trysail
{{Short description|Small sail for high winds}}
{{For|the Japanese music group|TrySail}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=January 2022}}{{Use British English|date=January 2022}}
File:Sturmbesegelung 2010.JPG with a trysail set]]
A trysail (also known as a spencer{{Citation needed|date=January 2022}}) is a small triangular or gaff rigged sail hoisted in place of a larger mainsail when winds are very high.{{cite book |last1=Steel |first1=David |title=The Art of Sail-making, as Practised in the Royal Navy, and According to the Most Approved Methods in the Merchant Service, Accompanied with the Parliamentary Regulations Relative to Sails and Sail Cloth, Etc |date=1796 |publisher=David Steel |page=93 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ubEIlrIer4MC&dq=trysail&pg=PA93 |language=en}} The trysail provides enough thrust to maintain control of the ship, e.g. to avoid ship damage, and to keep the bow to the wind. It is hoisted abaft (i.e., directly behind) the mainmast (taking the place of the much larger mainsail) or, on a brig, abaft the foremast.{{Cite book|last=Torrey|first=Owen C. Jr.|date=1965|title=Sails|edition=Seamen's Bank for Savings|location=New York|publisher=Palmer & Oliver|pages=7–9, 34, 35}} A trysail is analogous to a storm jib.
Royal Navy usage
File:Symonds and Co Collection Q40289.jpg HMS Temeraire; her trysail yards can be seen behind the masts.]]
In the Royal Navy in the late nineteenth century, the term 'trysail' came to denote the main fore-and-aft sail on any mast. This included the mainsail of the 'great brig' HMS Temeraire, the largest fore-and-aft sail ever used by a warship. Naval trysails were usually gaff-rigged and 'loose-footed', with a spar along the head but no boom, and small auxiliary trysails continued in intermittent use into the 1920s for seakeeping and station-keeping.{{Citation needed|date=November 2016}}
Sources
- {{Cite book|last=Sleight|first=Steve|date=1999|title=The Complete Sailing Manual|isbn=0-7894-4606-5}}
- {{Cite book|last=Ballard|first=G.A.|date=1943|title=The Great Brig. HMS Temeraire, 1875|edition=The Mariner's Mirror|number=29|pages=149–162}}