Rig (sailing)

A sail-plan is a formal set of drawings, usually prepared by a naval architect. It shows the various combinations of sail proposed for a sailing ship.

The combinations shown in a sail-plan almost always include three configurations:

A light air sail plan. Over most of the Earth, most of the time, the wind force is Force 1 or less. Thus an effective sail plan should include a set of huge, lightweight sails that will keep the ship underway in light breezes.

A working sail plan. This is the set of sails that are changed rapidly in variable conditions. They are much stronger than the light air sails, but still lightweight. An economical sail in this set will include several sets of reefing ties, so the area of the sail can be reduced in a stronger wind.

A storm sail plan. This is the set of very small, very rugged sails flown in a gale, to keep the vessel under way and in control.

In all sail plans, the architect attempts to balance the force of the sails against the drag of the underwater keel in such a way that the vessel naturally points into the wind. In this way, if control is lost, the vessel will avoid broaching (turning edge-to-the wind), and being beaten by breaking waves. Broaching always causes uncomfortable motion, and in a storm, the breaking waves can destroy a lightly-built boat.

The architect also tries to balance the wind force on each sail plan against a range of loads and ballast. The calculation assures that the sail will not knock the vessel sideways with its mast in the water, a capsize and possible sinking.

Sailing frigate and its rigging.

Terminology

In English, thanks to the British Admiralty, all sail-plans call a sail by the same name, no matter what their sail-plan. Once a sail is named, its ropes have standard names according to their use. So once a sailor learns the standard names for the sails, he knows the terms for all the parts on any sail-plan.

A sail plan is made by combining just a few basic types of sails:

• A fore and aft sail is one that, when flat, runs fore and aft. These types of sails are the easiest to manage, because they often do not need to be relaid when the ship changes course.
• A gaff rigged A gaff-rigged sail is a fore-and-aft sail shaped like a truncated triangle whose upper edge is held up by a pole called a gaff. The top of the gaff rigged sail tends to twist away from the wind reducing its efficiency when close hauled. However, due to the gaff on the top edge of the sail the gaff rigged sail the center of effort is typically lower, somewhat reducing the angle of heel (leaning of the boat caused by wind force on the sails) compared to a similar sized Bermuda rigged sail.
• A square sail is set square to the mast from a yard. To furl and unfurl this sail, sailors would have to climb the rigging and walk out on "footropes" under the yard. It is not, as commonly thought, named after its approximate shape.
• A lateen sail is a triangle with one or two sides attached to a wooden pole. This is one of the lowest drag (the sailing term is windage) sails, and it's often easy to manage.
• A Bermuda or Marconi sail is a triangular sail with one point going straight up.
• A staysail is a piece of cloth that has one or two sides attached to a stay, that is, one of the ropes or wires that helps hold the mast in place. A staysail was classically attached to the stay with wooden or steel hoops. Sailors would test the hoops by climbing on them.
• A jib is a staysail that flies in front of the foremost vertical mast.
• a bowsprit is a horizontal spar extending from the bow (front) of the boat. It is used to attach the forestay to the foremost mast.

Sails were classically made of hemp or cotton. They are now made from polyesters (Dacron and PET film), sometimes reinforced with crystalline hydrocarbons (Kevlar and Spectra™). Some large, lightweight sails are made of polyamides (Nylon).

Ropes are almost as important:

• standing rigging does not change position. Usually it braces the masts.
• running rigging is used to adjust sails and anchors.
• a line is a rope.
• a stay is a rope that doesn't move, part of the standing rigging, usually located in the fore-aft plane of the vessel.
• a shroud is similar to a stay, but is located in the athwartship plane of the vessel. Thus, shrouds come down to the sides of the boat and are attached to chainplates.
• a vang is a rope used to pull something around or down.
• a sheet is a rope used to adjust the position of a sail so that it catches the wind properly.
• a block is the nautical name for a pulley. It may be fixed to some part of the vessel or spars, or even tied to the end of a rope. The sheave is the wheel. A fiddle block has two or more sheaves in one block. A snatch-block can be closed around a line, to grab the line, rather than threading the end of the line through the block.
• A shackle is a piece of metal to attach two ropes, or a block to a rope, or a sail to a rope. Customarily, a shackle has a screw-in pin which often is so tight that a shackle-key must be used to unscrew it. A snap-shackle doesn't screw, and can be released by hand, but it's usually less strong or more expensive than a regular shackle.
• halyards are the ropes on which one pulls to hoist something. E.g. the main-topgallant-halyard would be the rope on which one pulls to hoist (unfurl) the main-topgallant-sail.
• running lines are made fast (unmoving) by belaying them to (wrapping them around) a cleat or a belaying-pin located in a pin-rail.

