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Encyclopedia > Gaff sail

A spanker is either of two kinds of sail.


On a square rigged ship, the spanker is a gaff rigged fore-and-aft sail set from and aft of the aftmost mast. Almost all square rigs with more than one mast have one or two spankers, which evolved from the driver sail. Some also carry a topsail above the uppermost or only spanker, called the gaff sail.


On a racing or cruising yacht, a spanker is an additional headsail set beside and to windward of a spinnaker when running downwind. It is often of bright colours to match the particular spinnaker with which it is designed to be used, is relatively narrow and is sometimes called a tallboy. The spanker has largely fallen from favour except among photographers.


  Results from FactBites:
 
Gaff Rigs (1039 words)
Vangs died out sometime in the 1800s and are all but unknown to yachties but in old paintings and drawings vangs are used all the time on spritsail rigs and gaff rigs; the vang controls the end of the gaff and helps prevent sagging in going to windward.
The 30-foot gaff of the Norfolk wherry, which has to be cleared away and got up again when the mast is lowered for shooting bridges, is hoisted with a single halyard; so is the smaller gaff of the whaleboat used in the Azores.
With a single-part mast-rope I could pull the gaff flat amidships when a yachtsman's gale was blowing, and a single whip on the clew was ample for the lower sheet.
Gaff sails (438 words)
In the 19th century boomless gaff sails replaced staysails between the masts in the Royal Navy and were known as trysails.
The throat halyard served to hoist the gaff.
An upper block was suspended from the crosstrees, a lower one on a ring bolt in the gaff jaws.
  More results at FactBites »

 

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