The Leg-of-Mutton Sail.—A very handy rig and one that requires no spars but the masts is that represented in ([Fig. 28]. The masts though long are slight, as there is little strain on them. Each sail is hoisted to its masthead by one halyard, and its luff is kept close to the mast by hoops or more usually by a lacing. A boat thus rigged is possibly the safest of any, and is not easily capsized.
Fig. 28.
The rigs we have so far described are well adapted for a novice, insomuch as they need no booms. As soon as a sail is provided with a boom the danger of sailing is much increased. If you let go the sheet of a sail that has no boom—a spritsail, for instance—it flaps away from the mast innocently like a flag. Put a boom on it, and you at once have a great surface of canvas extended rigidly and offering the greatest possible resistance to the wind. When running before a strong wind a jibe, and especially if it be an unpremeditated jibe, of a sail bent on to a long boom becomes a source of danger.
Thus a green hand or a careless person cannot be safely trusted with a boom sail on a squally day; but when the novice has acquired the rudiments of sailing, and employs that constant caution and watchfulness of his ever-open weather-eye which are indispensable qualities for a sailor, he will most certainly, and very rightly too, prefer the boom sail. For a sail that has no boom is most unsatisfactory if one wishes to get any speed out of a boat. When running free it curves into a bag, and only presents half its area to the wind. It never stands flat, except when the boat is close-hauled, and not always then, unless the sheet is led exactly to the right place; and though a sail without a boom jibes with greater safety, it is much more liable to accidental jibes than one with a boom.
The Balance Lug.—The favourite sail for small centre-board craft in England is undoubtedly the balance lug. Most of the racing boats on the Upper Thames are fitted with this sail; some have jibs, others jibs and mizzens, besides the mainsail; but we will confine ourselves to describing the single-sail centre-board dinghy, which little craft is perhaps unrivalled for the purpose of single-handed sailing on a river.
A handy boat is one fifteen feet long, with five feet beam. She should have a flat floor, and therefore shallow draught. The mast is supported with wire shrouds, and is fitted into what is called a tabernacle, that is, a wooden case for the heel of the mast, having a pivot through it, on which pivot the mast is easily lowered when the boat is passing under a bridge.
The sail, as is shown in ([Fig. 29], is hoisted on a yard similar to that of a standing lug, but the foot of the sail is laced to a boom, and extends some distance in front of the mast. One end of the tack is fastened to the boom, where it crosses the mast, and the other end of it is secured to the mast.