Research Note

From the 16th to the 19th century the British and US Navy used it as a rather indiscriminate naval term to describe a class of ship serving primarily as auxiliaries which did not fit into any particular class of minor warships. The same seemed to apply to basically most of the smaller commercial vessels. By the middle of the 19th century they had further subdivided these into two groups. The ship sloop with three masts and the brig sloop with two masts and each case they were vessels square rigged on both masts.

With both commercial and naval sailing vessels fast fading at the end of 19th century yachtsmen began a redefinition of their vessels based upon the rig. Sloop came to be defined in these circles as a single-masted vessel fore and aft rigged with both a mainsail and a headsail.

The English racing community went a step further and adopted the term cutter to describe a single masted vessel that carried both a jib and topsail jib in its foretriangle. In the United States the number of headsails was irrelevant and the term cutter for a long period of time was reserved to vessels which carry a jib(s) which is capable of being reefed and is set upon a bowsprit. More recently in the US it has come to be also used in cases where the foretriangle is enlarged by placement of the mast at a point nearly amidships.

Other fore and aft rigs prevalent in yachting terminology these days are:

Cat:	a rig composed of only a single mainsail either gaff, lug or bermuda mounted upon a single mast placed well forward.
Yawl:	Jib headed two masted vessel with the aftermast (mizzen) being shorter than the mainmast and stepped behind the rudder post.
Ketch:	same as above except mizzen mast is stepped in front of the rudder post and may be of any length shorter than the foreward mast
Schooner:	Two masted vessel jib headed with after mast being the equal or taller of the two and thus is referred to as the mainmast. The mast ahead being called the foremast.

And most recently with the introduction of carbon filament masts there has come upon the scene an unstayed twin masted vessel carrying only a triangular sail tacked to a boom carried behind each mast. It's popularity is particularly strong in the single handed community and has been called by a variety of names including the cat rigged schooner and a bermuda- junk rig. There are other terms for it also but they escape my memory at the moment. Not sure how this will eventually settle out but I do know they are fun and secure to sail as they are extremely easy to both tack and jibe and can be handily and securely reefed in most any condition because there is no requirement to leave the cockpit.
{Ed A}

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