In sailing, a gunter is a wire that leads from one end of a gaff to the other. A block travels along this wire, and a halyard is attached to this block. This allows the gaff to be raised by a single halyard. A sail raised by this means is called a gunter rigged sail. A vessel with a gunter rigged mainsail is called a gunter rig.
Gunter rig is normally used on small gaff rigged sailing vessels, such as sailing canoes and dinghies. Such rigs commonly carry the gaff very nearly vertical, forming an extension to the mast so that the sail is triangular and there is no space for a topsail. Gunter rigs include the Mirror dinghy.
On larger gaff-rigged vessels, the gaff is raised by two halyards and there is no gunter, see gaff rig.
Edmund Gunter (1581 - December 10, 1626), English mathematician, of Welsh extraction, was born in Hertfordshire in 1581.
There is reason to believe that Gunter was the first to discover (in 1622 or 1625) that the magnetic needle does not retain the same declination in the same place at all times.
Generally called by seamen, the "Gunter," this is a large plane scale, usually 2 feet long by about 1 1/2 inches broad (600 mm by 40 mm), and engraved with various lines of numbers.
Gunter's Chain, the chain in common use for measuring land, is 22 yards long and is divided into 100 links.
Gunter's Line, a logarithmic line, usually laid down upon scales, sectors, etc. It is also called the line of lines and the line of numbers, being only the logarithms graduated upon a ruler, which therefore serves to solve problems instrumentally in the same manner as logarithms do arithmetically.
Gunter's Scale (generally called by seamen the Gunter) is a large plane scale, usually 2 feet long by about 1-1/2 inches broad, and engraved with various lines of numbers.
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