Spritsail

This article is about fore-aft main sails. For a square rigged sail flown under the bowsprit, see Spritsail (square-rigged).
Spritsail:
Edges: Luff Head Leech Foot
Corners: Tack Throat Peak Clew
Diagram of a four-cornered spritsail

The spritsail is a four-sided, fore-and-aft sail that is supported at its highest points by the mast and a diagonally running spar known as the sprit. The foot of the sail can be stretched by a boom or held loose-footed just by its sheets. A spritsail has four corners: the throat, peak, clew, and tack. The Spritsail can also be used to describe a rig that uses a spritsail.[1]

Spritsails appeared in the 2nd century BC in the Aegean Sea on small Greek craft.[2] Here a spritsail used on a Roman merchant ship (3rd century AD).

Historically, spritsails were the first European fore-and-aft rigs, appearing in Greco-Roman navigation in the 2nd century BC.[2]

  1. ^ Underhill, Harold (1938). "Glossary". Sailing Ship Rigs and Rigging (Second, 1958 ed.). Glasgow: Brown, Son and Ferguson. p. 114.
  2. ^ a b Casson, Lionel (1995): "Ships and Seamanship in the Ancient World", Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 978-0-8018-5130-8, pp. 243–245