Leg-of-mutton Rig. Fig. 4.
The leg-of-mutton rig, whether combined with a jib or not, is the simplest and safest known, for there is no weight aloft such as is inevitable with a gaff. It is a sail exactly adapted to the requirements of a learner. The most nervous mother need not be alarmed if her boy goes sailing in a boat equipped with this rig. The sail is hoisted by a single halyard bent to the cringle at the head of the sail and rove through either a sheave or a block at the masthead. Sometimes the luff is laced to the mast, but it is better that it should be seized to hoops, as shown in Fig. 4. If a boom is used a larger sail can be carried, but it should be only a light spar and the foot of the sail should be laced to it. The boom may be fitted with a topping lift and the sheet be rove as shown in the illustration. In a small open boat no stays are necessary for the mast, but the jib halyards should be belayed to a cleat on one gunwale of the boat and the main halyards on the other, so as to afford support to the mast.
Cat Rig. Fig. 9.
The jib and leg-of-mutton sail is a deservedly popular rig. A short bowsprit may be fitted to a boat and secured to an eyebolt in the stem by a wire bob-stay. A wire forestay may be set up to the bowsprit end and a jib may be bent to iron hanks on it and hoisted by a single halyard. Or it may be set flying.
The advantages of the cat rig (Fig. 9) for general handiness have been often explained. I should advise that the sail be hoisted by both throat and peak halyards and not by a single halyard as is sometimes the case. It is often most convenient to be able to drop the peak, when gybing, for instance, or when struck by a squall. A single topping lift should be fitted with an eye splice to the end of the boom and rove through a block at the masthead and belayed to a cleat on the mast. The main sheet should travel on an iron horse. A short boomkin, with forestay and bob-stay, may help to secure the mast.
The balance lug, which is illustrated in Fig. 8, is quite a popular rig, and it has much in its favor. The sail is laced to a yard and boom and is hoisted by a single halyard rove through a sheave-hole in the masthead and spliced to the eye of the hook of a galvanized-iron traveler, to which a strop on the yard is hooked, as shown in the illustration. On the other end of the halyard a single block is turned in, through which a rope is rove, the standing part of which is made fast to an eyebolt at the foot of the mast and the hauling part rove through a block and led aft within easy reach of the helmsman. The tack should be made fast to the boom and set up to the mast thwart after being passed round the mast. The main sheet should work on a galvanized-iron horse. This rig is quite handy and a boat so equipped is smart in stays.
Balance Lug Rig. Fig. 8.
Showing Traveler and Halyards.