I think (and I could be wrong), all masts are spars, but not all spars are masts. The boom is also a spar, and if you have a self tacking jib, that also has a spar. Again, could be wrong, but that is my understanding...

 

All masts are spars but not all spars are masts. Some spars are booms, some are yards, some are struts, etc.

 

The term 'spar' is a generic term which refers to any pole that is part of a rig (even when they are high tech carbon or alum. poles). A mast is a type of spar. Other spars are booms, bowsprits, boomkins, spinnaker poles, clubs, reaching struts, yards and I am sure a bunch more that do not to mind.

Jeff

 

A pole is a spar when not actually mounted on a ship. Once mounted it becomes a mast, or a boom, gaff, or some other part of rigging. Word originated from 'spare' parts (spars) carried on the ships in the past.

 

Not true. From Online Etymology Dictionary:

spar (n.1) "stout pole," c.1300, "rafter," from Middle Low German or Middle Dutch sparre, from Proto-Germanic *sparron (cf. Old English *spere "spear, lance," Old Norse sperra "rafter, beam"), from PIE root *sper- "spear, pole" (see spear). Nautical use dates from 1640. Also borrowed in Old French as esparre, which may have been the direct source of the English word.

From Nautical Dictionary:

spar - The general term for any of the abovedeck timbers to which sails are bent, such as the masts, booms, gaffs yards and sprits.

 

I stand corrected. Apparently not all the stories you hear from old timers are true.

 

... Apparently not all the stories you hear from old timers are true.

No?!?!?

(Please. No one tell my daughter, or my nephew, or any of my students.)

 

I stand corrected. Apparently not all the stories you hear from old timers are true.

If old timers learned the term that way from even older timers, then that is what the term means. At some point the dictionaries will catch up. Makes sense to me. The guys in my yard work on the spar while is is on saw horses, and the mast when it is on the boat. Although I think they assume I know they are talking about the mast, and not the boom.

 

The guys in my yard work on the spar while is is on saw horses, and the mast when it is on the boat.

Yes, that has been my experience as well. Language changes with time and words often take on new meaning. Sometimes it is fun reading old books you get for next to nothing at yard sales just to see what the language used to be 100 or 150 years ago. I love reading that stuff, especially when on my boat at night.

 

"bend on" the main, but "hank on" the jib? that sound right? It's what I've heard through the years from the tragically salty...

 

When you talk about 'bending on a sail" that historically implied that the sail was tied on. It may have been put on with a lace line, or lashed to mast hoops, but the implication was that it tied in some fashion. Mainsails were typically bent on.

When I was a kid, the term bending on a sail, also seemed to be applied to sails with bolt ropes. So in theory, installing a jib into a foil or furler, might be bending on a jib, but I have not heard that used that way....

Hank on is comparatively modern, and it generally refers to something that uses hardware to be clipped in place, i.e. 'a hank'. Before furlers and headstay foils, jibs typically used clips so they are hanked on.

Jeff

 

a spar is just a spar until put to use,or when referred to in general as a group- "the spars need varnishing because the PO thought cetol was just fine", just as a reel of rope is rope until cut,at which point it becomes 'line" whihc may become known by other titles when applied ot a specific prupose, and may revert back to being called rope when the purpose demands it, (bolt rope, for example), but when referred to generally all the rope on a boat are called lines.