Page:The American Boy's Handy Book edition 1.djvu/326

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The Winged Skaters.
293

like the Danish rig, the sail must be bound to the crew, which always appears objectionable from the fact that in case of accident there must be more danger of breaking the spars or tearing the sail than there is where the whole thing can be dropped in an instant. The English rig is on something of the same principle as

The Cape Vincent Rig,
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Fig. 195.Cape Vincent Rig.

which consists of a long spar and a sprit, the spar being in some cases twelve or fifteen feet in length; one seven feet long will make a sail large enough for a boy. The sprit is fastened at the bottom securely to the sail, and fits on to the main spar with a crotch, fork, or jaw. The sail being cut in the right shape and proper proportions, and made fast to the long spar and to the end of the sprit, as soon as the latter is forced into place it will stretch the sail out flat, as in Fig. 195. A boy with one of these rigs on his shoulder makes a very rakish-looking craft. The spar is carried "as a soldier carries his rifle"—on the shoulder; the sprit, or small cross spar, is allowed to rest against the crew's back. According to one writer, who is supposed to have had experience, this rakish craft will not in the least belie its looks. In speaking of it he says: "I should say that on good, smooth ice, with a twenty-five or thirty-

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