Chapter 8

Which Rig-And Why?

KNOCKABOUT

Just as there are numerous hull shapes and methods of construction, there are similarly numerous types of rigs. Some of these are applicable to almost any shape or size of hull, but the really good boat is designed to carry a certain type of sail arrangement and any variation from that type is apt to reduce the performance characteristics.

A few of the simpler rigs can be dismissed with but little comment. They are primarily sail arrangements intended for boats that cannot be seriously rated as efficient sailing craft. While there are many variations, the standing lug, balanced lug, spritsail and lateen rigs are hardly more than makeshift arrangements to be hastily set up on rowboats or canoes so they can make some progress, usually when the wind happens to be blowing in the direction to be sailed. A possible exception to this is the use of the lateen or lug rigs on canoes. Some canoes really sail with lateen rigs and even balanced lugs will give reasonable results.

The basic single-masted rigs are the cat and the sloop. The cat always has but one sail and that is set abaft the mast. No true the cutter rig is extremely popular, more so than in America. Over here, we often call a boat a sloop when the Limeys would label the craft as a cutter. Let us describe what most sailormen call a cutter. On first appearance, it looks like a sloop because it has a bowsprit. Closer examination shows that the mast is stepped farther aft. In fact, some cutters have their masts amidships. The mainsail is similar to the sloop, being either Marconi or gaff-headed, but the large expanse of area forward of the mast is filled with not less than two, and often three, headsails. On cutters with gaff-headed mainsails, topsails can be carried. If you worry yourself sick over the difference between the sloop and the cutter, you catboat has a sail forward of the mast. The sloop—and its sisters, the knockabout and the cutter—has two or more sails, some hoisted abaft the mast and others located forward of the mast.

SPRITSAIL CATBOAT Photo courtesy Beetle Boat Co,

It is necessary to set up definitions to show the differences between the true sloop, the knockabout, and the cutter. In each, there are borderline cases where the types may overlap. We can but define the characteristics of the types, leaving it to a matter of opinion when the differences are so slight that even experts disagree.

Because it is the most popular, let us start with the knockabout. The mast is stepped somewhat forward of amidships. Under normal canvas, there is a mainsail hoisted abaft the mast and a single triangular jib rigged forward. The forestay (the piece of wire rigging to which the forward edge of the jib is fastened) is attached to the deck close to the bow. There is thus no rigging or canvas that extends forward of the bow (except certain light racing sails that may blow far enough forward to have portions of their areas ahead of the boat).

In the sloop, the mast is located in almost the same position as it would be in a knockabout. The mainsail is the same, but the jib—there are often two or more jibs —extends forward of the bow because there is a bowsprit (a horizontal spar) attached to the deck to allow rigging to be carried well forward of the hull. Summed up, the knockabout has its forward sail entirely within the hull length while the sloop has its head sails carried ahead of the boat on a bowsprit.

Now we come to the cutter. Here we really get into complications. In Europe, can find some comfort in the fact that nine out of 10 yachtsmen allude to the yachts that race for the America's Cup as sloops although the English and some purists prefer to label them as cutters.

CUTTER

So much for the single-masted rigs most commonly found in this country. We now turn to two-masters—the yawl, ketch, and schooner rigs. Fortunately for the novice, the differences between these three types are relatively simple. The yawl has all the appearance of either the sloop or the knockabout—usually the former—with the exception that way aft there is a second mast (the mizzenmast or jigger) carrying a sail of relatively small area. This mast is set abaft the rudder post, just about as far aft as it can be placed. It should be stressed that the main and mizzen sails on a yawl or ketch may be Marconi or gaff-headed or a combination where one sail is triangular and the other gaff-headed.

The ketch, like the yawl, has two masts, main and mizzen, but the after one is set well forward of the rudder post, is larger than the jigger of a yawl, and carries a sail of considerable area.

The schooner—a rig fast passing into oblivion—has been called a "ketch in reverse." That is, the two masts are arranged so that the mainmast, carrying the larger sail, is stepped slightly abaft amidships while the foremast, smaller and with less sail, is farther forward. Seldom seen as pleasure vessels are schooners with three, or even four, masts. There are still a few commercial schooners with more than two masts, but they are rapidly fading into history.

It is worth a paragraph to mention that there are a few boats with "trick" rigs. A cat-yawl, for example, is a two-masted boat with the characteristics of a yawl except that the mainmast is stepped farther forward and there are never any headsails. A cat-ketch is similar except for the proportioning and positions of the masts. Most two-masted canoe rigs can properly be rated as cat-ketches.

We are now ready to consider the forbidding problem of when and why a boat sailor is better off with a cat, sloop, cutter, knockabout, yawl, ketch, or schooner. That all experienced readers will not agree with what follows is a foregone conclusion. Men have fought and died, poor little kiddies have hunted for sustenance in garbage cans, families have been torn asunder, all because papa held out for one of the rigs in spite of the opposition calling for something else. If the novice must decide for himself, he had better write the rig names on slips of paper, toss them in his Hop along ten-gallon chapeau, and pull one out. There is no such thing as an ideal rig. Each of the several varieties has certain advantages and some bad points. Read on while we try to unscramble the mess as best we can.

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