Parts of a sail

In sailing the parts of a sail have common terminology for each corner and edge of the sail.

Triangular sails

The corners

In a triangular sail, the highest point is called the head. The halyard, the line which raises the sail, is attached to the head. The lower two corners of the sail, on either end of the foot (the bottom edge of the sail), are called the tack (forward) and clew (aft). The tack is shackled to a fixed point on the boat, such as the gooseneck in the case of a Bermuda rigged mainsail, or the deck at the base of a stay, in the case of a jib or staysail.

The clew is movable and is positioned with running rigging. A symmetrical sail may be said to have two clews.

The clew of a jib or other headsail is the free corner (not attached to any standing rigging), to which port and starboard jib sheets are attached to control the angle of the sail.

In a sail with a boom (such as a mainsail on a sloop), the clew is attached to the boom, and can often be tightened along the boom using the outhaul to adjust the sail shape.

Headsail

A headsail of a sailing vessel is any sail set forward of the foremost mast. The most common headsails are staysails, a term that includes jibs and the larger genoa. Other headsails are set independently of any forestays, such as the spinnaker.

Some headsails can only be flown on specific points of sail, such as the spinnaker, which is only flown when sailing downwind, the Asymmetrical spinnaker and the gennaker, used when sailing a course between downwind and close hauled.

See also

References