unstayed rig

unstayed rig, used in small craft such as the Laser dinghy, and in cruising boats like the Freedom and Nonsuch yachts from the US and Canadian yacht designers Garry Hoyt and Mark Ellis, respectively. The mast is free standing without stays and so it bends in gusts to spill wind and keeps the boat from heeling excessively. Often the luff of the mainsail (or mizzensail and mainsail in a ketch rig) is wrapped around the mast or masts, which are built of carbon fibre or aluminium for high strength, to permit them to bend in a fair arc. The Freedoms, Nonsuches, and similar boats use wishbone booms, which permit relatively easy handling of the large mainsail. Having no rigging cuts costs and maintenance expenses, although the mast and the partners around it must be unusually strong. In the ketch rig, when running free there are no spreaders to interfere with the sails, and the sails can be goose winged when the wind is dead astern to give optimum speed and balance. Some larger boats like these do not have jibs, but several do.

Another development of the unstayed rig is the Aerorig where the unstayed mast carries a boom which extends forward of the mast and takes a forestay for a jib.

See also ‘dynaship’; junk rig; ljungstrom rig; rotating rig.

John Rousmaniere