Lugger

The halyard for a dipping lug is usually made fast to the weather gunwale, thereby allowing the mast to be otherwise unstayed.

A dipping lug has to be moved to the leeward side of the mast when going about, so that the sail can take a good aerodynamic shape on the new tack.

[4]: 36  Some users (such as in the Royal Navy Montagu whaler) would still dip the yard of a standing lug (with a sharp, well timed downward pull on the leech at the moment when the wind is not filling the sail).

Conversely many fishermen would always hoist a standing lug on the same side of the mast regardless of which tack they expected to be sailing on.

An essential component of this rig is the tack tackle, a purchase with which luff tension is adjusted for various points of sail.

[4]: 37 Luggers were used extensively for smuggling from the middle of the 18th century onwards; their fast hulls and powerful rigs regularly allowed them to outpace any Revenue vessel in service.

As smuggling declined from about 1840, the mainmast of British three-masted luggers tended to be discarded, with larger sails being set on the fore and mizzen.