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35-400: Boats may be sailed using a jib alone, but more commonly jibs make a minor direct contribution to propulsion compared to a main sail . Generally, a jib's most crucial function is as an airfoil , increasing performance and overall stability by reducing turbulence on the main sail's leeward side. On boats with only one jib, it is common for the clew of the jib to be abaft the mast, meaning

70-412: A century later, the simple box form of mast was arrived at. Although sailing ships were superseded by engine-powered ships in the 19th century, recreational sailing ships and yachts continue to be designed and constructed. In the 1930s aluminum masts were introduced on large J-class yachts . An aluminum mast has considerable advantages over a wooden one: it is lighter and slimmer than a wooden one of

105-522: A fundamental transformation in Mediterranean navigation: the lateen which had long evolved on smaller Greco-Roman craft replaced the square rig , the chief sail type of the ancients, that practically disappeared from the record until the 14th century (while it remained dominant in northern Europe). The dromon , the lateen-rigged and oared bireme of the Byzantine navy , almost certainly had two masts,

140-456: A gaff topsail above it. Whereas once the mainsail was typically the largest sail, today the mainsail may be smaller than the jib or genoa; Prout catamarans typically have a mainmast stepped further aft than in a standard sloop, so that the mainsail is much smaller than the foresail. The modern Bermuda rig uses a triangular mainsail aft of the mast, closely coordinated with a jib for sailing upwind. A large overlapping jib or genoa

175-571: A larger foremast and one midships. Their length has been estimated at 12 m and 8 m respectively, somewhat smaller than the Sicilian war galleys of the time. Multiple-masted sailing ships were reintroduced into the Mediterranean Sea by the Late Middle Ages . Large vessels were coming more and more into use and the need for additional masts to control these ships adequately grew with

210-536: A prestige object commissioned by king Hiero II of Syracuse and devised by the polymath Archimedes around 240 BC, and other Syracusan merchant ships of the time. The imperial grain freighters travelling the routes between Alexandria and Rome also included three-masted vessels. A mosaic in Ostia (c. 200 AD) depicts a freighter with a three-masted rig entering Rome's harbour. Special craft could carry many more masts: Theophrastus ( Hist. Plant. 5.8.2) records how

245-436: A single or several pieces of timber which typically consisted of the trunk of a conifer tree. From the 16th century, vessels were often built of a size requiring masts taller and thicker than from single tree trunks. On these larger vessels, to achieve the required height, the masts were built from up to four sections (also called masts). From lowest to highest, these were called: lower, top, topgallant, and royal masts. Giving

280-463: A sizable foresail rigged on a slightly inclined foremast is depicted in an Etruscan tomb painting from 475 to 450 BC. An artemon ( Greek for foresail) almost the same size as the galley 's mainsail can be found on a Corinthian krater as early as the late 6th century BC; apart from that Greek longships are uniformly shown without it until the 4th century BC. In the East, ancient Indian Kingdoms like

315-436: A steel mast of an equivalent strength can be smaller in diameter than an aluminum mast, allowing less turbulence and a better airflow onto the sail. From the mid-1990s racing yachts introduced the use of carbon fibre and other composite materials to construct masts with even better strength-to-weight ratios. Carbon fibre masts could also be constructed with more precisely engineered aerodynamic profiles. Modern masts form

350-476: Is called the jib , and the innermost is called the staysail . Actually, all three sails are both jibs and staysails in the generic sense. Original usage in 18th and 19th century square-rigged ships distinguished between the fore staysail, set on the forestay running from the foremast head to the ship's peak, the foremost part of the hull, and the jibs set on stays running to the bowsprit. Jibs, but not staysails, could also be "set flying," i.e. not attached to

385-456: Is called the staysail , and the outer (foremost) is called the jib. This combination of two staysails is called a cutter rig (or in North America a yankee pair ) and a boat with one mast rigged with two staysails and a mainsail is called a cutter . On cruising yachts, and nearly all racing sailboats, the jib needs to be worked when tacking. On these yachts, there are two sheets attached to

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420-421: Is often larger than the mainsail. In downwind conditions (with the wind behind the boat) a spinnaker replaces the jib. Some mainsails are "full-batten" mainsails, meaning the batten extends all the way from the mast to the leach of a sail. A partial batten extends from the leech partway to the mast. Battens enable the mainsail to project farther away from the mast. However, there is some cost associated with

