Sail Nomenclature

[Dan Dickison]

In all your great articles on headsails, you never tell us what exactly a Yankee, or a No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 are. What do these sizes mean and what is the difference?

Dan Dickison responds:
Thanks for your question. Racing sailors in the US (as well as in other English-speaking areas) refer to their headsail inventories numerically. The largest headsail is the No. 1 sail, the second largest the No. 2, and so on. Now there are variations within that system. Most contemporary boats have a light No. 1 and a heavy No. 1, and some might have a medium No. 1 as well. These same vessels are likely to carry a single No. 2 headsail, a No. 3 headsail (which is often referred to as the "blade"), as well as a storm trysail and a storm jib, depending upon the requirements of a particular event. Some boats with ample inventories occasionally carry a No. 4 headsail as well. As you delve into this you'll see that heasail inventories get even more complicated aboard purpose-built boats like the Volvo Ocean 60s.

Regarding measurement, most No. 1 headsails run in the 150 to 155 percent range, it just depends upon the boat and the sailmaker, and what their particular measurement standards are. The percentage measurement is a reference to the boat's foretriangle. Most No. 2 headsails measure in the area between 130 to 145 percent of the foretriangle. A No. 3 headsail can run anywhere from 100 to 115 percent of the foretriangle. Occasionally a blade will be smaller than the size of the foretriangle—it simply depends upon the boat's design, its righting moment, its displacement, and its hull shape characteristics.

 

The Yankee jib is a bit of a different animal. Originally, Yankee jibs were large, high-cut jibs used aboard the early American racing yachts (hence the name). With these sails the clew forms an obtuse angle and the head and tack have acute angles. In contemporary sailing, you'll most likely hear racing sailors make reference to this kind of sail as a "jib top," which is an interesting twist as that term harkens back to one of the earliest references for these sails.

 

I hope that this information is useful to you.