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Backstay
A backstay is a piece of standing rigging on a sailing vessel that runs from the mast to either its transom or rear quarter, counteracting the forestay and jib. It is an important sail trim control and has a direct effect on the shape of the mainsail and the headsail. Backstays are generally adjusted by block and tackle, hydraulic adjusters, or lines leading to winches. Types Backstays may be ''permanent'' or ''running''. A permanent backstay is attached to the top of the mast. Running backstays appear in pairs attached about two-thirds of the way up the mast (sometimes at multiple locations along the length of the mast). In general, most modern sailboats have a permanent backstay and some have a permanent backstay combined with running backstays. Backstays are not always found on all vessels, especially smaller ones. A permanent backstay is attached at the top of the mast and may or may not be readily adjustable. In a masthead rig, tensioning the permanent backstay directly ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fractional Rig
A fractional rig on a sailing vessel consists of a foresail, such as a jib or genoa sail, that does not reach all the way to the top of the mast. The forestay is a wire that secures the mast to the front of the boat. With a fractional rig, the forestay is attached between about 1/8 and 1/4 of the length of the mast lower down, rather than being attached to the top of the mast as in a masthead rig. The foresail (jib or genoa) is then rigged to this stay. The mast is farther forward on the boat than on a masthead rig and so it has a larger mainsail. Masthead rigs are most common on larger keelboats or cruisers. A fractional rig is typically used on sailing dinghies and racing oriented keelboats, such as the J/24. Fractional rigs were introduced on race boats in order to allow more controllability of the surface of the mainsail and also less drag when sailing upwind. According to one manufacturer, "a key to making fast boats easier to sail than slow boats is the 'fractio ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Standing Rigging
Standing rigging comprises the fixed lines, wires, or rods, which support each mast or bowsprit on a sailing vessel and reinforce those spars against wind loads transferred from the sails. This term is used in contrast to running rigging, which represents the moveable elements of rigging which adjust the position and shape of the sails. Historical development Early sailing vessels used rope of hemp or other fibers, which gave way to wire ropes of various types. Galvanized steel was common for the first half of the 20th century, continuing as an inexpensive option to its 1960s successor material—stainless steel cables and rods. In the late 20th Century, racing yachts adopted composite fiber lines for standing rigging, with the goal of reducing weight and windage aloft. Materials On modern yachts, standing rigging is often stainless steel wire, Nitronic-50 stainless steel rod or synthetic fiber. Semi-rigid stainless steel wire is by far the most common as it combines extr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gaff Rig
Gaff rig is a sailing rig (configuration of sails, mast and stays) in which the sail is four-cornered, fore-and-aft rigged, controlled at its peak and, usually, its entire head by a spar (pole) called the ''gaff''. Because of the size and shape of the sail, a gaff rig will have running backstays rather than permanent backstays. The gaff enables a fore and aft sail to be four sided, rather than triangular. A gaff rig typically carries 25 percent more sail than an equivalent Bermudian rig for a given hull design. A sail hoisted from a gaff is called a gaff-rigged (or, less commonly, gaff rigged or gaffrigged) sail. Description Gaff rig remains the most popular fore-aft rig for schooner and barquentine mainsails and other course sails, and spanker sails on a square rigged vessel are always gaff rigged. On other rigs, particularly the sloop, ketch and yawl, gaff rigged sails were once common but have now been largely replaced by the Bermuda rig sail, which, in addition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 chosen course, which is often part of a larger plan of navigation. From prehistory until the second half of the 19th century, sailing craft were the primary means of maritime trade and transportation; exploration across the seas and oceans was reliant on sail for anything other than the shortest distances. Naval power in this period used sail to varying degrees depending on the current technology, culminating in the gun-armed sailing warships of the Age of Sail. Sail was slowly replaced by steam as the method of propulsion for ships over the latter part of the 19th century – seeing a gradual improvement in the technology of steam through a number of stepwise developments. Steam allowed scheduled services that ran at higher average speeds tha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Masthead Rig
A masthead rig on a sailing vessel consists of a forestay and backstay both attached at the top of the mast. The Bermuda rig A Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig, or Marconi rig is a configuration of Mast (sailing), mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. This configuration was developed in Bermuda in the 1600s; the t ... can be split into two groups: the masthead rig and the fractional rig. The masthead rig has larger and more headsails, and a smaller mainsail, compared to the fractional rig. The major advantage a masthead sloop has over a fractional one, is that the jib is larger. Since the jib has no mast in front of it to cause turbulent airflow over it, it is considered much more efficient than the main, especially for sailing up wind. Also, since the fore stay is attached to the top of the mast, it pulls directly against the back stay. Tightening the back stay, then, increases the tension on the fore stay. This is u ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backstay Insulators
Backstay insulators, when used as a pair, are devices which allow for the electrical isolation of a section of wire on a yacht (e.g. the backstay) so that it can be used as an antenna for a single sideband (SSB) radio. Since these insulators form part of the rigging, not only must they not leak current, but they must also be strong and durable enough not to fail mechanically under the sometimes tough load conditions experienced in sailing. Manufacturers include Hi-MOD, Norseman-Gibb and Sta-Lok. Each design is slightly different, but all share the common characteristics of having two attachment points set back-to-back and separated by some insulating material. The Hi-MOD system has been designed in such a way that if the insulating material (typically some sort of plastic Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into sol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mainsail
