Rig (sailing)
In the English language, ships were usually described, until the end of the eighteenth century, in terms of their type of hull design.
[3]: 29 This is illustrated by the terminology for ships in the large fleet of colliers that traded to London from the coal ports of the Northeast of England (of which HMS Endeavour was a well-known example).
Many of these full-rigged ships (square rigged on all of three masts) had the hull type "bark" – another common classification was "cat".
They were used for double-canoe (catamaran), single-outrigger (on the windward side), or double-outrigger boat configurations, in addition to monohulls.
[15][16] These rigs were independently developed by the Austronesian peoples during the Neolithic, beginning with the crab claw sail at around 1500 BCE.
They are used throughout the range of the Austronesian Expansion, from Maritime Southeast Asia, to Micronesia, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar.
[17] The need to propel larger and more heavily laden boats led to the increase in vertical sail.
In addition to the unique invention of outriggers to solve this, the sails were also leaned backwards and the converging point moved further forward on the hull.
This new configuration required a loose "prop" in the middle of the hull to hold the spars up, as well as rope supports on the windward side.
This allowed more sail area (and thus more power) while keeping the center of effort low and thus making the boats more stable.
The prop was later converted into fixed or removable canted masts where the spars of the sails were actually suspended by a halyard from the masthead.
[17][18] Another evolution of the basic crab claw sail is the conversion of the upper spar into a fixed mast.
[17][18] Micronesian, Island Melanesian, and Polynesian single-outrigger vessels also used the canted mast configuration to uniquely develop shunting.
The bottom corner of the crab claw sail is moved to the other end, which becomes the bow as the boat sets off back the way it came.
The crab claw configuration used on these vessels is a low-stress rig, which can be built with simple tools and low-tech materials, but it is extremely fast.
The lower part of two of the bamboo poles of the mast assembly have holes that are fitted unto the ends of a cross-wise length of timber on the deck, functioning like a hinge.
[22] The sail can be rotated around the mast (lessening the need for steering with the rudders) and tilted to move the center of pull forward or aft.
[19] The oldest undisputed depiction of the junk rig is from the Bayon temple (c. 12th to 13th century) of Angkor Thom, Cambodia, which shows a ship with a keel and a sternpost and identifies it as Southeast Asian.
[23]: 188–189 : 458 [24] Historians Paul Johnstone and Joseph Needham suggest an Austronesian (specifically Indonesian) origin of the rig.
[citation needed] Junk sails are typically carried on a mast which rakes (slants) forward a few degrees from vertical.
