Jury rigging

File:Jury-mast-knot-variations.jpg.]]

A sail-powered boat may carry a limited amount of repair materials, from which some form of jury-rig can be fashioned. Additionally, anything salvageable, such as a spar or spinnaker pole, could be adapted to carry a makeshift sail.

Ships typically carried a selection of spare parts such as topmasts. However, due to their much larger size, at up to {{Convert|1|metre}} in diameter, the lower masts were too large to carry as spares. Example jury-rig configurations include:

• A spare topmast
• The main boom of a brig
• Replacing the foremast with the mizzenmast (mentioned in William N. Brady's The Kedge Anchor, or Young Sailors' Assistant, 1852)
• The bowsprit set upright and tied to the stump of the original mast.

The jury mast knot may provide anchor points for securing makeshift stays and shrouds to support a jury mast, although there is differing evidence of the knot's actual historical use.{{Cite web|last=Hamel|first=Charles|url=http://Charles.Hamel.free.fr/knots-and-cordages/Investigation.html|title=Investigations – nœud de capelage or jury rig knot|website=Charles.Hamel.free.fr|publisher=Charles Hamel|date=August 2006|orig-date=September 2005|access-date=26 January 2022}}{{Cite web|last=Hamel|first=Charles|url=http://Charles.Hamel.free.fr/knots-and-cordages/Jury_rig_investigation.html|title=Jury rig investigation – nœud de capelage jury rig mast knot is it only ornamental or utilitarian (with secondary evolution to ornamental)?|website=Charles.Hamel.free.fr|publisher=Charles Hamel|date=August 2006|orig-date=September 2005|access-date=26 January 2022}}{{Cite web|last=Hamel|first=Charles|title=Jury rig investigation 2 – nœud de capelage jury rig mast knot is it only ornamental or utilitarian (with secondary evolution to ornamental)?|url=http://Charles.Hamel.free.fr/knots-and-cordages/Jury-rig-follow-on.html|website=Charles.Hamel.free.fr|publisher=Charles Hamel|date=August 2006|orig-date=September 2005|access-date=26 January 2022}}

Jury-rigs are not limited to sail-powered boats. Any unpowered watercraft can carry jury sail. A rudder, tiller, or any other component can be jury-rigged by improvising a repair out of materials at hand.

