"You will not find the main-brace in a schooner, and you will not find the particular one that man meant anywhere, I hope. The main-brace in a ship is one of the two by which the main-yard is trimmed. Vulgarly, to splice the main-brace, means to take a dram.
"On the mainsail of the Lily, we shall have three rows of reef-points, by which we reduce the sail to as many different sizes as the force of the wind may require. At the outer leach, in line with the reef-points, is a cringle. This is simply a hole, through which a line, called the reef-pendant, is passed, and by which it may be lashed down to the boom. Another is used at the luff; and when the sail is hauled down with the reef-pendants, the points are tied in square knots, so that they can be easily cast loose. In the foresail, we shall have but two reefs; often, there is only one."
"What is a balance-reef?" asked Dick Short, who had never seen any thing of the kind on the lake.
"A row of reef-points is sometimes, but very rarely, extended from the throat of the gaff to the cringle of the upper line of reef-points in the outer leach. When this reef is put in, only the peak of the sail is hoisted. It is used in very heavy weather, when the other reefs are not sufficient.
"On the jib, laced to the lower leach, is a piece of canvas called a bonnet, which makes the jib so much larger. The Lily has a bonnet on her jib, which she will wear except when the wind is so strong as to render it necessary to remove it.
"Through the end of the main gaff is a hole, sometimes fitted with a sheave, through which the ensign-halyards are passed. This is the place to display the American flag, which is the ensign in the navy. On yachts, under certain circumstances, it is carried as a challenge to another yacht to sail with the one carrying it.
"The Lily is to be provided with gaff-topsails, not so much to increase the amount of canvas, as because, among the hills that surround the lake in places, there is often a breeze aloft, when there is none, or next to none, below. These sails are triangular in form, and are usually bent on a pole to which the halyards are attached. Sometimes the sail is shaped like the mainsail, and then the pole becomes a sort of yard. Besides the halyard by which the pole is hoisted, there are two other ropes by which the sail is worked from the deck. The tack passes through a block at the mast-head, so that the inner corner of the sail can be drawn down by it. The sheet, sometimes called the clew, is rigged in a block at the outer end of the gaff, so as to correspond with the other sheets, and passes down to the deck. It is not necessary to go aloft to set the sail, unless something gets foul.
"I have disposed of the ordinary sails of the Lily. She may be provided with several others. On the fore-topmast-stay, we may set a jib-topsail or a balloon-jib. The former is a comparatively small sail; while the latter extends to the topmast-head, and reaches aft to the fore-rigging. It is made of light duck, and is bent to the stay with spring hanks, so that it may be readily taken off and stowed below. This same sail may be used as a spinnaker, in which case, the tack is rigged at the end of a sort of studding-sail-boom carried out from the fore-chains. It is used in either way only when the wind is free; that is, abaft the beam. We might also set a staysail, which is square; the upper clews being hoisted to the topmast-heads, and the tack and sheet secured near the deck. This may be used on the wind."
The students then went to the wharf.