Page:Small-boat sailing; an explanation of the management of small yachts, half-decked and open sailing-boats of various rigs; sailing on sea and on river; cruising, etc (IA smallboatsailing01knig).pdf/115

 is the leach. The different corners of the sails also have their names: the upper fore corner is the throat of the sail; the upper after corner is the peak; the lower fore corner is the tack; and the lower after corner is the clew. Of these sails the mainsail and the foresail alone are provided with reef-points, 9, and reef-cringles, 10, so that their area can, when necessary, be reduced by taking in one or more reefs, a process that will be explained further on. Instead of reefing a jib when the wind freshens, the sail is taken in and a smaller jib is hoisted in its stead; for every cutter should carry at least two jibs, and it is better to have three, even on a five-tonner—one being a very small spit-fire jib of stout canvas, to be used if one is caught out in really heavy weather. Larger yachts carry five or six jibs. In strong winds the topsail is taken in, and the topmast is housed; or a small jib-headed topsail is hoisted in the place of the yard topsail.

The mainsail has its head laced to the gaff, and its foot, as has been said, is sometimes laced to the boom. Its luff is fastened to the wooden or iron mast hoops that are made to run easily up and down the mast. On a large vessel the clew of the mainsail is hauled out on the boom by a tackle, and the tack also is hauled down by the main-tack tackle; but on small vessels a rope is spliced into the thimble in the tack of the sail and made fast to the boom; while the clew is hauled out by hand with a line rove through a hole at the end of the