A screacher
is a
sail
A sail is a tensile structure, which is made from fabric or other membrane materials, that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails may b ...
that combines the features of a
spinnaker
A spinnaker is a sail designed specifically for sailing off the wind on courses between a Point of sail#Reaching, reach (wind at 90° to the course) to Point of sail#Running downwind, downwind (course in the same direction as the wind). Spinna ...
and a reacher.
Its similarity with a spinnaker is that it is not attached to a
stay
Stay may refer to:
Places
* Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US
Law
* Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment
* Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tr ...
along its
luff, and typically has a slightly larger curvature than a
genoa
Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...
. Luff shape and tension is maintained by the
halyard
In sailing, a halyard or halliard is a line (rope) that is used to hoist a ladder, sail, flag or yard. The term "halyard" derives from the Middle English ''halier'' ("rope to haul with"), with the last syllable altered by association with the E ...
and a
bolt rope which is woven into the sail itself, and it is this stiff tensioned rope which allows the sail to be furled on itself. In addition, many screachers are
gybed by allowing the sail to fly free and pass in front of the bolt rope and invert, much in the same way that an asymmetrical spinnaker is gybed. Tacking with a screacher may require furling and re-setting. The similarity with a genoa is that it is typically a white sail, and the
clews always overlap the mast.
References
Sailing rigs and rigging
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