Harper's Round Table, June 2, 1896

by Various

PLATE 3.

It might be said that in the small boat are seen the various rigs, in their simplicity, whose principles have been elaborated and altered to meet the different conditions required. Taking them in order of simplicity, we first come to the "leg-o'-mutton" rig. Here only two spars are used, and no halyards. In No. 1 (Plate I) the boom has no jaws, and is held in place at the mast by catching the projecting end in a sling, and by poking the other end through a cringle in the leech. The only lacing required is to fasten the sail to the mast, the sail only being fastened to the boom (more properly sprit) at the points mentioned. If it is found to bag, the remedy is to shorten the sling until the sail sets flatly. This can never be entirely accomplished, as the sail, being supported by the boom only at the extreme outer end and the mast at the other, is very apt to stretch in a stiff breeze.

Advancing a step, we come to the remedy of this trouble (Fig. 2, Plate I). It is the introduction of jaws at the mast, instead of the rope sling. The tendency to bag is removed, as the sail is fastened at frequent intervals by lacing to the boom, along which it may be kept stretched tightly. Also the tendency of the boom to slide forward is effaced as it butts up against the mast. In this method a much lighter spar can be used, as the strain is made to come more or less throughout its whole length, whilst in the first-mentioned it comes wholly at the ends. The principal objection against the "leg-o'-mutton" rig in general is the great length of mast required. This is one of its most serious drawbacks, and the other is the inability to reef the sail. Of course modifications of this rig have been made, introducing halyards and supplying reef points, but a discussion of that is beyond the scope of this paper, such modifications being rarely seen on a small boat.

As mention has been made of lacing a sail to spars, perhaps it would be just as well to digress a little here, and speak of three well-known methods of lacing. The first, A, (Plate III), is the simplest and about as effective as any. The sail is fastened to the boom by an "over-and-over" lacing. In B, the sail is held by a series of "half-hitches," and in the third, or C, the lacing runs through eyes screwed into the boom.

The next step in rendering the rig more compact is to shorten the mast. This can only be done at the cost of an increase in the complexity of the rigging. A new spar is introduced, and the sail is cut down from a triangle to an area having four sides. Some means had to be found to support the upper edge, and a study of the last three sail plans will show some of the methods in use. Figs. 3 and 4 are nearly equal, as far as simplicity goes, though Fig. 3 is simpler on account of the absence of lacings on the upper edge. This is commonly known as the "sprit-sail," and, taking all things into consideration, it seems to be the most efficient and handiest of all the rigs. Of course it is not as efficient in some respects as the sail in Fig. 5, the same trouble being experienced on the top edge as in the "leg-o'-mutton"—bagging—but it possesses the advantage of greater simplicity. If we examine this rig we will readily see that it is any large fore-and-aft sail reduced to its simplest form. We find, instead of the gaff and the two halyards to hold the sail up, all this is replaced by the simple device of the pole (sprit), one end of which is stuck in a cringle in the upper corner of the sail, and the other caught in a sling. The sail does not move on the mast, and is laced to it. The boom has jaws at the mast, and the sail is laced on, or sometimes the device shown in No. 1 is resorted to, though the former method will be found to make this sail set better. There are no reef points, and the only way to reef is to drop the peak by removing the sprit. Of course it must be understood that this rig is not at all practicable in a boat of any size, but in any of about the size of a row-boat it will be found to be most convenient.

In the next device (No. 4) we approach nearer to the regular "fore-and-aft" sail. There can be seen the introduction of a yard to which the upper edge of the sail is laced, as to the ordinary gaff. No halyards are used, and the yard is lashed to the mast, and held at the proper angle to keep the sail flat by a rope fastening its lower extremity to the mast. The only objection to this rig is that the yard has a tendency to give and to permit the sail to bag. This rig is frequently seen on duck-boats. There is no method of reefing except dropping the yard, unless reef points are introduced.

A DUCK-BOAT TYPE.

Taking a step further we come to the "fore-and-aft" sail proper. Here we find the introduction of a gaff, which might be looked upon as the shortening of the yard in the preceding rig. There are jaws on both boom and gaff, and the sail is movable on the mast, being usually held on by loops, the gaff moving up and down. To take the place of the lashings in the preceding rigs, ropes (halyards) fastened to this spar and passing through blocks at the mast-head and so down have been introduced. Because of the ability to hoist and lower the sail, reefing is accomplished by a row, or rows, of little ropes (reef points), by which it is tied down, thus reducing it to almost any size desired according to the number of reefs tied in. Most small sails of this character have at least one row, and some two; though the small cat-boat usually has three. In a previous article (Harper's Round Table, No. 827) a description of how to tie a reef in the sail of a larger boat was given. The principle is the same in all sized sails, and perhaps it will only be necessary to add here that the reef points are not tied around the boom but around the part of the sail taken in by the reef (D, Plate III). The stop at the outer cringle, however, is tied around the boom. A simple means of reefing, which may be used in all the rigs except the first, is by rows of holes of the same character as the leech cringle; and after pulling the sail down to the proper distance (most sails laced to the mast can, with a little care, be moved), hold the reef in by a single lacing through them, in the same manner as the sail is laced on in A. A stop at the leech is required, as in the preceding method.