A pig stick is a staff that carries a flag or pennant, usually the burgee of the boat owner's yacht club or private signal, above a mast of a sailboat. It's connected to a halyard so when it's raised the top of the mast, the "pig stick" extends above the mast, allowing the flag to be seen flying above the boat's sails. Pig sticks are especially useful on catboats and other sailboats which have no stays to which a flag halyard can be attached.
Famous quotes containing the words pig and/or stick:
“To market, to market, to buy a fat pig;
Home again, home again, jiggety jig.
To market, to market, to buy a fine hog;
Home again, home again, joggety jog.”
—Unknown. To Market, to Market, to Buy a Fat Pig (l. 1–4)
“So stick up ivy and the bays,
And then restore the heathen ways,
Green will remind you of the Spring,
Though this great day denies the thing,
And mortifies the earth, and all,
But your wild revels, and loose hall.”
—Henry Vaughan (1622–1695)