• Jerry-built things, which are things 'built unsubstantially of bad materials', has a separate unknown etymology. It is probably linked to earlier pejorative uses of the word jerry, attested as early as 1721, and may have been influenced by jury-rigged.{{Cite web|last=Israel|first=Mark|date=29 September 1997|url=http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifjrrybltjryrggd.shtml|title=jerry-built" / "jury-rigged|website=www.Yaelf.com|publisher=alt.usage.english Word Origins FAQ|access-date=28 February 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927182352/http://www.yaelf.com/aueFAQ/mifjrrybltjryrggd.shtml|archive-date=27 September 2013}}{{Cite book|author1=William Morris |author2=Mary Morris |date=1988|title=Morris Dictionary of Words and Phrase Origins, 2nd Edition|location=New York|publisher=HarperCollins|pages=321–322}}{{Cite web|last=Wilton|first=Dave|title=jerry-built / jury rig|url=http://www.WordOrigins.org/index.php/site/comments/jerry_built_jury_rig/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160919083623/http://www.WordOrigins.org/index.php/site/comments/jerry_built_jury_rig/ |archive-date=2016-09-19 |website=www.WordOrigins.org|publisher=Word Origins.org|access-date=28 February 2013}} The blended terms jerry rigging and jerry-rigged are also common.{{cite web |title='Jury-rigged' vs. 'jerry-rigged' |date=2017 |work=Dictionary.com |url= https://www.dictionary.com/e/jury-rigged-vs-jerry-rigged/ |access-date=December 20, 2023}}{{cite web |title=Jerry-rigged {{!}} adjective |publisher=Merriam-Webster |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jerry-rigged |access-date=2024-12-07}}
• {{Anchor|Afro engineering|Nigger-rigging}}Afro engineering (short for African engineering){{Cite book|last=Green|first=Jonathan|date=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC|title=Cassell's Dictionary of Slang|edition=2|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|isbn=978-0-304-36636-1|at=p. 10, African engineering|via=Google Books}} or nigger-rigging{{Cite book|last=Green|first=Jonathan|date=2005|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC|title=Cassell's Dictionary of Slang|edition=2|location=London|publisher=Weidenfeld & Nicolson|isbn=978-0-304-36636-1|at=p. 1003, nigger rig n.; nigger rig v.; nigger rigged|via=Google Books}} is a fix that is temporary, done quickly, technically improperly, or without attention to or care for detail. It can also be shoddy, second-rate workmanship, with whatever available materials.{{Cite book|last=Partridge|first=Eric|author-link=Eric Partridge|date=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mAdUqLrKw4YC|title=The New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English: J-Z|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0-415-25938-5|at=p. 1370, nigger-rig|via=Google Books}} Nigger-rigging originated in the 1950s United States; the term was euphemized as afro engineering in the 1970s{{Cite book|last=Jackson|first=Shirley A.|date=2015|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JBEWBAAAQBAJ|title=Routledge International Handbook of Race, Class, and Gender|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-0-415-63271-3|via=Google Books|at=Intersections of discourse: Racetalk and class talk|quote="'I can't even nigger-rig it.' ... 'The proper terminology is Afro-engineering.' Here, blackness is demarcated in a classed way. 'Nigger-rigging' is a quick, temporary fix to a problem, but it is a solution that is second rate to the 'right' way. ... declares that this type of knowledge is racialized and classed in a way that deems it inherently inferior. ... implies that black ingenuity and innovation as sub-par and second rate to white ingenuity and innovation. ... By responding indirectly ... consents to this classed usage of the word 'nigger'. Not only does this trivialize whether the slur's usage is inappropriate in the first place, but it equates 'nigger-rigging' with 'Afro-engineering'. ... denotes these terms as synonymous, thus imposing an even more classed meaning to this racial slur."}} and later again as ghetto rigging. The terms have been used in the U.S. auto mechanic industry to describe quick makeshift repairs.{{Cite book|last1=Poteet|first1=Jim|last2=Poteet|first2=Lewis|date=1992|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=973n3OipN-4C|title=Car & Motorcycle Slang|publisher=toExcel an imprint of iUniverse.com Inc.|isbn=978-0-595-01080-6|at=p. 14, Afro engineering|via=Google Books}} These phrases have largely fallen out of common usage due to their colloquial nature, but are occasionally used within the African-American community.{{Cite book|last=Eisiminger|first=Sterling K.|date=1991|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-dPlAAAAMAAJ|title=The Consequence of Error and Other Language Essays|publisher=P. Lang|pages=327|isbn=978-0-82041-472-0|via=Google Books}}{{Cite journal |last=Eisiminger |first=Sterling |title=A Glossary of Ethnic Slurs in American English |editor-last=Aman |editor-first=Reinhold |date=1979 |journal=Maledicta |volume=3 |issue=2 |publisher=Maledicta Press |page=167 |quote=Afro engineering}}{{Cite book|last=Green|first=Jonathon|date=1996|url=https://Archive.org/details/wordsapartlangua0000gree|title=Words Apart: The Language of Prejudice|url-access=registration|publisher=Kyle Cathie|pages=[https://Archive.org/details/wordsapartlangua0000gree/page/59 59]|isbn=978-1-85626-216-3}}{{Cite journal|last=Droney|first=Damien|date=2014|title=Ironies of Laboratory Work during Ghana's Second Age of Optimism|journal=Cultural Anthropology|volume=29|number=2|doi=10.14506/ca29.2.10 |at=p. 363–384, Ironic Africa.|doi-access=free}}
• The American expression redneck technology similarly refers to crude forms of technology, often hastily or poorly finished, but broadly functional.See, e.g.: {{cite web |last=Kelly |first=Kevin |author-link=Kevin Kelly (editor) |title=Street Use: Redneck Technology |date=August 2, 2006 |work=KK.org |url= https://kk.org/streetuse/redneck-technology/ |access-date=December 20, 2023}}
• To MacGyver (or MacGyverize) something is to rig up something in a hurry using materials at hand, from the title character of the American television show of the same name, who specialized in such improvisation stunts.{{Cite book|last=Rich|first=John|date=2006|title=Warm Up the Snake: a Hollywood Memoir|location=Ann Arbor, MI|publisher=University of Michigan Press|isbn=9780472115785|pages=167|oclc=67240539}}
• In New Zealand, having a Number 8 wire mentality means to have the ability to make or repair something using any materials at hand, such as standard farm fencing wire.{{Cite web|url=http://www.Stuff.co.nz/business/farming/7358384/Time-to-break-free-of-No-8-wire-mentality|title=Time to 'break free' of No 8 wire mentality|website=www.Stuff.co.nz|date=26 July 2012 |location=New Zealand|publisher=Stuff}}
• In British slang, bodge and bodging refer to doing a job serviceably but inelegantly using whatever tools and materials are at hand; the term derives from bodging, for expedient woodturning using unseasoned, green wood (especially branches recently removed from a nearby tree).
• The chiefly English term do-it-yourself (DIY) relatedly refers to creating, repairing, or modifying things without professional or expert assistance.
• Similar concepts in other languages include: {{lang|hi-Latn|jugaad}} in Hindi and {{lang|ur-Latn|jugaar}} in Urdu, {{lang|ja-Latn|urawaza}} ({{lang|ja|裏技}}) in Japanese, {{lang|lij|tapullo}} in Genoese dialect, {{lang|zh-Latn|tǔ fǎ}} ({{lang|zh|土法}}) in Chinese, {{lang|de|Trick 17}} in German, {{lang|pt|desenrascar}} in Portuguese and {{lang|pt-BR|gambiarra}} in Brazilian Portuguese, {{lang|ht|degaje}} in Haitian Creole, {{lang|fr|système D}} in French, {{lang|sw|jua kali}} in Swahili. Several equivalent terms in South Africa are {{lang|af|n boer maak 'n plan}} in Afrikaans, {{lang|zu|izenzele}} in Zulu, {{lang|st|iketsetse}} in Sotho, and {{lang|tn|itirele}} in Tswana.{{cite web |first=Angus Donald |last=Campbell |url= http://www.angusdonaldcampbell.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/006_DESI_a_00424_Campbell_WEB_vB.pdf |title=Lay Designers: Grassroots Innovation for Appropriate Change |publisher=Massachusetts Institute of Technology |date=2017 |via=AngusDonaldCampbell.com}}

• {{anl|Kludge}}
• {{anl|Repurposing}}

{{reflist}}

• {{cite book|last=Harland|first=John|date=1984|title=Seamanship in the Age of Sail|publisher=Naval Institute Press}}

• {{Commons category-inline|Jury rigging}}

{{Sail types}}

{{Authority control}}

Category:Sailing rigs and rigging

Category:Nautical terminology