Boat Sailing in Fair Weather and Foul, 6th ed.

by A. J. Kenealy

Sliding Gunter Rig. Fig. 5.

Detail of Sliding Gunter Rig, Fig. 6.

The sliding gunter rig, which is shown in Fig. 5, has this much to recommend it: it is easily set if rigged as shown in the illustration and it can quickly be reefed. It will be seen that the mast is in two pieces, the topmast sliding up and down the lower mast on two wrought-iron rings or travelers. The halyards are sometimes made fast to the lower traveler and sometimes to the upper. They reeve through a sheave-hole in the lower masthead and may be set up with a single whip purchase. The lower mast may be supported with a single wire shroud on each side and, if the double headrig is carried, with a wire stay to the stem head. The sail should be laced to the topmast and secured to the lower mast by hoops or iron rings leathered. These should be large enough to slide easily up and down the mast, which should be kept well greased. The topmast should be so rigged that the upper iron can be unclamped and the topmast lowered down so as to permit the sail to be stowed like a gaff-sail along the boom. With the sail thus furled the boat will ride much easier in a breeze or a seaway. In Fig. 6 the working of the rig is shown: 1 is the lower mast, 2 the topmast, 3 the halyards, 4 the upper ring, or traveler, with a clamp and pin to permit the lowering of the topmast, 5 the lower ring or traveler, which is fitted with a hinge at 6; 7 is the gooseneck of the boom to which the foot of the sail is laced. Reefing is simple. Lower away on the halyards, make fast the cringle on the luff of the sail, at whatever reef band is desired, to the gooseneck on the boom. Haul out the corresponding reef earing, make it fast, tie your reef points and hoist up the sail again by the halyards. A topping lift is necessary.

The spritsail is not often seen in these waters, but it is a good sail for a small boat. I warn the beginner, however, against its use in a craft of any pretensions to size, for he will find the heavy sprit much more difficult to handle than a gaff. A spritsail is similar in shape to the mainsail of a cutter, with the peak higher and the foot shorter, as in Fig. 3. The sprit is a spar which crosses the sail diagonally from luff to peak. It is thick in the middle, and each end is tapered. The upper end fits into a cringle or eye in the peak of the sail and the lower end into a snotter on the mast. The sprit stretches the sail quite flat and thus a boat is able to point well to windward. The snotter is a piece of stout rope having an eye in each end, one being passed round the mast and rove through the eye in the other end, the heel of the sprit fitting in the remaining eye. If the snotter carries away, the heel of the sprit may be forced by its own weight through the bottom of the boat; accordingly, as it has to stand considerable strain, it should be made of stout stuff. To set the sail, hoist it up by the halyards, slip the upper end of the sprit into the cringle in the peak, push it up as high as you can and insert the heel into the snotter; then trim the sheet. In large boats the snotter is made fast to an iron traveler which is hoisted by a whip purchase as shown in Figs. 1 and 3.

Folding Centerboard. Fig. 10.

The sprit rig cannot be said to be pretty, and when the sail is large it is difficult to reef it. I should not counsel its use except in a boat intended for both rowing and sailing, where the sail would be so small as to be easily muzzled in case of a squall. The spritsail is hoisted by halyards, rove through a block or sheave-hole at the masthead and hooked to a cringle at the throat of the sail. The tack of the sail is lashed to an eyebolt in the mast. In reefing the sprit must be lowered by shifting the snotter further down the mast.