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 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 to being simpler than the gaff rig, usually allows vessels to sail closer to the direction from which the wind is blowing (i.e. "closer to the wind").

Gaff

Gaff may refer to:

Pole-shaped devices

Ankle-worn devices

Other

Cache-sexe

A cache-sexe is an item, often a small garment, that covers its user's genitals. The most common style, seen in Western G-strings and Japanese Fundoshis, has a triangle of material (cloth, beaded strings, etc.) attached at the corners to straps or strings around the waist and between the legs, that fasten the triangle over the genitals.

Cache-sexes have various social intentions, including the wearer's practice of sincere or enforced modesty, legal and/or customary restrictions within the context of intentional eroticism, and adding fetishistic or playfully teasing aspects to intentional eroticism. In Western cultures, for example, G-strings appear as swimming attire; for many erotic dancing venues, as the final state of undress, set as the polite and/or legal limit; or as a garment whose removal is one of many steps of a striptease, each existing to provide an increment in the viewer's sexual arousal.

Cache-sexe is a loanword from French.

Examples

Some male cross-dressers and pre- and non-op transgender women use a panty-like garment, often called a gaff, that serves to hide their genitalia and provide a feminine flat and smooth crotch area.

Fishing gaff

In fishing, a gaff is a pole with a sharp hook on the end that is used to stab a large fish and then lift the fish into the boat or onto shore. Ideally, the hook is placed under the backbone. Gaffs are used when the weight of the fish exceeds the breaking point of the fishing line or the fishing pole. A gaff cannot be used if it is intended to release the fish unharmed after capture, unless the fish is skilfully gaffed in the lip, jaw, or lower gill using a thin gaff hook.

A "flying gaff" is a specialized type of gaff used for securing and controlling very large fish. The hook part of the gaff (the head) detaches when sufficient force is used, somewhat like a harpoon's dart. The head is secured to the boat with a length of heavy rope or cable.