A sail A sail is any type of surface intended to generate thrust by being placed in a wind—in essence a vertically-oriented wing. Sails are used in sailing raised by either of these means is called a gunter rigged sail. A vessel with a gunter rigged mainsail On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest and often the only sail rigged aft of the main mast, and is controlled along its foot by a spar known as the boom. A sail rigged in this position without a boom is generally called a trysail, and is used in extremely heavy weather is called a gunter rig .
Gunter rig is normally used on small gaff rigged Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar (pole) called the gaff. The gaff enables a fore and aft sail to be four sided, rather than triangular, and as much as doubles the sail area that can be carried by that mast and boom (if a boom is used in sailing vessels, such as sailing canoes A canoe or Canadian canoe (British English) is a small narrow boat, typically human-powered, though it may also be powered by sails or small electric or gas motors. Canoes usually are pointed at both bow and stern and are normally open on top, but can be decked over (i.e. covered, similar to a kayak) (not the International Canoe The International Canoe, or more properly the International Ten Square Meter Sailing Canoe, often abbreviated to IC is a powerful and extremely fast single handed sailing canoe whose rules are governed by the International Canoe Federation ) and dinghies Dinghy sailing is the activity of sailing small boats by using the five essential controls: the sails and (2) underwater foils (daggerboard or centreboard and rudder). It also involves adjusting (3) the trim (forward/rear angle of the boat in the water) and (4) side to side balance of the dinghy by movement of the crew, particularly in windy where the gaff is carried very nearly vertical, forming an extension to the mast so that the sail is triangular and mimics a Bermuda rig The term Bermuda rig refers to a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is also known as a Marconi rig; this is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. Developed in Bermuda in the 17th century, the term Marconi was a much later reference to the inventor Guglielmo Marconi, whose wireless radio masts the Bermuda . The effect is to have a topmast The masts of traditional sailing ships were not single spars, but were constructed of separate sections or masts, each with its own rigging. The topmast is one of these (the gaff) which is a pseudo telescopic extension of the shorter mast.
Operation of each type
Single halyard operation
fix the gaff loosely to the mast in a vertical position, parallel to it, with either hoops or parrel beads so that it will slide freely to the desired height, and ensure that the sail is bent to the gaff.
secure jaws of the gaff around the mast with parrel beads if the gaff is a jawed gaff, or rely on the hoop if hoops are employed.
bend the throat halyard In sailing, the throat halyard is a line that raises the end of a gaff nearer to the mast, as opposed to the peak halyard which raises the end further from the mast. Such rigging was normal in classic gaff-rigged schooners and in other ships with fore-and-aft rigging. It is absent in Bermuda rigged boats to the jaws
haul the jaws up the mast until the desired height is reached and make fast
using whatever reefing mechanism you have, usually reefing points, reef any excess sail at the foot to the boom (if any) or gather the belly of the sail if loose footed.
Even with a single halyard the hooped gunter is a vertical sliding gaff
Double halyard operation
One halyard, the peak halyard In sailing, the peak halyard is a line that raises the end of a gaff further from the mast, as opposed to the throat halyard which raises the end nearer to the mast. Such rigging was normal in classic gaff-rigged schooners and in other ships with fore-and-aft rigging. It is absent in Bermuda rigged boats , has a block, sometimes just a shackle A shackle, also known as a gyve, is a U-shaped piece of metal secured with a clevis pin or bolt across the opening, or a hinged metal loop secured with a quick-release locking pin mechanism. They are used as a connecting link in all manner of rigging systems, from boats and ships to industrial crane rigging , that allows the gunter (wire parallel to the gaff and fixed to it at two points on its upper (or leading) surface) to raise the gaff into the vertical position up against and parallel to the mast. The other, the throat halyard In sailing, the throat halyard is a line that raises the end of a gaff nearer to the mast, as opposed to the peak halyard which raises the end further from the mast. Such rigging was normal in classic gaff-rigged schooners and in other ships with fore-and-aft rigging. It is absent in Bermuda rigged boats , is used to raise or lower the jaws of the gaff.
The mode of operation is:
bend the peak halyard to the sliding device on the gunter
bend the throat halyard to the jaws
secure the parrel beads around the mast from jaw to jaw to locate the jaws positively around the mast
haul the gaff into the vertical with the peak halyard and make fast
haul the jaws up the mast with the throat halyard until the desired height is reached and make fast
using whatever reefing mechanism you have, usually reefing points on larger vessels, reef any excess sail at the foot to the boom (if any) or gather the belly of the sail if loose footed.
adjust the tension in the luff of the sail by adjusting the throat halyard, downhaul , gooseneck The gooseneck is the swivel connection on a sailboat by which the boom attaches to the mast. The boom moves from side to side and up and down by swiveling on the gooseneck or any combination of these.
Confusion between Gaff Rig and Gunter Rig
Over time the two terms have been used with some interchangeability. While a true gaff rig is with the gaff at an angle to the mast, small boats such as the Heron , the Mirror dinghy and other small sailing dinghies have small, light gaffs which are raised to the vertical position by a single halyard fixed close to the midpoint of the gaff.
