Stays are ropes, wires, or rods on
sailing
Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...
vessels that run fore-and-aft along the centerline from the
masts to the
hull
Hull may refer to:
Structures
* Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle
* Fuselage, of an aircraft
* Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds
* Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship
* Submarine hull
Mathematics
* Affine hull, in affi ...
,
deck,
bowsprit, or to other
masts which serve to stabilize the
masts.
A stay is part of the
standing rigging and is used to support the weight of a
mast
Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to:
Engineering
* Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship
* Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag
* Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires
* Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship
* Radio mas ...
.
It is a large strong
rope
A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarl ...
extending from the upper end of each mast and running down towards the
deck of the vessel in a midships and direction.
The
shrouds
Shroud usually refers to an item, such as a cloth, that covers or protects some other object. The term is most often used in reference to ''burial sheets'', mound shroud, grave clothes, winding-cloths or winding-sheets, such as the famous Shr ...
serve a similar function but extend on each side of the mast and provide support in the athwartships direction. The object of both is to prevent the masts from falling down but the stays also prevent
springing Springing as a nautical term refers to global (vertical) resonant hull girder vibrations induced by continuous wave loading. When the global hull girder vibrations occur as a result of an impulsive wave loading, for example a wave slam at the bow ...
, when the ship is pitching deep.
Thus stays are fore and aft. Those led aft towards the vessel's
stern are
backstays while those that lead forward towards the
bow are
forestays.
"To stay" is also a verb: to bring the ship's head up to the wind (to point the bow upwind).
This is done in order to
go about (to
tack
TACK is a group of archaea acronym for Thaumarchaeota (now Nitrososphaerota), Aigarchaeota, Crenarchaeota (now Thermoproteota), and Korarchaeota, the first groups discovered. They are found in different environments ranging from acidophilic ...
; tacking is sometimes also called ''staying the vessel''
[); the bow of the ship turns upwind, then continues turning until the wind comes over the other side. To miss stays is to fail in the attempt to go about;][
]
Types of stays
; forestay or headstay
: reaches from the foremast-head towards the bowsprit end
; mainstay
: extends to the ship's stem. The mizzenstay stretches to a collar on the main-mast, immediately above the quarter-deck.
; fore-topmast stay
: goes to the end of the bowsprit, a little beyond the forestay, on which the fore-topmast staysail runs on hanks.
; main-topmast stay
: attaches to the hounds of the foremast, or comes on deck.
; mizzen-topmast stay
: goes to the hounds of the main-mast.
; top-gallant, royal, or any other masts
: have each a stay, named after their respective masts
; springstay
: is a kind of substitute nearly parallel to the principal stay, and intended to help the principal stay to support its mast
; triatic stay
: is a stay that runs between masts. On a ketch it runs between the main mast and the head of the mizzen mast and is used to stop the upper section of the mizzen mast being pulled backwards. On a steamer, an iron bar between the two knees secures the paddle-beams. (See funnel stays).
See also
* Chainplate
* Unstayed Mast
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Stays (Nautical)
Sailing rigs and rigging