Gulet

A gulet is a traditional two- or three-masted wooden sailing vessel from Turkey's southwest coast, built mainly in Bodrum and Marmaris for charter cruising. It is a type of boat rather than a brand: many independent Turkish yards build gulets, each to its own lines.

The word reached Turkish through Mediterranean seafaring terms for schooner, the Italian goletta and the French gouëlette, and the hull form may descend from vessels of ancient Ionia. Gulets began as working boats. Their move into tourism followed the writer Cevat Sakir Kabaagacli, who popularized the Blue Cruise, a slow voyage along the Aegean coast. Demand for trips out of Bodrum and Marmaris grew through the 1960s and 1970s, and by the 1980s gulet cruising had become affordable enough to support a full charter industry.

A typical gulet is 14 to 35 meters long and wooden-hulled, with low freeboard and a wide, open deck that suits life at anchor. Two masts are more common than three. Yards in Bodrum and Marmaris still combine traditional methods with modern materials, and a new hull usually takes nine months to a year to complete. Nearly every modern gulet runs on a diesel engine, and many are not properly rigged for sailing, so charterers who want real time under sail should ask about the rig before booking.

Charter is the gulet's modern trade. Crewed boats follow itineraries descended from the original Blue Cruise along the bays around Bodrum and Marmaris, and the type remains popular for tourist charters across the region. GetBoat lists gulets of various sizes for charter on the Turkish coast.