Guy (sailing)

A guy is a term for a line attached to and intended to control the end of a spar on a sailboat. On a modern sloop-rigged sailboat with a symmetric spinnaker, the spinnaker pole is the spar most commonly controlled by one or more guys.

There are two primary types of guys used to control a spinnaker pole:

1. The afterguy is attached to the clew of the spinnaker, and runs through the jaws on the outboard end of the pole and back to the cockpit. The afterguy is used to rotate the outboard end of the pole around the mast in order to optimize the sail's effectiveness, depending on the direction of the wind. Because a spinnaker has two clews, there is always a second guy similar to the afterguy attached to the free end of the spinnaker. This is called the lazy guy, since it is not bearing any load. When the boat gibes the spinnaker pole will be moved from one side of the boat to the other, causing the lazy guy to become the afterguy and vice versa.
2. The foreguy is also attached to the outboard end of the spinnaker pole, but it is rigged so it pulls down on the end of the pole. The foreguy is used to keep the end of the pole from lifting up under heavy wind. In addition, it can be used to change the shape of the spinnaker slightly to make the sail more efficient. The foreguy should not be confused with a downhaul. While both the foreguy and downhaul perform the same function, they attach to the pole in different places: the foreguy at the end and the downhaul in the middle.