Ropes were classically made of manila, cotton, hemp or jute. They are now made of stainless steel (301), galvanized steel, polyester (Dacron), polyamides (Nylon), and sometimes crystallized hydrocarbons (Kevlar and Spectra™).

The standard terminology assumes three masts, from front to back, the fore-mast, main-mast and mizzen-mast. On ships with fewer than three masts, the tallest is the main-mast. Ships with more masts number them. Some barks (see below) have had as many as twelve masts.

The heights of the sails on a square-rigged vessel are named roughly after the bravery of the man needed to work on each, except the skysail. From bottom to top, the sails of each mast are named by the mast and position on the mast, e.g. for the mainmast, from lowest to highest: main course, main topsail, main topgallant (pronounced "t'gallant"), main royal, and main skysail. Since the early twentieth century, the topsails and topgallants are often split into a lower and an upper sail to allow them to be more easily handled.

On many warships, sails above the fighting top (a platform just above the lowest sail on which snipers were positioned) were mounted on separate masts ("topmasts" or "topgallant masts") held in wooden sockets called "tabernacles." These masts and their stays could be rigged or struck as the weather and tactical situation demanded.

In light breezes, the working square sails would be supplemented by studding sails (pronounced "stuns'l") out on the ends of the yardarms. These were called as a regular sail, with the addition of "studding." For example, the main top studding sail.

The staysails between the masts are named from the sail immediately below the highest attachment point of the stay holding up the staysail. Thus, the mizzen topgallant staysail can be found dangling from the stay leading from above the mizzen (third) mast's topgallant sail to some place (usually two sails down) on the second (main) mast.

The jibs, the staysails between the first mast and the bowsprit, were named (in order of distance along the bowsprit) fore topmast staysail, inner jib, outer jib and flying jib. All of the jib's stays meet the foremast just above the fore topgallant. Unusually, a fore royal staysail may also be set.

The stays below a bowsprit are martingales, and those above it bracing the bowsprit are bobstays. The martingales are often the strongest stays on a ship, and often constructed of chain. The pole hanging vertically down from the bowsprit is called the 'dolphin striker'.

The stays on a ship roughly form hoops of tension holding the masts up against the wind. Many ships have been "tuned" by tightening the rigging in one area, and loosening it in others. The tuning can create most of the stress on the stays in some ships. This was a common emergency procedure on sailing warships.

Almost every type of tall ship had a gaff-sail on the mizzenmast, and called it the spanker. This would sometimes be split into lower and upper spankers.

A ship would fly its ensign and anchor light off a drop line from the spanker's gaff.

Standard plans

• sloop a Bermuda or gaff mainsail lifted by a single mast with a single jib bent onto the forestay. The mainsail is managed with a spar on the underside called a "boom." One of the best-performing rigs, it is the fastest for up-wind passages. It is by far the most popular for recreational boating because of its simplicity and potential for high performance. On small boats, it is a very simple rig. On larger sloops, the large sails have high loads, and one must manage them with winches or multiple purchase block-and-tackles.

• cutter, Like a sloop with two jibs in front. Better than a sloop for light winds. It's easier to manage, too. But, it has (very) slightly less up-wind ability than a sloop because it has more windage.

• yawl, is like sloop with a mizzen mast located aft (closer to the stern of the vessel) of the rudder post. The mizzen is usually small, and is often intended just to help point the boat upwind and balance it when going downwind. It is commonplace for badly-designed yawls to sail faster with the mizzen removed.

• ketch, is like a yawl, but the mizzenmast is often much larger, and is located forward of the rudder post. The purpose of the mizzen is to make the sails smaller and more manageable than they would be on a sloop with the same sail area. The shorter masts also reduce the amount of ballast needed to keep the boat upright. Generally the rig is safer and less prone to broaching or capsize than a comparable sloop, and has more flexibility in sailplan when reducing sail under adverse conditions. The ketch is a classic small cargo boat.

