A jib is a triangular sail that sets ahead of the

foremast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the median line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, giving necessary height to a navigation light ...

of a

sailing vessel 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 ca ...

. Its forward corner (

tack Thermoproteati is a kingdom of archaea. Its synonym, "TACK", is an acronym for Thaumarchaeota (now Nitrososphaerota), Aigarchaeota, Crenarchaeota (now Thermoproteota), and Korarchaeota (now Thermoproteota), the first groups discovered. They ...

) is fixed to the

bowsprit The bowsprit of a sailing vessel is a spar (sailing), spar extending forward from the vessel's prow. The bowsprit is typically held down by a bobstay that counteracts the forces from the forestay, forestays. The bowsprit’s purpose is to create ...

, to the bows, or to the deck between the bowsprit and the foremost mast. Jibs and

spinnaker A spinnaker is a sail designed specifically for sailing off the wind on courses between a Point of sail#Reaching, reach (wind at 90° to the course) to Point of sail#Running downwind, downwind (course in the same direction as the wind). Spinna ...

s are the two main types of

headsails A sail plan is a drawing of a sailing craft, viewed from the side, depicting its sails, the spars that carry them and some of the rigging that supports the rig. By extension, "sail plan" describes the arrangement of sails on a craft. A sailing c ...

on a modern boat.

Modern yachts and small craft

Boats may be sailed using a jib alone, but more commonly jibs make a minor direct contribution to propulsion compared to a

main sail 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 ...

. Generally, a jib's most crucial function is as an

airfoil An airfoil (American English) or aerofoil (British English) is a streamlined body that is capable of generating significantly more Lift (force), lift than Drag (physics), drag. Wings, sails and propeller blades are examples of airfoils. Foil (fl ...

, increasing performance and overall stability by reducing

turbulence In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers with no disruption between ...

on the main sail's

leeward In geography and seamanship, windward () and leeward () are directions relative to the wind. Windward is ''upwind'' from the point of reference, i.e., towards the direction from which the wind is coming; leeward is ''downwind'' from the point o ...

side. On boats with only one jib, it is common for the

clew Sail components include the features that define a sail's shape and function, plus its constituent parts from which it is manufactured. A sail may be classified in a variety of ways, including by its orientation to the vessel (e.g. ''fore-and-a ...

of the jib to be abaft the mast, meaning the jib and mainsail overlap. An overlapping jib is called a ''genoa jib'' or simply a

genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

(see illustration). These are efficiently used when reaching more broadly than a close reach. Alternatively, a boat may carry smaller jibs, to compensate aerodynamics when the main sail is reefed; these more rugged sails are called ''storm jibs'' or ''spitfires''. On a boat with two

staysail 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 a ...

s the inner sail is called the ''staysail'', and the outer (foremost) is called the jib. This combination of two staysails is called a ''cutter rig'' (or in North America a ''yankee pair'') and a boat with one mast rigged with two staysails and a mainsail is called a cutter. On cruising yachts, and nearly all racing sailboats, the jib needs to be worked when tacking. On these yachts, there are two sheets attached to the

of the jib. As the yacht comes head to wind during a tack, the active sheet is released, and the other sheet (the ''lazy sheet'') on the other side of the boat is pulled in. This sheet becomes the new ''active sheet'' until the next tack.

Traditional vessels

Schooner A schooner ( ) is a type of sailing ship, sailing vessel defined by its Rig (sailing), rig: fore-and-aft rigged on all of two or more Mast (sailing), masts and, in the case of a two-masted schooner, the foremast generally being shorter than t ...

s typically have up to three jibs. The foremost one sets on the topmast

forestay On a sailing vessel, a forestay, sometimes just called a stay, is a piece of standing rigging which keeps a mast from falling backwards. It is attached either at the very top of the mast, or in fractional rigs between about 1/8 and 1/4 from the t ...

and is generally called the ''jib topsail'', a second on the main forestay is called ''the jib'', and the innermost is called ''the staysail''. Actually, all three sails are both jibs and

s in the generic sense. Original usage in 18th and 19th century

square-rigged Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which a sailing vessel's primary driving sails are carried on horizontal spars that are perpendicular (or square) to the median plane of the keel and masts of the vessel. These sp ...

ships distinguished between the fore staysail, set on the

running from the foremast head to the ship's peak, the foremost part of the hull, and the jibs set on stays running to the bowsprit. Jibs, but not staysails, could also be "set flying," i.e. not attached to the standing rigging. Sails set beyond the peak were typically called jibs, set on stays running from the fore

topmast The masts of traditional sailing ships were not single spars, but were constructed of separate sections or masts, each with its own rigging. The topmast is one of these. The topmast is semi-permanently attached to the upper front of the lower m ...

to the

, or the fore

topgallant mast The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall spar, or arrangement of spars, erected more or less vertically on the median line of a ship or boat. Its purposes include carrying sails, spars, and derricks, giving necessary height to a navigation light, ...

to the jibboom or even the fore royal mast to the flying jibboom. A large

ship typically has four jibs, but could have as many as six. From forward to aft, these sails are called: * Jib of jibs * Spindle jib * Flying jib * Outer jib * Inner jib * Fore (

) staysail. The first two were rarely used except by clipper ships in light winds and were usually set flying. A storm jib was a small jib of heavy canvas set to a stay to help to control the ship in bad weather.

Idiom

The jib is referenced in the idiom usually spoken as "I like the cut of your jib", generally seen as signifying approval of one's general appearance or respect for their character. The phrase alludes to the maritime practice of identifying far-away ships by noting the "cut" (general shape and configuration) of their sails to determine their status as friend or foe. One such report from the '' Naval Chronicle'' (1805)—"we perceived by the cut of their sails, then set, that they were French Ships of War"—is often cited as an early inspiration for the idiom.

Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), was a Scottish novelist, poet and historian. Many of his works remain classics of European literature, European and Scottish literature, notably the novels ''Ivanhoe'' (18 ...

used the expression to denote approval in the 1824 novel '' St. Ronan's Well'': "If she disliked what the sailor calls the ''cut of their jib''.

John Russell Bartlett John Russell Bartlett (October 23, 1805 – May 28, 1886) was an American historian and linguist. Early life Bartlett was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on October 23, 1805, the son of Smith Bartlett and Nancy (Russell) Bartlett. In 1819 he ...

later defined the idiom in his 1848 ''Dictionary of Americanisms'' as "The form of his profile, the cast of his countenance". This usage alludes to a frequent variation of meaning which describes approval, specifically, of the shape of one's

nose A nose is a sensory organ and respiratory structure in vertebrates. It consists of a nasal cavity inside the head, and an external nose on the face. The external nose houses the nostrils, or nares, a pair of tubes providing airflow through the ...

, which roughly approximates the frontal position and triangular shape of the jib sail on a boat.

References

{{Sail Types, state=expanded Nautical terminology Sailboat components Sailing rigs and rigging Sailing ship components Shipbuilding

Modern yachts and small craft

Traditional vessels

Idiom

See also

References