455-431: Is the mainmast. This contrasts with a ketch or a yawl , where the after mast, and its principal sail, is clearly the smaller of the two, so the terminology is (from forward) mainmast and mizzen. (In a yawl, the term "jigger" is occasionally used for the aftermast.) Some two-masted luggers have a fore-mast and a mizzen-mast – there is no main-mast. This is because these traditional types used to have three masts, but it

490-511: The Naval Chronicle (1805)—"we perceived by the cut of their sails, then set, that they were French Ships of War"—is often cited as an early inspiration for the idiom. Sir Walter Scott used the expression to denote approval in the 1824 novel St. Ronan's Well : "If she disliked what the sailor calls the cut of their jib " . John Russell Bartlett later defined the idiom in his 1848 Dictionary of Americanisms as "The form of his profile,

525-601: The Kalinga from as early as 2nd century are believed to have commanded naval sail ships. One of the earliest documented evidence of Indian sail building comes from the mural of the three-masted ship in Ajanta caves that date back to 400–500 CE. The foremast became fairly common on Roman galleys , where, inclined at an angle of 45°, it was more akin to a bowsprit , and the foresail set on it, reduced in size, seems to be used rather as an aid to steering than for propulsion. While most of

560-533: The Romans imported Corsican timber by way of a huge raft propelled by as many as fifty masts and sails. Throughout antiquity , both foresail and mizzen remained secondary in terms of canvas size, although large enough to require full running rigging . In late antiquity , the foremast lost most of its tilt, standing nearly upright on some ships. By the onset of the Early Middle Ages , rigging had undergone

595-415: The clew of the jib. As the yacht comes head to wind during a tack, the active sheet is released, and the other sheet (the lazy sheet ) on the other side of the boat is pulled in. This sheet becomes the new active sheet until the next tack. Schooners typically have up to three jibs. The foremost one sets on the topmast forestay and is generally called the jib topsail , a second on the main forestay

630-472: The pintle -and- gudgeon rudder , all advanced ship design technology necessary for the great transoceanic voyages was in place by the beginning of the 15th century. The first hollow mast was fitted on the American sloop Maria in 1845, 28 m (92 ft) long and built of staves bound with iron hoops like a barrel. Other hollow masts were made from two tapered timbers hollowed and glued together. Nearly

665-471: The West, the concept of a ship carrying more than one mast, to give it more speed under sail and to improve its sailing qualities, evolved in northern Mediterranean waters: The earliest foremast has been identified on an Etruscan pyxis from Caere , Italy , dating to the mid-7th century BC: a warship with a furled mainsail is engaging an enemy vessel, deploying a foresail . A two-masted merchant vessel with

700-423: The ancient evidence is iconographic, the existence of foremasts can also be deduced archaeologically from slots in foremast-feets located too close to the prow for a mainsail. Artemon , along with mainsail and topsail , developed into the standard rig of seagoing vessels in imperial times , complemented by a mizzen on the largest freighters. The earliest recorded three-masters were the giant Syracusia ,

735-438: The battens themselves, "batten pockets" need to be sewn into the sail, and "batten cars" may be needed to allow the sail to be raised and lowered. Before Nathanael Greene Herreshoff 's invention of sail tracks and slides in the 1880s, mainsails were limited in height. Traditional mainsails were held against the mast by hoops that went the full way around the mast. This meant a traditional mainsail could be raised no higher than

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770-435: The cast of his countenance". This usage alludes to a frequent variation of meaning which describes approval, specifically, of the shape of one's nose , which roughly approximates the frontal position and triangular shape of the jib sail on a boat. Main sail A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel. Historical fore-and-aft rigs used a four-sided gaff rigged mainsail, sometimes setting

805-451: The centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails , spars, and derricks , giving necessary height to a navigation light , look-out position , signal yard , control position , radio aerial or signal lamp . Large ships have several masts, with the size and configuration depending on the style of ship. Nearly all sailing masts are guyed . Until the mid-19th century, all vessels' masts were made of wood formed from