This looks like a gunter rig when the boat is fully rigged. However it does not have the sliding component of the wire or the hooped gunter.
Nonetheless such small dinghies have been termed gunter rigged and gaff rigged with free use of each term. It is likely that the fluidity of language allows both terms to be used with correctness for these small boats. For larger craft the terms tend to be more rigorously applied
See also
Gaff rig Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar (pole) called the gaff. The gaff enables a fore and aft sail to be four sided, rather than triangular, and as much as doubles the sail area that can be carried by that mast and boom (if a boom is used in .
External references
Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Gunter rig
Types of sailing Sailing is the art of controlling a boat with large foils called sails. By changing the rigging, rudder, and sometimes the keel or centre board, a sailor manages the force of the wind on the sails in order to change the direction and speed of a boat. Mastery of the skill requires experience in varying wind and sea conditions, as well as knowledge vessels and rigs Rigging is the apparatus through which the force of the wind is used to propel sailboats and sailing ships forward. This includes masts, yards, sails, and cordage
Barca-longa The barca longa was a two or three-masted lugger found on the coasts of Spain and Portugal as well as more widely in the Mediterranean Sea. They were used in Spain and Portugal for fishing but were employed by the Royal Navy in Mediterranean waters, for shore raids or as dispatch boats. In general, they were not in Royal Naval ownership. The · Barque The word barc appears to have come from the Greek word baris, a term for an Egyptian boat. This entered Latin as barca, which gave rise to the Italian barca and the French barge and barque. French influence in England led to the use in English of both words, although their meanings now are not the same. Well before the nineteenth century a barge · Barquentine A barquentine is a sailing vessel with three or more masts; with a square rigged foremast and fore-and-aft rigged main, mizzen and any other masts. See also sail-plan. Barquentines emerged as very popular rigs at the end of the 19th Century as they could carry almost as much cargo as barques or full rigged ships but needed much smaller crews. An · Bermuda rig The term Bermuda rig refers to a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is also known as a Marconi rig; this is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. Developed in Bermuda in the 17th century, the term Marconi was a much later reference to the inventor Guglielmo Marconi, whose wireless radio masts the Bermuda · Bermuda sloop The Bermuda sloop is a type of fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessel developed on the islands of Bermuda in the 17th century. In its purest form, it is single-masted, although ships with such rigging were built with as many as three masts, which are then referred to as schooners. Its original form had gaff rigging, but evolved to use what is now · Bilander A Bilander, also spelled billander or be'landre, was a small European merchant ship with two masts, used in the Netherlands for coast and canal traffic and occasionally seen in the North Sea but more frequently to be seen in the Mediterranean Sea. The mainmast was lateen-rigged with a trapezoidal mainsail, but the foremast carried the conventional · Brig The word brig in its most popular present day usage, refers to a military prison on board a United States Navy or Coast Guard vessel, or at an American naval base. The term derives from the US Navy's use of twin-mast sailing ships—or brigs—as prison ships · Brigantine Originally the brigantine was a small ship carrying both oars and sails. It was a favorite of Mediterranean pirates and its name comes from the Italian word "brigantino" which meant brigand's ship. In modern parlance, a brigantine is a principally fore-and-aft rig with a square rigged foremast, as opposed to a brig which is square rigged · Caravel A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable sailing ship developed in the 15th century by the Portuguese to explore along the West African coast and into the Atlantic Ocean. The lateen sails gave her speed and the capacity for sailing to windward . Caravels were much used by the Portuguese and Spanish for the oceanic exploration voyages during the 16 · Carrack A carrack or nau was a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed for use in the Atlantic Ocean in the 15th century by the Portuguese. It had a high rounded stern with an aftcastle and a forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. It was square-rigged on the foremast and mainmast and lateen-rigged on the mizzenmast · Catamaran A catamaran is a type of multihulled boat or ship consisting of two hulls, or vakas, joined by some structure, the most basic being a frame, formed of akas. Catamarans can be sail- or engine-powered · Catboat A catboat , or a cat-rigged sailboat, is a sailing vessel characterized by a single mast carried well forward (i.e., near the front of the boat) · Clipper A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had multiple masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area. Clipper ships were mostly made in British and American shipyards, though France, the Netherlands · Dutch Clipper While the majority of the clipper ships sailed under British and American flags, more than a hundred clippers were built in the Netherlands.They were rather medium-clippers than the larger extreme-clipper · Cog A cog is a type of ship that first appeared in the 10th century, and was widely used from around the 12th century on. Cogs were generally built of oak, which was an abundant timber in the Baltic region of Prussia. This vessel was fitted with a single mast and a square-rigged single sail. Even though this type of rigging prohibited sailing into the · Corvette A corvette is a small, maneuverable, lightly armed warship, originally smaller than a frigate and larger than a coastal patrol craft or Fast Attack Craft (500 or fewer tons), although many recent designs resemble frigates in size and role. During the Age of Sail, corvettes were smaller than frigates and larger than sloops-of-war, usually with a · Cutter · Dhow A dhow is a traditional Arab sailing vessel with one or more lateen sails. It is primarily used to carry heavy items,like fruit, along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India and East Africa. Larger dhows have crews of approximately thirty people, while smaller dhows typically have crews of around twelve. Dhows are much larger than · Dinghy A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel. The term can also refer to small racing yachts or recreational open sailing boats. