MORE RIGS OF ALL KINDS FOR SMALL BOATS
How to Distinguish between a Ship, Bark, Brig, and
Schooner--Merits and Defects of Catboats--Advantages of
the Sloop--Rigs for Canoes--Buckeyes and Sharpies
THE two principal rigs for vessels are the fore-and-aft and the square
rig.
=Square rigged= consists in having the principal sails extended by
yards suspended at the middle (Fig. 159).
=Fore-and-aft rigged= is having the principal sails extended by booms
and gaffs suspended by their ends (Figs. 148, 149, 150, 156, and 161).
Barks, brigs, and ships are all more or less square rigged, but
schooners, sloops, and catboats are all fore-and-aft rigged. In these
notes the larger forms of boats are mentioned only because of the
well-known interest boys take in all nautical matters, but no detailed
description of the larger craft will be given. All that is aimed at
here is to give the salient points, so that the youngsters will know
the name of the rig when they see it.
The Cat
There is a little snub-nosed American who, in spite of her short body
and broad waist, is deservedly popular among all our amateur sailors.
The appreciation of her charms is felt and acknowledged by all her
companions without envy, not because of her saucy looks, but on account
of her accommodating manners.
Possessing a rare ability for quick movement, and a wonderful
power to bore her way almost into the very eye of the wind, or with
double-reefed sail to dash through the storm or gently slide up
alongside of a wharf or dock as easily as a rowboat, the American
catboat, with her single mast "chock up in the eyes of her," has
made a permanent place for herself among our pleasure craft, and is
omnipresent in our crowded bays and harbors.
[Illustration: Fig. 148.--The snub-nosed American cat.]
[Illustration: Fig. 149.--Jib and mainsail.]
Knowing that there is little danger of the catboat losing its
well-earned popularity, and being somewhat familiar with many of her
peculiarities, I am free to say that this rig, notwithstanding its
numerous good points, has many serious defects as a school-ship, and
the beginner had better select some other rig with which to begin his
practice sailing.
[Illustration: Fig. 150.--Schooner rig for open boat. Boom on mainsail,
none on foresail.]
[Illustration: Fig. 151.--The balance lug.]
First, the great sail is very heavy and difficult to hoist and reef.
Second, in going before the wind there is constant danger of jibing,
with serious results. Third, the catboat has a very bad habit of
rolling when sailing before the wind, and each time the boat rolls
from side to side she is liable to dip the end of her heavy boom in
the water and "trip herself up." When a boat trips _up_ she does
not necessarily go _down_, but she is likely to upset, placing the
young sailors in an unenviable, if not a dangerous, position. Fourth,
when the craft begins to swagger before the wind she is liable to
"goose-neck"; that is, throw her boom up against the mast, which is
another accident fraught with the possibilities of serious mischief.
[Illustration: Fig. 152.--Standing lug.]
[Illustration: Fig. 153.--Leg-of-mutton sail. Jib and main sail rig.]
The catboat has no bowsprit, no jib, and no topsail (Fig. 148), but
that most graceful of all single-stickers,
The Sloop
possesses several jibs, a bowsprit, and topsail. Besides these, when
she is in racing trim, a number of additional sails are used. All our
great racers are sloops, and this rig is the most convenient for small
yachts and cutters.
Racing Sloops
A racing sloop (Fig. 161) carries a mainsail, A, a fore staysail, B, a
jib, C, a gaff topsail, D, a club topsail, E, a baby jib topsail, F, a
No. 2 jib topsail, G, a No. 1 jib topsail, H, a balloon jib topsail, J
(Fig. 157), and a spinnaker, K (Fig. 157).
[Illustration: Fig. 160. Fig. 161.
Figs. 154-161.--Rigs that we meet at sea.]
Jib and Mainsail
A small sloop's sails are a mainsail, jib, and topsail. A sloop rig
without topsail is called a jib and mainsail (Fig. 149).
While every small-boat sailor should know a catboat and a sloop when
he sees them, and even be able to give the proper name to their sails,
neither of these rigs is very well suited for canoes, sharpies, or
other boats of the mosquito fleet; but the
Schooner Rig
which is the form of boat generally used for the larger yachts, is
also very much used for open boats. As you can see, by referring to
Fig. 150, the schooner rig consists of a bowsprit, fore and main mast,
with their appropriate sails. Lately freight schooners have appeared
with four or more masts. For small boats two adjustable masts and an
adjustable bowsprit, as described in the Rough and Ready, Chapter
XIII, are best. The sails may be sprit sails, Figs. 164-169; balance
lug, Fig. 151; standing lug, Fig. 152; leg-of-mutton, Fig. 153, or the
sliding gunter, Fig. 163.
[Illustration: Fig. 162.--The buckeye.]