A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel. * On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast. * On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the sail rigged aft of the main mast. The sail's foot is normally attached to a boom. (In extremely heavy weather, the mainsail may be lowered, and a much smaller trysail hoisted in its place). Historical fore-and-aft rigs used a four-sided gaff rigged mainsail, sometimes setting a gaff topsail above it. Whereas once the mainsail was typically the largest sail, today the mainsail may be smaller than the jib or genoa; Prout catamarans typically have a mainmast stepped further aft than in a standard sloop, so that the mainsail is much smaller than the foresail. Bermuda rig The modern Bermuda rig uses a triangular mainsail aft of the mast, closely coordinated with a jib for sailing upwind. A large overlapping jib or genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Headsail
A sail plan is a description of the specific ways that a sailing craft is rigged. Also, the term "sail plan" is a graphic depiction of the arrangement of the sails for a given sailing craft.> In the English language, ships were usually described, until the end of the eighteenth century, in terms of their type of hull design. Using the type of rig as the main type identifer for a vessel only became common in the nineteenth century. This is illustrated by the terminology for ships in the large fleet of colliers that traded to London from the coal ports of the Northeast of England (of which was a well-known example). Many of these full-rigged ships (square rigged on all of three masts) had the hull type "bark"another common classification was "cat". In the second half of the eighteenth century, the square sails on the mizzen were often eliminated. The resulting rig acquired the name of the hull type: initially as "bark" and soon as "barque". This explains the Royal Navy's descripti ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Block And Tackle
A block and tackle or only tackle is a system of two or more pulleys with a rope or cable threaded between them, usually used to lift heavy loads. The pulleys are assembled to form blocks and then blocks are paired so that one is fixed and one moves with the load. The rope is threaded through the pulleys to provide mechanical advantage that amplifies the force applied to the rope. Hero of Alexandria described cranes formed from assemblies of pulleys in the first century. Illustrated versions of Hero's ''Mechanica'' (a book on raising heavy weights) show early block and tackle systems. Overview A block is a set of pulleys or sheaves mounted on a single frame. An assembly of blocks with a rope threaded through the pulleys is called tackle. The process of threading ropes or cables through blocks is called "reeving", and a threaded block and tackle is said to have been "rove". A block and tackle system amplifies the tension force in the rope to lift heavy loads. They are c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydraulic
Hydraulics (from Greek: Υδραυλική) is a technology and applied science using engineering, chemistry, and other sciences involving the mechanical properties and use of liquids. At a very basic level, hydraulics is the liquid counterpart of pneumatics, which concerns gases. Fluid mechanics provides the theoretical foundation for hydraulics, which focuses on the applied engineering using the properties of fluids. In its fluid power applications, hydraulics is used for the generation, control, and transmission of power by the use of pressurized liquids. Hydraulic topics range through some parts of science and most of engineering modules, and cover concepts such as pipe flow, dam design, fluidics and fluid control circuitry. The principles of hydraulics are in use naturally in the human body within the vascular system and erectile tissue. Free surface hydraulics is the branch of hydraulics dealing with free surface flow, such as occurring in rivers, canals, lakes, estuar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forestay
On a sailing vessel, a forestay, sometimes just called a stay, is a piece of standing rigging which keeps a mast from falling backwards. It is attached either at the very top of the mast, or in fractional rigs between about 1/8 and 1/4 from the top of the mast. The other end of the forestay is attached to the bow of the boat. Often a sail is attached to the forestay. This sail may be a jib or a genoa. In a cutter rig, the jib or jibs are flown from stays in front of the forestay, perhaps going from the masthead to a bowsprit. The sail on the forestay is then referred to as the staysail A staysail ("stays'l") is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose luff can be affixed to a stay running forward (and most often but not always downwards) from a mast to the deck, the bowsprit, or to another mast. Description Most staysails are t ... or stays'l. A forestay might be made from stainless steel wire on a modern yacht, solid stainless steel rod, carbon rod, or ultra high molec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Transom (nautical)
A transom is the vertical reinforcement which strengthens the stern of a boat. This flat termination of the stern is typically above the waterline. The term was used as far back as Middle English in the 1300s, having come from Latin ''transversus'' (transverse) via Old French ''traversain'' (set crosswise). The stern of a boat is typically vertical. It can be raked such that there is an overhang above the water, as at the bow. A reverse transom is angled from the waterline forwards. Transoms can be used to support a rudder, outboard motor, or as a swimming and access platform. Gallery File:The Bermuda cedar (Juniperus bermudiana) transom of Spirit of Bermuda, 2016.jpg, The Bermuda cedar transom of the Spirit of Bermuda File:Sea Scooter transom.jpg, Flat transom on a dinghy with mount points for a rudder. File:Coble on shore at Boulmer (2) - geograph.org.uk - 1381157.jpg, Raked transom with rudder mount points. File:CS 30 Sailboat Kelsea 0297.jpg, Reverse transom with rudde ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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