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Various Kinds of Yachts

Yachts are of various kinds, according to their size. If more than eighty tons burden, the schooner is most suitable; for, as the spars are more numerous, they are proportionably lighter. The schooner, as has been before observed, has two masts--the foremast and mainmast; the one bearing the sail called the boom-foresail, and the other a mainsail. She has two or more headsails, called staysail, fore-staysail and jib. Her topsails are either square or fore and aft.

The Cutter has one mast and four sails--viz. mainsail, gaff-topsail, foresail, and jib. Some smaller craft have larger jibs, and no foresail. The Dandy-rigged Yacht differs from a cutter, in having no boom for her mainsail, which can consequently be brailed up by a rope passing round it. She has a mizen-mast standing in the stern, which sets a sail called a mizen, and which is stretched on a horizontal spar, projecting over the stern. This style of rig is more safe for a yacht, as the boom in ordinary cutters is liable to sweep persons overboard; and the sail can be taken in quicker by brailing it up than by lowering it down.

The Hatteener has only two sails, a fore and a main sail, of a triangular shape. Each has a spar standing from the deck to the peak of the sail, and a boom at the bottom, like a cutter. This rig, from setting more canvass abaft, is well adapted for narrow waters.

One of the most handy rigs for a young sailor is a triangular main-sail and foresail rig, on a good-sized open boat. She should be at least twenty feet long, and five feet on her beam. The foresail is carried over the stem for about a foot, by means of an iron bowsprit, which ships and unships on the nose of the boat. Her mainsail has a spar reaching from the lower part of the mast to the upper corner of the sail; a rope is fastened in the middle of this spar, and passes through a block on the mast, by which the sail is hoisted. The advantages of this rig are, that it can be easily managed, while under it the boat is much safer than under most other kinds of rig; for, should a squall arise, the yachisman has only to let fly his foresheet and put his helm alee, and the boat will right immediately. With this rig, a boat stands very well to windward, and may be easily brought about.