Description
Gaff rig remains the most popular 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 boats to sail closer to the direction the wind is coming from.
The gaff is hoisted by two halyards:
- The throat halyard lifts the end closer to the mast and bears the main weight of the sail and the tension of the luff.
- The peak halyard lifts the actual gaff, at some point along its length, and bears the leech tension. The peak halyard should approach the gaff at ~90 degrees. This angle provides maximum leech tension, and ensures that luff tension is not affected be any adjustment to the peak halyard. The peak halyard may be attached directly to the gaff (very short gaffs) though there is the potential for snapping the gaff at the point of attachment. More usually the attachment is split to at least two points along the length of the gaff by the "Gaff Span".
Additionally, a gaff vang may be fitted. It is a line attached to the end of the gaff which prevents the gaff from sagging downwind. Gaff vangs are difficult to rig on the aft-most sail, so are typically only found on schooners or ketches, and then only on the foresail or mainsail.
A triangular fore-and-aft sail called a gaff topsail may be carried between the gaff and the topmast or the gaff and a jack-yard.
Gunter-rigged boats are similar, smaller vessels on which the gaff is raised by a single halyard running on a wire gunter. On these rigs the gaff may be very nearly vertical and a topsail is never carried. Another variation is a gaff with no halyard. One end of the spar is attached to the peak of the sail and the gaff is hoist until it tensions the head and leach and then the other end is secured to the mast near the tack with a Snotter and are called Spritsails. This is considered a totally different rig.
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