Editing Gaff rig (section)

{{Short description|Sailing rig configuration}}
[[File:Reliance_Crossing_Finish_Line.jpg|thumb|right|[[Reliance (yacht)|Reliance]], a competitor in the 1903 [[America's Cup]] and the largest gaff rigged cutter ever built]]
[[File:Gaff rig spars.jpg|thumb|A gaff rigged sail and its surrounding spars]]
[[File:Gaff-sail-rigging-parts-nr.svg|thumb|Gaff sail - {{ordered list|Mast|Gaff|Peak|Throat|Boom|Clew|Tack|Saddle|Parrel|Sall|Bridle|Peak Halyard|Throat Halyard}}]]
'''Gaff rig'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.frankhagan.com/weekender/gaffhaly.htm |title=The Gaff Rig Page |access-date=2008-10-05 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081203151438/http://www.frankhagan.com/weekender/gaffhaly.htm |archive-date=December 3, 2008 }} </ref> is a [[sailing]] rig (configuration of sails, mast and stays) in which the [[sail]] is four-cornered, [[fore-and-aft rig]]ged, controlled at its [[Parts of a sail#Triangular|peak]] and, usually, its entire [[Sail components#Shape|head]] by a [[spar (sailing)|spar]] (pole) called the ''gaff''.  Because of the size and shape of the sail, a gaff rig will have running [[backstay]]s rather than permanent backstays.

The gaff enables a fore-and-aft sail to be four sided, rather than triangular. A gaff rig typically carries 25 percent more sail than an equivalent [[Bermuda rig]] for a given hull design.<ref>{{cite book |last=Philips-Birt |first=Douglas |title=Rigs and Rigging of Yachts |year=1954 |publisher=W&J Mackay & Co. Ltd. |page=176 }}</ref>

A sail hoisted from a gaff is called a '''gaff-rigged''' '''sail'''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=N-gram comparison of 'gaff-rigged', 'gaff rigged', 'gaffrigged', 1900–2008 |url=https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=gaff-rigged%2Cgaff+rigged%2Cgaffrigged&year_start=1900&year_end=2008&corpus=15&smoothing=4&share= |publisher=Google Inc. |work=Google books Ngram Viewer |access-date=17 February 2013}}</ref>