A screecher is a sail that combines the features of a

spinnaker A spinnaker is a sail designed specifically for sailing off the wind on courses between a reach (wind at 90° to the course) to downwind (course in the same direction as the wind). Spinnakers are constructed of lightweight fabric, usually n ...

and a reacher. Its similarity with a spinnaker is that it is not attached to a stay along its luff, and typically has a slightly larger curvature than a

genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

. Luff shape and tension is maintained by the halyard and a

bolt rope A bolt rope (Variants: "bolt-rope" and "boltrope", French: ''ralingue'', Spanish: ''relinga'', Old Norse: *''rár-línk'', comprising ''rár'' genitive of ''rá'' "rope" and ''línk'' "edge of a sail "), is the rope that is sewn at the edges of the ...

which is woven into the sail itself, and it is this stiff tensioned rope which allows the sail to be furled on itself. In addition, many screechers are gybed by allowing the sail to fly free and pass in front of the bolt rope and invert, much in the same way that an asymmetrical spinnaker is gybed. Tacking with a screecher may require furling and re-setting. The similarity with a genoa is that it is typically a white sail, and the clews always overlap the mast.

References

Sailing rigs and rigging {{sailing-stub