Links 

Sails

Sails are fabric aerofoils designed to catch the wind and manipulate the air currents surrounding the vessel. They are attached to spars and rigging in various ways, such as metal clips, rope hoops, or in a luff-groove. Sails are usually rectangular or triangular in shape, which determines their use and placement. Rectangular sails attached to yards, and hanging perpendicular to the keel line are referred to as square sails, because they are "square" to the keel line (not because of their shape); and this type of sailplan is known as square-rigged. Sails hanging along the keel line at rest are known as "fore-and-aft" sails, and the sailplan as fore-and-aft rig; although when under way both square and fore-and-aft sails can fly at a variety of angles relative to the vessel. Fore-and-aft sails may be triangular (see Bermuda rig), or quadrilateral (see Gaff rig).

Sail material must be durable against weather, lightweight, and non-porous. Common materials include kevlar, twaron, dacron, and canvas.

Sails are classified according to their shape and location. The name of a sail on a square-rigged vessel with multiple masts consists of the mast name and the sail's vertical position. On a three-masted vessel the masts are, from bow to stern, Fore, Main and Mizzen; the "plain" square sails are, bottom to top, Course, Topsail, Topgallant, Royal and Sky. Thus the sail second up the mizzen-mast is the "mizzen topsail", and the third sail up the fore-mast is the "fore topgallant sail". Sails set in other positions, or only in special circumstances, have a variety of other names, for instance: a triangular sail set on a stay might be called a staysail, or jib if the stay in question runs to the prow or bowsprit; sails set either side of square sails to increase sail area in light winds are called studding-sails, qualified by the side and the plain sail name (such as "port topgallant studding-sail", but more likely to be pronounced "port t'gallant stun'sl"); a gaff sail set aft of the mizzen mast may be called a Spanker or Driver.

On a modern fore-and-aft rigged boat the largest sail set on the main-mast is known as the mainsail, rather than main course. Sails set forward of the foremost mast are known generically as headsails, and might include jibs, genoas and spinnakers. Fore-and-aft rigged boats setting both a jib and staysail are known as Cutter rigged.

More detailed information on sail nomenclature and use can be found in Sails and Sail-plan.

New York Times (blog)

1 Man, 7 Seas and 60 Feet of Sailboat New York Times (blog) Richard Perry/The New York Times SOLO SKIPPER Alex Thomson races in a carbon-and-Kevlar boat sponsored by Hugo Boss. In 1999, at 25, ... and more »

Common Misspellings include againnst, agains, agaisnt, aganist, agianst, aginst allthough altho, althought, altough adn, anbd angels baceause, beacuse, becasue, beccause, becouse, becuase boaut bu desgined, dessigned detailled eiter formost foward foudn fomr, frome ahev, ahve, haev, hvae, hvea includ infomation, informtion largst missen moreso, mroe, omre anme, naem, nmae nto, onot lonly, onyl nother, otehr perpindicular positon, possition, postion pronouced, pronounched refered, reffered sqaure sorrounding, surounding, surrouding tahn, thna hten, tghe, ther, thge, tjhe ther, theri, thier, thier htey, tehy, tyhe thrid htis, thsi, tihs threee uise usally, usualy ususally variey, varity, vreity, vriety wether wehn, whn hwihc, whcih, whic, whihc, whlch, wich
 sailboats  Sailing Ships  Rigging  Sails