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In sailing, a gunter is used for two main configurations of rig: A sail raised by either of these means is called a gunter rigged sail. A vessel with a gunter rigged mainsail is called a gunter rig. Gunter rig is normally used on small gaff rigged sailing vessels, such as sailing canoes (not the International Canoe) and dinghies where the gaff is carried very nearly vertical, forming an extension to the mast so that the sail is triangular and mimics a Bermuda rig. The effect is to have a topmast (the gaff) which is a pseudo telescopic extension of the shorter mast.
Single halyard operation Even with a single halyard the hooped gunter is a vertical sliding gaff Double halyard operation One halyard, the peak halyard, has a block, sometimes just a shackle, that allows the gunter (wire parallel to the gaff and fixed to it at two points on its upper (or leading) surface) to raise the gaff into the vertical position up against and parallel to the mast. The other, the throat halyard, is used to raise or lower the jaws of the gaff. The mode of operation is: Confusion between Gaff Rig and Gunter Rig Over time the two terms have been used with some interchangeability. While a true gaff rig is with the gaff at an angle to the mast, small boats such as the Heron, the Mirror dinghy and other small sailing dinghies have small, light gaffs which are raised to the vertical position by a single halyard fixed close to the midpoint of the gaff. This looks like a gunter rig when the boat is fully rigged. However it does not have the sliding component of the wire or the hooped gunter. Nonetheless such small dinghies have been termed gunter rigged and gaff rigged with free use of each term. It is likely that the fluidity of language allows both terms to be used with correctness for these small boats. For larger craft the terms tend to be more rigorously applied See also Gaff rig. | ||||||||
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