US Yachts US 22 sailboat Vesper mainsheet 1179

US Yachts US 22 sailboat Vesper jib sheet 1177

sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' (sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' (iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...

, a sheet is a line (

rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similarl ...

, cable or

chain A chain is a serial assembly of connected pieces, called links, typically made of metal, with an overall character similar to that of a rope in that it is flexible and curved in compression but linear, rigid, and load-bearing in tension. ...

) used to control the movable corner(s) ( clews) of a

sail A sail is a tensile structure—which is made from fabric or other membrane materials—that uses wind power to propel sailing craft, including sailing ships, sailboats, windsurfers, ice boats, and even sail-powered land vehicles. Sails ma ...

Terminology

In nautical usage the term "sheet" is applied to a line or chain attached to the lower corners of a sail for the purpose of extension or change of direction. The connection in derivation with the root "shoot" is more clearly seen in "sheet-anchor", one that is kept in reserve, to be "shot" in case of emergency.

Fore-and-aft rigs

Fore-and-aft rig A fore-and-aft rig is a sailing vessel rigged mainly with sails set along the line of the keel, rather than perpendicular to it as on a square rigged vessel. Description Fore-and-aft rigged sails include staysails, Bermuda rigged sails, ga ...

s comprise the vast majority of sailing vessels in use today, including effectively all

dinghies A dinghy is a type of small boat, often carried or towed by a larger vessel for use as a tender. Utility dinghies are usually rowboats or have an outboard motor. Some are rigged for sailing but they differ from sailing dinghies, which ...

and

yacht A yacht is a sailing or power vessel used for pleasure, cruising, or racing. There is no standard definition, though the term generally applies to vessels with a cabin intended for overnight use. To be termed a , as opposed to a , such a pleasu ...

s. The sheet on a fore-and-aft sail controls the angle of the sail to the wind, and should be adjusted to keep the sail just filled. Most smaller boats use the

Bermuda rig A Bermuda rig, Bermudian rig, or Marconi rig is a configuration of mast and rigging for a type of sailboat and is the typical configuration for most modern sailboats. This configuration was developed in Bermuda in the 1600s; the term ''Marconi'' ...

, which has two or three sets of sheets: * The mainsheet is attached to the boom, and is used to control the

mainsail A mainsail is a sail rigged on the main mast of a sailing vessel. * On a square rigged vessel, it is the lowest and largest sail on the main mast. * On a fore-and-aft rigged vessel, it is the sail rigged aft of the main mast. The sail's foot i ...

. In a rig with no boom on the

, the mainsheet would attach directly to the mainsail clew. A mainsheet is a line connected to the boom which allows a sailor to control the speed of a boat. * The jib sheet attaches to the clew of the jib, and controls it. The jib has a sheet on each side, only one of which (the leeward one) will be in use at one time. * The spinnaker sheet attaches to the clew(s) of the

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 ny ...

, if carried. A symmetrical spinnaker has two sheets, an "active" one and a "lazy" one, in the same way as a jib, but they are attached to the sail's two separate clews. On boats larger than around thirty feet, the spinnaker will also be fitted with guys, which are similar to sheets but control the pole instead of the sail. On smaller boats the lazy sheet is used as a guy. On the smallest boats, a sheet is often a simple line, pulled by hand; on larger boats, intermediate blocks are sometimes used to provide

mechanical advantage Mechanical advantage is a measure of the force amplification achieved by using a tool, mechanical device or machine system. The device trades off input forces against movement to obtain a desired amplification in the output force. The model for ...

. However, many blocks and their multiply reeved lines, particularly on headsails, have been replaced by single-line sheets trimmed by powerful

winch A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up) or let out (wind out) or otherwise adjust the tension of a rope or wire rope (also called "cable" or "wire cable"). In its simplest form, it consists of a spool (or drum) attach ...

es.

Square rig

Square-rigged vessels are much less common, and are usually large ships. Nevertheless, they too have sheets on the movable corners of their square sails. Unlike fore-and-aft sheets, though, square-rig sheets do not control the angle of the sails (which is performed using braces); instead, they are used to haul the corners of the sails from their stowed positions down towards the tip of the yard below. They are then not adjusted significantly while sailing until the sail is to be handed (put away) again. The lowest sails, the

courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

, are trimmed using the sheets as these sails are loose footed and are secured to yards only at the head. File:Ecoutes lovées.jpg, Flemish flaked sheets Image:Stowing sails aloft.jpg, The length of chain running diagonally up and right from the bottom-left of this picture to the upper of the two

yards The yard (symbol: yd) is an English unit of length in both the British imperial and US customary systems of measurement equalling 3 feet or 36 inches. Since 1959 it has been by international agreement standardized as exactly ...

is the fore-lower-topsail sheet. Some of the lines on '' Prince William's'' larger sails are made of chain to handle the heavy loads while remaining flexible enough to pass through the various blocks on their route to the deck.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sheet (Sailing) Nautical terminology Sailing rigs and rigging