When they talk about the sailing equipment of ships and ships, this is called "sailing equipment". It has nothing to do with weapons in the usual sense of the word. A person has long realized that it is possible to use the power of the wind as a propulsor on water - there is evidence that even in the Neolithic era (about 8-3 millennia BC), they already began to use sails. It is this age that is attributed to a boat found in the Few of Forth in Scotland.

It is generally accepted that the first appeared rectangular sails , which were good to go with the wind

It is a trapezoidal panel, fixed on the yardarm by the upper luff, i.e. (conditionally) across the centerline of the ship. Luffs: top, bottom, right, left. The corners of the upper leech: knock-benzel (right and left), on the lower leech - clew. The side facing the stern is the front side, the side facing the bow is the wrong side. The upper luff has eyelets for attaching to the yard. The rest of the stems are free. The sheets on the lower sails are wound on the hull of the vessel, the sheets of the upper sails (topsails and bramsails) - on the legs (ends) of the lower yards. When moving kucatfish hauled windward clew of the lower sail is pulled to the bow by a tackle called a tack. Straight sails are cut from cloth panels located perpendicular to the yards (upper luff). The cut is most often flat, the luff is sometimes made concave upwards. A little later, a slanting sail appeared, of which there are many varieties.

Latin sail.

It is so called because it was used in European countries in the days of ancient Rome, where, as you know, they spoke Latin. But it should be said that even earlier such sails were known in the East, for example, in Egypt. They are still in use there. The front edge of the triangular sail is laced to the rail, while the back and bottom are free. The Latin sail is sometimes also quadrangular, see the second figure. This sail belongs to the rake.

lugger sail

You might think that this is a gaff weapon, but it is not. In fact, this is not a hafel, but a batten, because one end of it protrudes beyond the mast. And the leading edge of the sail is not laced to the mast, it also extends beyond it. It is also a raked sail. Just as there is a standing gaff - guari , in the luger system it is found - a standing luger

This is also a rake sail. Another type of rake armament: split fore . It can be found on modern boats.

Why "cut"? Because it seems as if the sail, laced to the rail, was cut along the mast. In fact, these are two sails. The front is called a jib , and the back is called a fork. Geek fok is not supposed to, but sometimes sailors make it themselves. And sometimes they just tie the lower edge of the fore to the oar. With a boom, it is easier to control the sail. This sail belongs to the rake.

Gaff armament

The sail is square. Its upper edge is laced to the gaff, the lower edge of the Bermuda sail is attached to the boom, and the front to the mast. This type of sail is simple. There is a gaff of a special shape. It is thin, long and placed almost vertically, usually on a low, strong mast. The sail has a quadrangular shape, but the upper rear corner is raised so high that from a distance the sail can be mistaken for a triangular, Bermudian. Such a standing hafel is called guari . Therefore, this type of sailing rig has the same name. It's simple tooth sail.

bermuda sail

This type of sail is the easiest to handle and also works well on sharp upwind courses (i.e. when the boat is sailing almost into the wind). Sometimes they are shaped like a regular triangle, and sometimes the trailing edge is slightly rounded to increase the area of the sail. In this case, special narrow pockets (lat-pockets) are sewn to the canvas and flexible long plates are inserted into them - armor. This is so that wrinkles do not appear on the sail. The lower edge of the Bermuda sail is attached to the boom, and the front to the mast. This type of sail is simple.

There are two main types of sails: STRAIGHT and OBLIQUE

Straight sails have no varieties.

And oblique are divided primarily into SIMPLE and RAKE

Among the simple obliques we know: 1) Bermuda 2) hafel 3) guari 4) sprint

Among the oblique rake: 1) latin 2) luger 3) standing luger 4) split fore

Now you can move on to combinations of sailing weapons on one and two masts.

