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What is the purpose of the mast that is located on most trawler power boats?

Most "Trawler" style boats have a mast on the rear portion of the boat. What is this mast for? Is it for deploying some sort of sail, or is it meant to support some kind of rigging for net or line fishing? I'm curious about the historical and current uses for such a mast.

Public Comments

1. Well, the boat wouldn't look right without a mast, but there is a practical purpose: to support the boom that's used to launch and retrieve the dinghy. See this example: http://oya.com/brokerage/46bonneidee.html
2. It has many uses. Used as a derek or crane to lift heavy objects, dinghy, etc. Also, used with a a sail to augment motor. Used with a sail to help keep the boat from rolling in swells. Used to keep the bow into the wind in heavy weather and/or at anchor. Probably more functions I don't know about.
3. Their main pourpose used to be to carry a small sail to keep a boat pointed into the wind while its doing work at a standstill. So many other uses have been added to it over the years its still kept on even if there is no need for the sail anymore.
4. It's a good place to mount radar, spreader lights to light the upper deck, and the anchor light, as well as other stuff like a weather station. It usually has a boom to lift dinghies, etc. Some are also rigged for a steadying sail, to reduce roll while underway, but these usually don't work too well. You could also rig a sail as get-home power, but this also isn't usually very efficient, due to the size of the mast and rigging vs. the vessel size. Another use is to rig a small sail to stop "hunting" back and forth at anchor.