“All right,” said Joe. “I want it understood, however, that my lateen is by all odds the best rig in the fleet.”
“Charley,” remarked Tom, “you said the other day that you liked Joe’s rig better than any other. Do you think so still?”
“Of course I do,” answered Charley. “Joe’s sails set flatter than any lug-sail; he can set them and take them in quicker than we can handle ours, and as they are triangular he has the most of his canvas at the foot of the sail instead of at the head. But they’re going to spill him before the cruise is over, or I’m mistaken.”
“In what way?” asked Joe.
“You are going to get yourself into a scrape some day by trying to take in your sail when you are running before a stiff breeze. If you try to get the sail down without coming up into the wind it will get overboard, and either you will lose it or it will capsize you; you tried it yesterday when a squall came up, and you very nearly came to grief.”
“But you can say the same about any other rig,” exclaimed Joe.
“Of course you can’t very well get any sail down while the wind is in it; but Tom can take in his sharpie-sail without much danger even when he’s running directly before the wind, and Harry and I can let go our halyards and get our lugs down after a fashion, if it is necessary. Still, your lateen is the best cruising rig I’ve ever seen, though for racing Harry’s big, square-headed balance-lug is better.”
“You may say what you will,” said Tom, “but give me my sharpie-sails. They set as flat as a board, and I can handle them easily enough to suit me.”
“The trouble with your rig,” said Charley, “is that you have a mast nearly fifteen feet high. Now, when Joe takes in his main-sail he has only two feet of mast left standing.”
“How do you like your own rig?” asked Harry.