Brails, in a
sailing ship
A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships ...
, are small
lines
Line most often refers to:
* Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity
* Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system
Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to:
Arts ...
used to haul in or up the edges (
leeches
Leeches are segmented parasitic or predatory worms that comprise the subclass Hirudinea within the phylum Annelida. They are closely related to the oligochaetes, which include the earthworm, and like them have soft, muscular segmented bo ...
) or corners of
sails, before
furling.
[''Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary'', 1913.] On a ship rig, these brails are most often found on the
mizzen
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the centre-line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, and giving necessary height to a navigation l ...
sail. The command is, ''hale up the brails'', or, ''brail up the sails''.
The word brail comes from Middle English ''brayle'', from Anglo-French ''braiel'' belt, strap, brail, alteration of Old French ''braiuel'' belt, probably ultimately from Latin ''braca'' pant.
A brail net is a type of net incorporating brail lines on a small fishing net on a boat or castnet.
A brail net used for casting is also referred to as an English net as opposed to a Spanish net.
See also
*
Clewlines and buntlines
Clewlines and buntlines are lines used to handle the sails of a square rigged ship.
Although the common perception of a traditionally rigged ship is that the sails are handled from "up in the rigging", the majority of the work is actually carr ...
*
Reefing
Reefing reduces the area of a sail, usually by folding or rolling one edge of the canvas in on itself and attaching the unused portion to a spar or a stay, as the primary measure to preserve a sailing vessel's stability in strong winds. Restoring ...
*
Guy (sailing)
A guy (probably from Dutch ''gei'', " brail") is a line (rope) attached to and intended to control the end of a spar on a sailboat. On a modern sloop-rigged sailboat with a symmetric spinnaker, the spinnaker pole is the spar most commonly cont ...
References
Nautical terminology
Sailing rigs and rigging
Sailboat components
Ropework
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