the sea, shared their passions, dreams and thoughts about gullets to what they dedicated their lives with us. Gullets are sailing boats with a dipper gourd shaped nose, watermelon (round) sterns, wine glass shaped mid-post, long furling and usually with ketch riggings. Not every boat is a gullet. The area of use is different for each. Their characteristic features, harmony with the sea and fighting tactics differ from other wooden boats. Today, ketches, mirror sterns, tirhandils and schooners are all called gullet by those who do not understand the difference between them. In Turkey, wooden yacht construction started in Bodrum; this is why a Bodrum Gulet is stronger and has a different aesthetic. A Bodrum Gulet is different from other geographical ones with the aspect of the sternpost, the geometry of the buttock, the dipper gourd shape of the bow, the difference in the sheer line called blinker, the ceiling placed above and the type of centreboard for sui ting a blue voyage. While million-dollar yachts wait in the waters for the weather conditions to get better, gullets go on like turtles least wise. Even though the water goes over the gullet, it keeps going as it is a sailor. The Aegean's water has the most dangerous wave type. The waves hit once, then hit twice in a row then it repeats. The gullets, which are designed in the form of a wine glass, do not feel the wildness of the sea.