The Haiyang 2C (HY-2C) mission acquires measurements of sea surface height and requires precise orbit determination (POD). Continuous yaw variation in HY-2C's attitude has been observed and poses a challenge for POD. This study explores HY-2C attitude control based on the actual yaw angle, and a mathematical description of the yaw model is developed to account for the attitude mode. To mitigate modeling issues during yaw maneuvers, insights gained from studying attitude behavior are considered for the practical development of the yaw model. Three months of observations acquired using global positioning system (GPS) instruments were used in the orbit determination and assessment of the yaw model of the HY-2C. For the yaw model solution, orbit self-consistencies of 0.43 cm and 1.46 cm were displayed in the radial and 3D root mean square (RMS) of the overlapping difference, and an uncertainty of less than 2 cm was obtained through independent satellite laser ranging (SLR) validation. However, the orbit quality in the cross-track directions exhibited large errors for yaw-fixed mode. A refined POD strategy was developed and yielded improved self-consistency and precision for the resulting orbits.