SPRITSAIL

Spritsail

The spritsail is a form of three or four-sided, fore-aft sail and its rig. Unlike the gaff where the head hangs from a spar along its edge, this rig supports the leech of the sail by means of a spar or spars named a sprit. The forward end of the sprit spar is attached to the mast but bisects the face of the sail, with the after end of the sprit spar attaching to the peak and/or the clew of the sail. It is said to be the ancestor from which the common gaff rig evolved in 16th-century Holland. Historically, spritsails were the first fore-and-aft rigs, appearing in Greco-Roman navigation in the 2nd century BC.

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spritsail

Noun

  1. A form of three- or four-sided fore-and-aft sail and its rig, supporting the leech of the sail by means of a sprit.


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: spritsail
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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