Schooners are Unique Sailing Vessels

Schooner are unique and have an interesting vocabulary that goes with them. There are a lot of sea terms that go with sailboats but some are specific to schooners.  A schooner is a vessel of two or more masts and the sailing setup is called a Fore-and-aft rig. The plane of the sails is basically on the center line and it is usually a Gaff rigged design. The origin of the design is not certain, but some say the origin of the rig was British. The American schooner rig is different from the British rig in that it usually has no top sails.

The American schooner rig without topsails and no topmasts is called a Bald-headed rig. A Knockabout fishing schooner and pleasure boat rig is a schooner that has no bowsprit or only a very short one. The Grand Banks Schooners were of this type, and the typical Knockabout was characterized as being a husky boat.  A Tern Schooner is a three-masted schooner that was built in New England or Nova Scotia.

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This illustration of a Philip Bolger design light schooner shows the basic schooner design: The big gaff  mainsail extends over the stern; a gaff foresail in the middle of the boat; and a jib head-sail that extends over the bowsprit.

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The Schooner is a good, fast down-wind sailing boat. The advantage of a Gaff rig over a Marconi try-sail rig is the Gaff rig lets you put more sail up on a shorter mast. The Gaff rig is also more maneuverable than a square rigger. A disadvantage is that it doubles the handling lines for the sails.

A schooner does not sail in to the wind as well as a Marconi rigged sloop. Because the two masts each have their own center of effort on the boat, the boat does not want to turn through the eye of the wind as a sloop will.  When we first started sailing our schooner, we found that when we tried to tack she would get to the eye of the wind and stop, the bow would not cross the eye of the wind. Then, the boat would start moving backwards.  We had to swing the tiller the opposite way so the stern would come around and then the jib and foresail would catch the wind and we would again start to sail forward. All headway and forward motion would be lost. Until we found a method of tacking that worked, we had some exciting turns and looked like fools on the water.

We found that if we let the foresail luff as we started the tack, and back winded the jib when we got to the eye of the wind, the jib would pull the bow through the eye of the wind. At the same time, if the main is pulled in and the tiller is turned hard this causes the stern to come around. If done right, she will come around smartly. We are still perfecting the technique. 8-) Our schooner can be a real cranky.

A schooner is an easy boat to get a lot of sail area on. The foresail and the main sail are gaff rigged sails. A Gaff rig sail is a sail that has 4 sides and has a boom on the bottom and a gaff or upper spar on the top side of the sail to keep it out. The front or leading edge of the sail is along the mast. This lets you have more sail area on a short mast. The main sail or rear sail on a schooner often has a sail that extends past the stern of the boat on a very long boom. This also gives more sail aria for the boat.

Most schooners have a bowsprit on the front of the boat that extends the front of the boat out. This bowsprit lets a larger head-sail (a sail carried forward) like a jib to be put on the boat to get more sail on the boat. A jib boom can be added to the bottom of the jib sail and the boom can be tethered on the front end of the bowsprit thus letting you have an even larger jib sail. 

A staysail (a sail, usually triangular and set on a centerline stay) can be added to the rear mast or if there are three masts, the back two masts can each have a staysail. These are like having jib sails between the masts. A Golliwobbler is sail that is an extra-large staysail used by the Dutch to take advantage of very light winds and name comes from the Dutch word for “grotesque”. 

Top sails can also be added to the top of the foresail and main sail, and these are 3 sided sails with a spar on two sides to hold them open. They can extend a sail higher than the mast of the vessel and they fill the space above the main sails and the mast and add even more sail aria to the boat. 

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This illustration from John Leather's The Gaff Rig shows how a top-sail can be added to the space above the gaff-sail. Some schooners put a top mast on the regular mast to let more sail be lofted. Each time you add a sail you add one or more lines to deal with.

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Because a schooner is a light breeze boat it is said that they can sail in an Irish Hurricane or Paddy’s Gale (flat calm). When the wind picked up a gaff rigged sail can be Irish Reefed (the peak or outside corner of the gaff rigged sail can be lowered to dump air from the sails quickly.  Lazy jacks (lines on each side of a sail that keeps the sail somewhat bundled when the sail is scandalized or dropped quickly) are often used on the foresail and mainsail to help control all the sail when they are lowered. A topping lift line is often needed to help hold the boom up off the deck and make it easier to hoist the sail. A Mich board (a boom crutch) is also used to keep the boom in place when the sail is down. The lazy jacks, topping lift and Mich board helps keep the boom and sails under control. 

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 Lazzyjacks are lines that are one each side of the sail that hold the sail more or less on the boom when the sail is dropped. Illustration from J. Leather's The Gaff Rig. 

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Schooners have lines all over and they need be kept track of. You need numerous cleats, belaying pins, jam cleats and whatever to tie lines off and coil and hang lines up to keep them out of the way. The more sails you have the more lines you have and the more cleats you need. Chandlery’s love schooner owners just for the line and cleat sales the get from us. *-)

Our schooner is a schooner rigged day-sailor we built. We wanted a schooner that we could sail on the river where we live and we needed a small boat.  This little 18 footer flies in a 3 to 5 knot wind and it is a real head turner. Few sail on the river and a schooner under sail on the river gets every ones attention when they see her. The boat has has 22 cleats and 4 jam-cleats and we could use more.

  Just add water...A 18' schooner rigged day sailor that we sail on the Caloosahatchee River.

There are a lot of sea terms that are related to schooners and sailboats. Schooners seem to have more than most other boats. Schooners and the vocabulary you can use with them make them as colorful as they are attractive under sail.