Parts of A Sail - Square Sails

Square Sails

Many of the same names are used for parts of a quadrilateral square rigged sail.

Head

As for a triangular sail, this refers to the topmost part. On a square sail, however, this part is an edge rather than a corner.

Leech

The "side" edge of the sail. Since square sails are symmetrical, they have two leeches. Occasionally, when the ship is close-hauled, the windward edge of the sail might be referred to as the luff.

Clew

Like a triangular sail, the "free" corners of a square sail are called clews; again there are two of them. Square sails have sheets attached to their clews like triangular sails, but the sheets are used to pull the sail down to the yard below rather than to adjust the angle it makes with the wind.

Foot

The bottom edge of the sail.

Square sails also have tacks and sheets, although they are not a part of the sail itself. Square Viking sails included a stiffening bar called a beitass.

'Clew lines' are ropes attached to the clews, and 'clewgarnets' or 'cluegarnets' are the tackles attached to clew lines. These lines and tackles are used to ‘clew up’ the ‘courses’ of a square sail (i.e. to pull the clews up onto the upper yard or the mast in preparation for furling the sail).