[Illustration: Fig. 163.--The sliding gunter.]
In the chapter on how to build the Rough and Ready, the sprit sail is
depicted and fully described.
The Balance Lug
comes as near the square sail of a ship as any canvas used on small
boats, but you can see, by referring to the diagram, Fig. 151, that
the leach and the luff are not parallel and that the gaff hangs at an
angle. To boom out the canvas and make it sit flat there are three
sticks extended across the sail from the front to the back, luff to
leach, called battens. This has caused some people to call this a
batten lug. Like the lateen sail, part of the balance lug hangs before
the mast and serves the purpose of a jib. This rig is said to be easily
managed and to possess good sailing qualities.
[Illustration: Fig. 164.--Sharpie with sprit and club leg-of-mutton
sails.]
[Illustration: Fig. 165.
Fig. 166.
Showing detail of sprit club sail.]
The Standing Lug
is another sail approaching the square in pattern (Fig. 152), and, as
any novice can see, is a good canvas with which to scud before the
wind. It is very convenient for open boats built to be propelled by
paddles. While the standing lug cannot point up to the eye of the wind
like a schooner or cat, it is very fast on the wind or when running
with the wind astern. Probably the safest form of sail used is the old
reliable
Leg-of-Mutton Sail
This is used by the fishermen on their stanch little dories away up on
the coast of Maine, and by the "tide-water" people in their "buckeyes"
on Chesapeake Bay. The latter boat is very little known outside of the
locality where it makes its home, but, like the New Haven sharpies, it
is very popular in its own waters.
The Buckeye
or "bugeye," as it is sometimes vulgarly called, has a great reputation
for speed and sea-going qualities. When it cannot climb a wave it goes
through it. This makes a wet boat in heavy weather, but when you travel
at a high rate of speed you can endure a wet jacket with no complaint,
especially when you feel that, in spite of the fast-sailing qualities
of this boat, it is considered a particularly safe craft.
[Illustration: Fig. 167.--Plain sprit leg-of-mutton.]
[Illustration: Fig. 168.
Fig. 169.
Another form of the sprit sail.]
The construction of a =buckeye= (Fig. 162) has been evolved from the
old dugout canoe of the Indians and the first white settlers. America
was originally covered with vast forests of immense trees. Remnants of
these forests still exist in a few localities. It was once possible to
make a canoe of almost any dimensions desired, but now in the thickly
settled regions big trees are scarce.
So the Chesapeake Bay boat-builders, while still adhering to the old
dugout, have overcome the disadvantage of small logs by using more than
one and bolting the pieces together. Masts and sails have been added,
and since the increased proportions made it impracticable to drag such
a craft on the beach when in port, anchors and cables are supplied.
Two holes bored, one on each side of the stem, for the cables to run
through, have given the boat the appearance of having eyes, and as the
eyes are large and round, the negroes called them buckeyes, and this is
now the name by which all such craft are known.
At first only two masts with leg-of-mutton sails were used, but now
they have a jib and two sails. With the greatest width or beam about
one-third the distance from bow to stern, sharp at both ends, its long,
narrow, and heavy hull is easily driven through the water and makes
both a fast and stiff boat.
The buckeye travels in shallow as well as deep waters, and hence is
a centreboard boat, but there is nothing unnecessary on the real
buckeye--no overhanging bow or stern, for that means additional labor;
no stays to the masts, for the same reason. The lack of stays to
stiffen the masts leaves them with "springiness," which in case of a
sudden squall helps to spill the wind and prevents what might otherwise
be a "knock-down."
[Illustration: Fig. 170.--Lug rig with jigger.]
[Illustration: Fig. 171.--Lug rig with jigger and jib.]
The foremast is longer than the mainmast and does not rake aft so much,
but the mainmast has a decided rake, which the colored sailors say
makes the boat faster on the wind. Sometimes in the smaller boats the
mainmast can be set upright when going before the wind.
Wealthy gentlemen on the Chesapeake are now building regularly equipped
yachts on the buckeye plan, and some of them are quite large boats. A
correspondent of the _Forest and Stream_, in speaking of the buckeye,
says:
"Last summer I cruised in company with a buckeye, forty-two feet long,
manned by two gentlemen of Baltimore city. She drew twenty inches
without the board. In sudden and heavy flaws she was rarely luffed. She
would lie over and appear to spill the wind out of her tall, sharp
sails and then right again. Her crew took pleasure in tackling every
sailing craft for a race; nothing under seventy feet in length ever
beat her. She steered under any two of her three sails. On one occasion
this craft, on her way from Cape May to Cape Charles, was driven out to
sea before a heavy north-west blow. Her crew, the aforesaid gentlemen,
worn out by fatigue, hove her to and went to sleep. She broke her
tiller lashing during the night, and when they awoke she was pegging
away on a south-east course under her jib. They put her about, and in
twenty hours were inside Cape Henry, pretty well tired out. Buckeyes
frequently run from Norfolk to New York with fruit. For shallow waters,
I am satisfied there is no better craft afloat. Built deep, with a
loaded keel, they would rival the English cutter in seaworthiness and
speed."
