Selecting the Class Boat Best for You 33 



fairly stiff slats of wood, aluminum or plastic. Once inside their pockets, 

 the battens are tied fast to secure them when wind fills the sail. 



The jib-headed type of mainsail is one of the most popular in use. It's 

 an efficient sail and easy to handle. Only one halyard, or line, is needed 

 to raise and lower it. 



For most small, single-masted sailboats today the jib-headed mainsail 

 is the principal source of power. In certain rigs, such as the catboat and 

 sailing dinghy, it is the only sail. In both the catboat and sailing dinghy, 

 the mast is stepped, or mounted, far forward— much more so than in a 

 sloop. And since both these craft carry just a mainsail, it is usually larger, 

 proportionately, than that carried by a slooptype rig of comparable size. 

 A comparison of the mainsail of the Nipper, a catboat, and that of the 

 Firefly, a sloop, illustrates this. The Nipper's mainsail has an area of 100 

 square feet. The Firefly mainsail measures 75 square feet; with its jib, 

 which has 25 square feet, the total area of its two sails is equal to that 

 of the mainsail of the Nipper. 



Gaff-headed Mainsail. Compare the outline of this sail with that of the 

 jib-headed type. The gaff -headed mainsail is a rectangle— more or less— 

 and as such has four sides and four corners. Luff, foot and leech remain 

 the same as for a jib-headed mainsail; but here you have an additional 

 side, and this is called the "head." The two bottom comers— tack and 

 clew— are the same as for a triangular sail; but the uppermost corner now 

 becomes the peak, while the other upper corner, that adjacent to the 

 mast, is called the "throat." This sail is not as high, proportionately, as 

 the jib-headed mainsail; but its foot, proportionately, is longer. 



With its fourth side, or head, the gaff-headed mainsail calls for the use 

 of an additional spar, known as a "gaff" (from which the sail gets its 

 name). The function of the gaff is to aid in raising and lowering the sail, 

 an operation which requires two halyards instead of one, as in the case 

 of the jib-headed mainsail. One of these ropes, the throat halyard, raises 

 the sail's throat; the peak halyard raises its peak. Aloft, the gaff helps 

 hold the sail in position, 



Altough gaff-headed mainsails have been around a lot longer than the 

 jib-headed there are nowhere near as many of them in use nowadays on 

 small, single-masted boats. This type of mainsail has certain advantages, 