• catboat, a single gaff-rigged sailboat. This is the easiest sail-plan to sail, and is used on the smallest and simplest boats. The catboat is a classic fishing boat. A popular movement among home-built boats uses this simple rig to make "folk-boats." One of the advantages of this type is that there's no boom to hit one's head or knock one into the water, as there are in the sloop-derived boats. However, the gaff is mechanically complex, and adds weight high in the rigging. The gaff's fork (jaws) is held on by a rope threaded through beads called trucks (US) or parrell beads (UK). The gaff must slide down the mast, and therefore prevents any stays from bracing the mast. This usually makes the rig even heavier, requiring even more ballast.
• baringer: A cheap, small sailing rig. When the term went out of use, no-one noticed, which implies that the type of rig remained in use under a different name. The best guess is that they were small single-masted gaff-rigs, a type that can still be purchased today.
• gunter: a rig designed for smaller boats where the mast is often taken down. It consists of a relatively short mast (usually slightly shorter than the boat so that it can be stowed inside) and a long gaff (often only slightly shorter than the mast). However, rather than the usual trapezoidal shape of a gaff sail, it is essentially triangular, like a Bermuda rig. This allows the gaff, when hoisted, to pivot upwards until it is vertical, effectively forming an extension to the mast. Thus a decent-sized sailing rig can be added to the boat while still allowing all the equipment to be stowed completely inside it. The popular Mirror class of dinghy is gunter rigged for this reason.

• schooner, a two-masted gaff-rig. It mounts jibs and staysails, and often little triangular top-sails. One of the easiest types to sail, but it goes poorly to up-wind without the topsails. The extra sails and ease of the gaff sails make it easier to operate, though not necessarily faster, than a sloop on all points of sail other than up-wind. Schooners were more popular than sloops prior to the upsurge in recreational boating. The better performance of the sloop upwind was outweighed for most sailors by the better performance of the schooner at all other, more comfortable, points of sail. Advances in design and equipment over the last hundred years has diminished the advantages of the schooner rig. Most schooners sailing today are either reproductions or replicas of famous schooners of old.

• brig two masts, both square-rigged with a spanker on the mainmast.

• brigantine two masts, square-rigged on the foremast and fore-and-aft rigged on the mainmast.

• barquentine is a three masted vessel, square rigged on the foremast and fore-an-aft rigged on the main and mizzen masts. Some sailors who have sailed on them say it is a poor-handling compromise between a bark and a ship, though having more speed than a bark or schooner.

• barque, three masts or more, square rigged on all except the aftmost mast. Usually three or four masted but five masted barques have been built. Lower-speed, especially downwind, but requiring fewer sailors than a ship. This is a classic slow-cargo ship.

• ship a series of square-rigged masts, with stay-sails between. Ships originally had exactly three masts but four and five masted ships were also built. Faster, but requiring more sailors than a barque. The ship was the classic sailing warship because it had the highest performance on all points of wind.

• bragana or felucca: A classic in the Mediterranean or Indian Ocean: three lateen sails in a row.

• xebec, a three master with square-rigged first mast, and two lateen sails following. This is a North African pirate's cheap approximation of a warship.

• junk the standard Chinese design: Elliptical sails made flat with bamboo inserts, permitting them to sail well on any point of sail. Easy to sail, and reasonably fast. The nature of the rig places no extreme loads anywhere on the sail or rigging, thus can be built using light-weight, less expensive materials. Some of the largest sailing ships ever constructed were junks for the Chinese treasure fleets. Junks also customarily had internal water-tight rooms, kept so by not having doors between them. Usually they were constructed of teak or mahogany.

Sail-Plan Measurements

Every sail-plan has maximum dimensions. These maxima are for the largest sail possible and they are defined by a letter abbreviation.

• J From the bow to the Mast
• I The height of the Mast
• E The length of the boom
• P The height from the boom to the top of the mast
• Ey The length of a second boom (For a Ketch or Yawl)
• Py The height of the second mast from the boom to the top of the mast

See also

• Glossary of nautical terms
• Rigging