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor, but some are rigged for sailing. Because the smaller sailing dinghy responds more quickly to maneuvers, it is more suitable · East Indiaman An East Indiaman was a ship operating under charter or license to any of the East India Companies of the major European trading powers of the 17th through the 19th centuries. In Britain, the Honourable East India Company itself did not generally own merchant ships, but held a monopoly granted to it by Queen Elizabeth I of England for all English · Falkuša A falkusa is a traditional sailboat used by fishermen from the town of Komiža on the Adriatic island of Vis, Croatia. Falkuša is a subtype of gajeta, a traditional Dalmatian fishing sailboat, and is sometimes called gajeta falkuša (Croatian pronunciation: [ˈɡajeta ˈfalkuʃa]). Its design was adapted to specific needs of Komiža fishermen, · Felucca A felucca is a traditional wooden sailing boat used in protected waters of the Red Sea and eastern Mediterranean including Malta, and particularly along the Nile in Egypt, Sudan, and also in Iraq. Its rig consists of one or two lateen sails · Fifie The Fifie is a design of sailing boat developed on the east coast of Scotland. It was used by Scottish fishermen from the 1850s until well into the 20th century. These boats were mainly used to fish for herring using drift nets, and along with other designs of boat were known as herring drifters · Fluyt A fluyt, fluit, or flute [p] is a Dutch type of sailing vessel originally designed as a dedicated cargo vessel. Originating from the Netherlands in the 16th century, the vessel was designed to facilitate transoceanic delivery with the maximum of space and crew efficiency. The inexpensive ship — which could be built in large numbers — usually · Fore & Aft Rig A fore-and-aft rig is a sailing rig consisting mainly of sails that are set along the line of the keel rather than perpendicular to it. Such sails are described as fore-and-aft rigged · Frigate In the 17th century, the term was used for any warship built for speed and maneuverability, the description often used being "frigate-built". These could be warships carrying their principal battery of carriage-mounted guns on a single deck or on two decks . The term was generally used for ships too small to stand in the line of battle, · Full Rigged Ship A full rigged ship or fully rigged ship is a sailing vessel with three or more masts, all of them square rigged. A full rigged ship is said to have a ship rig · Fusta The fusta or fuste was a narrow, light and fast ship with shallow draft, powered by both oars and sail -– in essence a small galley. It typically had 12 to 18 two-man rowing benches on each side, a single mast with a lateen (triangular) sail, and usually carried two or three guns. The sail was used to cruise and save the rowers’ energy, while · Gaff Rig Gaff rig is a sailing rig in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar (pole) called the gaff. The gaff enables a fore and aft sail to be four sided, rather than triangular, and as much as doubles the sail area that can be carried by that mast and boom (if a boom is used in · Galeas The galeas is a small type of trade ship, which was common in the Baltic Sea and North Sea from the 17th to the early 20th centuries. The characteristics of the ships depend somewhat from where the ship originated. Swedish versions had two masts and were rigged as ketchs, sometimes as schooners. The galeas was developed from the Dutch galliot, · Galiot In the Mediterranean, galiots were a type of smaller galley, with one or two masts and about twenty oars, using both sails and oars for propulsion. Warships of the type typically carried between two and ten cannon of smaller calibre, and between 50 and 150 men · Galleon A galleon was a large, multi-decked sailing ship used primarily by European states from the 16th to 18th centuries. Whether used for war or commerce, they were generally armed with the demi-culverin type of cannon · Gunter Rig · Hermaphrodite Brig A hermaphrodite brig, or brig-schooner is a type of two-masted sailing ship which has square sails on the foremast combined with fore-and-aft rigged sails on the mainmast. As such it has a mix of the two main types of sail plan, hence the term hermaphrodite · Herring Buss A Herring Buss was a type of sea-going fishing vessel, used by Dutch herring fishermen in the 15th through early 19th centuries · Hoy A hoy was a small sloop-rigged coasting ship or a heavy barge used for freight, usually displacing about 60 tons. The word derives from the Middle Dutch hoey. In 1495, one of the Paston Letters included the phrase, An hoye of Dorderycht , in such a way as to indicate that such contact was then no more than mildly unusual. The English term was · Jackass-barque · Junk · Ketch · Koch · Longship · Lugger · Man-of-war · Mast Aft Rig · Mersey Flat · Multihull · Nao · Nordland · Norfolk Punt · Norfolk Wherry · Pausik · Pilot Cutter · Pink · Pinnace · Pocket Cruiser · Polacca · Pram · Proa · Punt · Razee · Sailing barge · Sailing hydrofoil · Scow · Schooner · Ship of the Line · Sixareen · Sgoth · Shitik · Sloop · Sloop-of-war · Smack · Snow · Square Rig · Tall Ship · Thames Sailing Barge · Trailer sailer · Trimaran · Vinta · Well smack · Wherry · Windjammer · Windsurfer · Xebec · Yacht · Yawl · Yoal
Categories: Sailing vessels and rigging
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