Amazing Grace Tall Ship sailing in Pacific Ocean

A fisherman staysail is a sail placed between the fore and main

mast Mast, MAST or MASt may refer to: Engineering * Mast (sailing), a vertical spar on a sailing ship * Flagmast, a pole for flying a flag * Guyed mast, a structure supported by guy-wires * Mooring mast, a structure for docking an airship * Radio mast ...

s of a sailing ship, usually a

schooner A schooner () is a type of sailing vessel defined by its rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than the mainmast. A common variant, the topsail schoon ...

but also including

brigantine A brigantine is a two-masted sailing vessel with a fully square-rigged foremast and at least two sails on the main mast: a square topsail and a gaff sail mainsail (behind the mast). The main mast is the second and taller of the two masts. Older ...

s. All four of its sides are typically set flying, although the luff may be attached to the mast (possibly with in-mast

furl Furl (from File Uniform Resource Locators) was a free social bookmarking website that allowed members to store searchable copies of webpages and share them with others. Every member received 5 gigabytes of storage space. The site was founded by ...

ing) on a

staysail A staysail ("stays'l") is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose Sail components#Edges, luff can be affixed to a stays (nautical), stay running forward (and most often but not always downwards) from a mast (sailing), mast to the deck (ship), deck, the b ...

schooner. The purpose of a fisherman staysail is to catch light winds aloft, as it is a large sail set high on the masts. In some rigs, it overlaps other sails and

spars The United States Coast Guard (USCG) Women's Reserve, also known as the SPARS (SPARS was the acronym for "Semper Paratus—Always Ready"), was the women's branch of the United States Coast Guard Reserve. It was established by the United States ...

such as the gaff of the foresail and therefore must be fully lowered and re-raised at every tack and jibe. Because of this, a fisherman staysail is unusual on a

gaff schooner Gaff may refer to: Ankle-worn devices * Spurs in variations of cockfighting * Climbing spikes used to ascend wood poles, such as utility poles Arts and entertainment * A character in the ''Blade Runner'' film franchise * Penny gaff, a 19th-ce ...

, but on a

staysail schooner A staysail ("stays'l") is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose luff can be affixed to a stay running forward (and most often but not always downwards) from a mast to the deck, the bowsprit, or to another mast. Description Most staysails are tr ...

, the fisherman staysail is a useful way to fill the upper gap between the masts. A staysail is mainly suitable in light to medium airs; in strong winds it does little more than heel the vessel.

Notes

Further reading