Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/157

scribed the simplest rig possible, we may turn our attention to more elegant and elaborate but not always preferable outfits.

"One of the prettiest and most convenient rigs for a small boat is known as the 'leg-of-mutton sharpie rig' (Fig. 93). The sail is triangular, and the sprit, instead of reaching to its upper corner, stands nearly at right angles to the mast. It is held in position at the mast by the devices already described. This rig has the advantage of keeping the whole sail flatter than any other, for the end of the sprit cannot 'kick up,' as the phrase goes, and so the sail holds all the wind it receives.

"Fig. 94 shows a device, published for the first time in the St. Nicholas Magazine for September, 1880, which enables the sailor to step and unstep his mast, and hoist or lower his sail without leaving his seat—a matter of great importance when the boat is light and tottlish, as in the case of that most beautiful of small craft, the modern canoe, where the navigator sits habitually amidships. The lower mast (A, B, Fig. 94) stands about two and a half feet above the deck. It is fitted at the head with a metal ferrule and pin, and just above the deck with two half-cleats or other similar devices (A). The topmast (C, D) is fitted at F with a stout ring, and has double halyards (E) rove through or around its foot. The lower mast being in position (see lower part of Fig. 94), the canoeist desiring to make sail brings the boat's head to the wind, takes the top-mast with the sail loosely furled in one hand, and the halyards in the other. It is easy for him by raising this mast, without leaving