[Illustration: Fig. 172.--Jib.]
[Illustration: Fig. 173.--Sprit sail, schooner rig, with dandy.]
When the hardy, bold fishermen of our Eastern States and the brave
fishermen down South both use the leg-of-mutton sail, beginners cannot
object to using it while practising; knowing that even if it is a safe
sail, it cannot be called a "baby rig." Another safe rig, differing
little from the leg-of-mutton, is the
Sliding Gunter
In this rig the sail is laced to a yard which slides up or down the
mast by means of two iron hooks or travellers (Fig. 163). No sail with
a narrow-pointed top is very serviceable before the wind, and the
sliding gunter is no exception to the rule. But it is useful on the
wind, and can be reefed easily and quickly, qualities which make it
many friends.
In the smooth, shallow waters along the coast of North Carolina may be
seen the long, flat-bottomed
Sharpies
Without question they are to be ranked among the fastest boats we have.
These boats are rigged with a modification of the leg-of-mutton sail.
The ends of the sprit in the foresail project at the luff and leach.
At the luff it is fastened to the mast by a line like a snotter at the
leach. It is fastened to a stick sewed into the sail, called a club.
The sheet is attached to the end of the sprit (Figs. 164-168).
[Illustration: Fig. 174.--Sprit sail jib and dandy.]
[Illustration: Fig. 175.--The lateen rig with dandy.]
The Sprit Leg-of-Mutton Sail
has this advantage, that the clew of the sail is much higher than the
tack, thus avoiding the danger of dipping the clew in the water and
tripping the boat.
The Dandy Jigger, or Mizzen Rig
is named after the small sail aft, near the rudder-head. This jigger,
mizzen, or dandy may have a boom, a sprit, or be rigged as a lug.
(See Figs. 170, 171, 173, 174, 175, 178, 180, and 184, which show the
principal mizzen rigs in use.)
[Illustration: Fig. 176. Yawl Rig.
Fig. 177. Lug-headed Jib & Mainsail Rigged Punt
Fig. 180. The Burton when using only two blocks it is the most powerful
Tackle
Fig. 181. A "Lugeen."
Fig. 182. FAN SAIL under shortened sail. Fan Partly Folded
Fig. 179. Two battened Lug
Fig. 178. Three masted Bat Winged Canoe
Fig. 184. Two masted Bat Winged Canoe.
Fig. 183. Two Common Tackles A Gun Tackle Purchase Luff Tackle Purchase
ADDITIONAL RIGS FOR SMALL BOATS AND CANOES AND THREE USEFUL TACKLES
Figs. 176-184.--Hybrid rigs for small boats; also two useful tackles.]
In puffy wind and lumpy water the main and mizzen rig will be found to
work well. The little sail aft should be trimmed as flat as possible.
It will be found of great help in beating to the windward, and will
keep the nose of the boat facing the wind when the mainsail is down.
Different rigs are popular in different localities. For instance:
The Lateen Rig
is very popular in some parts of the Old World, yet it has only few
friends here. It may be because of my art training that I feel so
kindly toward this style of sail, or it may be from association in my
mind of some of the happiest days of my life with a little black canoe
rigged with lateen sails. At any rate, in spite of the undeniable
fact that the lateen is unpopular, I never see a small boat rigged in
this style without a feeling of pleasure. The handy little stumps of
masts end in a spike at the top and are adorned by the beautiful sails
lashed to slender spars, which, by means of metal rings, are lightly,
but securely, fastened to the mast by simply hooking the ring over the
spike. I freely acknowledge that when the sails are lowered and you
want to use your paddle the lateen sails are in your way. It is claimed
that they are awkward to reef, and this may be true. I never tried it.
When the wind was too strong for my sails I made port or took in either
the large or the small sail, as the occasion seemed to demand.
The Ship
When you are out sailing and see a vessel with three masts, all square
rigged, you are looking at a ship proper, though ship is a word often
used loosely for any sort of a boat (Fig. 159).
=The bark= is a vessel with square-rigged foremast and mainmast and a
fore-and-aft rigged mizzen-mast (Fig. 160).
=The brig= is a vessel with only two masts, both of which are square
rigged (Fig. 158).
=The brigantine= has two masts--foremast square rigged and mainmast
fore-and-aft rigged (Fig. 155).
=The barkentine= has three masts--mainmast and mizzen-mast fore-and-aft
rigged and foremast square rigged. (See Fig. 154.)