840-444: The deck, into which a mast is fixed, with a pivot near the top so that the mast can be lowered"; "large bracket attached firmly to the deck, to which the foot of the mast is fixed; it has two sides or cheeks and a bolt forming the pivot around which the mast is raised and lowered"; "substantial fitting for mounting the mast on deck, so that it can be lowered easily for trailering or for sailing under bridges", "hinged device allowing for

875-495: The easy folding of a mast 90 degrees from perpendicular, as for transporting the boat on a trailer, or passing under a bridge" The oldest evidence for the use of masts comes from the Ubaid period site of H3 in Kuwait, dating to the second half of the sixth millennium BC. Here, a clay disc made from a sherd that appears to depict a reed bundle boat with two masts has been recovered. In

910-428: The first point a rope or wire was required to keep the mast upright. Further mainsail area (and height) was obtained by adopting a gaff rig. A mainsail may be fixed to the boom via slugs, cars, or a bolt-rope , or may be "loose-footed," meaning it is only attached at the tack and clew. Mast (sailing) The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar , or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on

945-476: The increase in tonnage. Unlike in antiquity, the mizzen-mast was adopted on medieval two-masters earlier than the foremast, a process which can be traced back by pictorial evidence from Venice and Barcelona to the mid-14th century. To balance out the sail plan the next obvious step was to add a mast fore of the main-mast, which first appears in a Catalan ink drawing from 1409. With the three-masted ship established, propelled by square rig and lateen, and guided by

980-407: The jib and mainsail overlap. An overlapping jib is called a genoa jib or simply a genoa (see illustration). These are efficiently used when reaching more broadly than a close reach . Alternatively, a boat may carry smaller jibs, to compensate aerodynamics when the main sail is reefed ; these more rugged sails are called storm jibs or spitfires . On a boat with two staysails the inner sail

1015-471: The leading edge of a sail's airfoil and tend to have a teardrop-shaped cross-section. On smaller racing yachts and catamarans, the mast rotates to the optimum angle for the sail's airfoil. If the mast has a long, thin cross-section and makes up a significant area of the airfoil, it is called a wing-mast; boats using these have a smaller sail area to compensate for the larger mast area. There are many manufacturers of modern masts for sailing yachts of all sizes,

1050-494: The lower sections sufficient thickness necessitated building them up from separate pieces of wood. Such a section was known as a made mast , as opposed to sections formed from single pieces of timber, which were known as pole masts . Those who specialised in making masts were known as mastmakers . For square-sail carrying ships , masts in their standard names in bow to stern (front to back) order, are: Some names given to masts in ships carrying other types of rig (where

1085-405: The naming is less standardised) are: When a vessel has two masts, as a general rule, the main mast is the one setting the largest sail. Therefore, in a brig , the forward mast is the foremast and the after mast is the mainmast. In a schooner with two masts, even if the masts are of the same height, the after one usually carries a larger sail (because a longer boom can be used), so the after mast

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1120-405: The same strength, is impervious to rot, and can be produced as a single extruded length. During the 1960s wood was eclipsed by aluminum. Aluminum alloys, generally 6000 series, are commonly utilised. Recently some sailing yachts (particularly home-built yachts) have begun to use steel masts. Whilst somewhat heavier than aluminum, steel has its own set of advantages. It is significantly cheaper, and

1155-484: The standing rigging. Sails set beyond the peak were typically called jibs, set on stays running from the fore topmast to the bowsprit , or the fore topgallant mast to the jibboom or even the fore royal mast to the flying jibboom. A large square-rigged ship typically has four jibs, but could have as many as six. From forward to aft, these sails are called: The first two were rarely used except by clipper ships in light winds and were usually set flying. A storm jib

1190-480: Was a small jib of heavy canvas set to a stay to help to control the ship in bad weather. The jib is referenced in the idiom usually spoken as "I like the cut of your jib", generally seen as signifying approval of one's general appearance or respect for their character. The phrase alludes to the maritime practice of identifying far-away ships by noting the "cut" (general shape and configuration) of their sails to determine their status as friend or foe. One such report from

1225-402: Was found convenient to dispense with the main-mast and carry larger sails on the remaining masts. This gave more working room, particularly on fishing vessels. On square-rigged vessels, each mast carries several horizontal yards from which the individual sails are rigged . Folding mast ships use a tabernacle anchor point. Definitions include: "the partly open socket or double post on

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