Single-masted sailing equipment With one mast, two sails are most often set, less often three. There is a single-mast armament of only one sail. The mast of such ships is called the main mast. One sail is put on a cat -type sailing rig

A cat is a type of skew rig in which the vessel (usually a sailboat) has only one sail mounted on the mast itself. The cat's mast is strongly displaced forward. Usually there is no standing rigging when armed with a cat. The sail can be rigid - in the form of a wing. Kat is the oldest, simplest and very effective weapon. When the mainsail is not interfered with by other sails, it gives an unusually high thrust per unit area. In addition, the cat is very easy to manage. In the past, kat had a limited distribution in Europe, but it was very popular.laren in the USA and Canada. Here they were armed mainly with dinghies, and they were exceptionally wide. The American cat was 30 feet long and 12 feet wide. Nowadays, this armament is also used, as a rule, on dinghies, although sometimes small keel sailboats are also equipped with them.

Tender (eng. tender, from tend - to serve) - a type of sailing vessel with oblique sailing weapons, having one mast and a bowsprit, on which a mainsail, a staysail and one or two jibs are placed.

Hafel tender 1. mainsail (mainsail) 2. topsail 3. staysail 4. jib

The rigging of a gaff tender consists of a quadrangular mainsail (trisail mainsail), staysail, one or more jibs and an upper triangular (topsail). At the beginning of the 20th century, the tender was described as a ship with two or three headsails. A secondary feature, depending on the number of front sails, was the location of the mast: in the region of 1/3 - 1/2 of the length along the design waterline (DWL) from the bow. The location of the mast and the number of headsails determined the type of bowsprit used. Tenders often had a retractable bowsprit, sloopsonly permanent. Further, these insignificant differences between the tender and the sloop began to disappear. First, the retractable bowsprit went out of fashion, and by the 30s of the 20th century, bowsprits on single-mast sailboats were generally used less and less. The spread of glued spars led to an increase in the height of the masts, and the need to compensate for the insufficient height of the mast with a large number of developed headsails on the bowsprit disappeared. Tenders with three headsails have since become almost a museum rarity. The tender is, first of all, one of the types ofgaff weapons. Bermuda tenders were very short-lived, and they appeared due to the preservation of traditional headsails during the transition from hafel rigging to Bermuda rigging. The tacking qualities of the tender are somewhat lower than those of a sloop. When, while improving the spars and standing rigging, it was found possible to securely hold the mast in the longitudinal direction with just one stay from the bow, the Bermuda tenders practically disappeared. In the era of the sailing fleet, a tender was a single-masted auxiliary ship.values, with a displacement of 50-60 tons, armed with 10-12 guns of small caliber. Modern tenders often have Bermuda sailing rigging: instead of a trisail and topsail, one large triangular sail is used - the Bermuda mainsail.

Bermuda tender 1. mainsail 2. staysail 3. jib

The sloop is a two-sail single-mast armament.

A sloop (English sloop) is a type of oblique sailing rig that was established by the middle of the 19th century - one mast and two main sails, front (staysail) and rear - (respectively, mainsail). They differ in the type of mainsail: Bermuda, gaff, sprint, rake, etc. Additional sails vary depending on the time and place of construction: straight topsails (XIX century), jib (beginning of XX century), spinnakers (from the middle of XX century) . At the beginning of the 20th century, a sloop in Europe was allowed to have only one staysail, and in America - one or two staysails. A secondary feature that depends onThe number of front sails was the location of the mast in the region of 1/4 of the length along the design waterline (DWL) from the bow of the sloop. Sloops, unlike tenders, could only have a permanent bowsprit. The sloop's tacking qualities are slightly higher than those of the tender. Therefore, with the general recognition of the benefits of extended sails, tenders have almost ceased to be built. Since then, the Bermuda sloop has become the dominant type of weapon everywhere. In its development over the past fifty years, it should be noted the trend of increasing the height of the staysail. Now filingThe vast majority of sloops have a top staysail or staysail with a height of 3/4 - 7/8 of the sail height. The mast at the same time moved closer to the middle of the length of the sailboat. Since the 20th century, the vast majority of small sports sailboats have been armed with Bermuda sloops.

