The Book of the Sailboat: How to rig, sail and handle small boats

by A. Hyatt Verrill

Probably the first sail ever placed upon a boat was merely a piece of hide or skin, lashed to a sapling and kept spread open by a rough stick lashed across it. Through all the countless centuries this first form of sail has been retained and while the skin has been replaced by cloth and the rough saplings have given place to well-finished poles or spars, the spritsail, as it is called, still remains one of the simplest, handiest and most widely used of sails.

The true spritsail is a square, or nearly square, piece of canvas laced by one edge to the mast and kept stretched flat by means of a pole known as a sprit which extends from the lower part of the mast diagonally across the sail to the upper, outer corner.

Sometimes the sail is attached to hoops or rings which run up and down the mast and a halyard is used in hoisting the sail but, in order to spread the sail well, the sprit must be pulled out by hand and cannot be arranged to rise or fall with the sail. The ordinary method of securing the sprit is to place the tip in a small loop, or eye of rope made at the corner of the sail and then heave the sprit out until the sail is taut by means of a rope known as a lanyard which is attached to the mast and is passed through a hole or a notch in the lower end of the sprit.

Another very simple sail, which is really a modification of the spritsail, is the leg-o’-mutton. This differs mainly from the spritsail in form, for instead of being rectangular it is three-cornered and the sprit, instead of extending from the mast to the upper, outer corner of the sail, extends almost horizontally across it. Leg-o’-mutton sails, like the spritsails, are often arranged to be raised or lowered by a halyard and owing to the position of the sprit it is not necessary to remove it when lowering a leg-o’-mutton sail.

Some spritsails have two sprits, but this is a nuisance and for most purposes the leg-o’-mutton is the far better sail of the two. In the first place it stays flatter and thus enables one to sail closer to the wind; it does not have the tendency to “kick up” and wrap itself about the mast, like the spritsail, when sailing before the wind, and finally it is not so liable to capsize a boat in a heavy wind as the greatest area is low, whereas in the spritsail the upper portion presents the largest surface to the wind.

Various Rigs

1—Felucca. 2—Lugger. 3—Nonpareil. 4—Dandy. 5—Bermuda boat. 6—French gunter. 7—Batten sail. 8—Settee sail.

Somewhat similar to the leg-o’-mutton sail in form is the gunter sail or sliding gunter, which is a great favorite in many parts of Europe but which has never been widely introduced in America, although it has a great many advantages over other sails for small boats. The gunter sail is a very easy one to raise or lower, for there is no sprit to remove and it is very easy to reef. In the gunter sail the mast is made in two sections with the upper portion sliding by travellers over the lower portion, and to this movable part the single halyard is attached. In order to reef sail it is only necessary to lower the sliding mast a trifle, tie the reef points to the boom and again hoist the sail taut.

Another form of rig, which is seen everywhere in Oriental waters, and is the prime favorite with all Latin races, is the lateen. Like the leg-o’-mutton and the gunter rigs the lateen is triangular, but unlike the two former it is longer than high, or in other words, is placed horizontally, instead of perpendicularly. The lateen is a particularly good sail for small boats as the greatest area is low and why it has not been more generally adopted is something of a mystery. As used in the West Indies the lateen is rigged on a single, short mast which points or “rakes” slightly towards the bow of the boat. It has two yards and is raised and lowered by one halyard. It is kept taut and flat by a crotch, or ring, passed around the mast and fastened to the lower yard. Properly made the lateen will set very flat and smooth, it is easily and quickly raised or lowered, readily reefed and is the most graceful and picturesque of all rigs.