How many types of sail are there?

Generally, we have three sorts of sails on our boat:

Mainsail: The large sail behind the mast which is attached to the mast and boom. Headsail: The small sail in front of the mast, attached to the mast and forestay (ie. jib or genoa)

What are the 5 different kinds of sailing?

Types of Sailing
  • Fleet Racing. Fleet racing is the most common form of competitive sailing that involves boats racing around a course. …
  • Match Racing. A match race consists of two identical boats racing against each other. …
  • Team Racing. …
  • Offshore & Oceanic Sailing. …
  • Para World Sailing. …
  • Cruising. …
  • Expression Events.

What is the extra sail called?

In sailing, an extra is a sail that is not part of the working sail plan. The most common extra is the spinnaker. Other extras include studding sails, the modern spanker (or tallboy), and some staysails and topsails.

What is a boat sail called?

Mainsail: As the name implies, this is the main sail of the boat. It is the sail attached to the back of the mast. Mast: The mast is a large, vertical pole that holds the sails up. Some boats have more than one mast.

What is a 3 masted sailboat called?

Schooners are fore-and-aft rigged sailing vessels with at least two masts; the after mast is the same height or taller than the foremast. Three-masted schooners were also called tern schooners.

What is a Yankee sail?

yankee (plural yankees) (nautical) A headsail resembling a genoa or a jib but with a high-cut clew, normally used together with a staysail. A sailing boat is typically equipped with three yankee sails of different sizes, number one being the largest.

What is a 2 masted ship called?

A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Brigantine.

What is the best sail shape?

A deep or “full” shape is more powerful than a flat shape. Deep sails are best for power and acceleration. A flat sail is best when overpowered in heavy air. A flat shape is also fast in smooth water, as it creates less drag.

What is a 4 masted sailing ship called?

9) The Bark (Barque)

They had four masts, each bearing square sails on the fore topmast and fore-and-aft sails on the aft mast. These vessels were commonly used by traders to carry extremely high volumes of cargo from Australia to Europe.

What is sloop sailing?

sloop, single-masted sailing vessel with fore-and-aft rigging, including mainsail, jib, and sometimes one or more headsails. A sloop of war was a small sloop-rigged warship, mounting about 20 guns. In modern usage, the sloop is practically synonymous with the cutter.

What is the most popular sailing dinghy?

Wayfarers
Wayfarers are perhaps the most popular cruising dinghies. Usually made of wood or fibreglass, they’re long and deep enough to fit three adults comfortably for quite a few hours, so sailing schools tend to use them.

What are the small racing sailboats called?

Sailing Dinghies
Sailing Dinghies

Dinghies are a category of small boats that have a wide variety of uses. If you are new to boating, it is a great place to start learning due to its size and simplicity.

Which is better ketch or sloop?

In basic terms, a ketch can carry more sail area than a sloop, but with smaller sails and a greater range of combinations that are easily managed shorthanded. As Glanville noted, a ketch can “turn up and down” (upwind and downwind), “go to and fro” (tacking, presumably) “almost with any wind” (in all conditions).

What is a Bermuda sail?

These tall triangular sails are called the Bermuda rig, or sometimes the Marconi rig, named for their development more than two centuries ago in Bermudan boats. Because of the physics of how force is generated by wind blowing past a sail, tall thin sails generally have more power when the boat is sailing into the wind.