There are three main types of two-masted sailing equipment :

1. Iol (yol)
2. ketch
3. Schooner

The masts of small two-masted vessels are called Mainmast and Mizzenmastif you count from the bow - this is true for Iol and Ketch . For a Schooner , the forward mast is called the fore mast , the rear main mast

Yol (iol) - a type of oblique armament of a two-masted vessel, in which the mizzen mast is located aft of the rudder head. It is typical for small sports courts of the 1950-1970s. The jol type (Dutch. jol) originated in Holland. Initially, it was a coastal boat, adapted mainly for fishing. Moreover, it was a oar boat, the sail was auxiliary, and was placed on a temporary removable mast. In cases where there were two masts, the mizzen was installed as far aft as possible to make room in the yol for working with fishing tackle.. Over time, the iol began to be used for military purposes, especially off the coast, where its shallow draft was valued. Typical iol of the 18th century. had dimensions: length 15 m; width 4 m; draft 2 m. The mechanization of fishing and the commercial fleet generally pushed the iol into pleasure and sports vessels. It was especially developed in the 1950s. Its characteristic feature is the small mizzen, set far aft, often right on the transom. At the same time, the main traction is provided by the mainsail, and the mizzen gives more maneuverability when turning and allows fine tuning for postcourses. A typical iol of those times has Bermuda rigging and long bow and stern overhangs, which gives it the ability to navigate sharp courses. The Iol became popular with sailboatsmen for its ability to balance the center of sail relative to the center of side drag. A sailboat set up in this way is capable of holding a course without the aid of a rudder. Iol was favored by famous solo sailors such as Joshua Slocum and Francis Chichester. With the advent of automatic control systems (autopilots, autopilots), this ability of the iola has lost its prestige.more important, and their place was largely taken by easier-to-handle sloops.

Schooner - a sailing vessel with two or more masts and predominantly slanting sails. The schooner has two types of weapons: one for transport ships, the second for sailboats; both have two masts (foreground and mainsail). A transport schooner (topsail schooner or topsail schooner Topsail schooner) carries a topsail, sometimes two on the fore mast, and only slanting sails on the main mast. The schooner-sailboat usually has oblique rigging on both masts, but sometimes wears a topsail on the foreground.

At one time, schooners-sailboats were very common and stood in the forefront of competing for the American Cup (America cup), but recently the tender has completely ousted them from the races. In addition to the schooners described above, there are also other types of transport schooners with three masts and oblique armament. Such schooners are called three-masted schooners. When they carry topsails on the foremast, such schooners are called Jackass. They should not be confused with barquentines, which look like them from a distance. Barkentina differs from a schooner in that it has a brig foremast.wow.

Ketch, ketch (English ketch) - a type of two-masted sailing vessel with slanting sails. They appeared in the middle of the 17th century in England and North America as fishing and merchant ships. Merchant ships of a similar design were also called hukors. Ketch differs from a schooner in that the ketch has a rear mast lower than the front one (at the same time, for a ketch, the front mast is called the mainsail, and the rear mizzen, while in a two-masted schooner, the front mast is called the fore, and the rear mainsail); the difference between ketch and yol lies in the location of the mizzen mast in front of the stock head (axes) steering wheel. The sail area of the aft mast is significant and amounts to about 15-20% of the total sail area. Ketch sails are slanting, gaff rigging can be used. In light winds, an apsel can be installed between the mizzen and the mainsail. Such rigging and the arrangement of the rudder axis provide advantages in handling and propulsion in strong winds. In the 18th and 20th centuries, a ketch in Britain was a small two-masted sailing ship used mainly for coastal transportation. Usually the sailing armament was mixed. An example is the so-called. Baltic ketch (ngl. Baltic Ketch), a type that imported timber and hemp from the ports of the Baltic. Ketch is often confused with yol, in which the mizzen is located aft of the rudder stock. With the exception of this feature, both types of weapons are outwardly similar, although the mizzen of the iol is somewhat smaller relative to the grotto. Ketch requires more hands to control and is usually slightly larger. In most cases, the area of the mizzani ketch is approximately equal to two-thirds of the area of the grotto. Depending on the type of hull and the size of the overhangs on the cages, various options for the location of the masts along the length of the vessel are possible.In a catch, the mastheads are often connected by a headstay-karnak. The mizzen mast of the ketch creates great inconvenience for the helmsman, with the exception of ships with a cockpit in the center. The Iol is free from such a disadvantage and, moreover, the size of her mizzen eliminates the need for reefing, and this is the advantage of the Iol as a cruising sailboat.

Source 1 Source 2 Source 3