boom, makes it impossible for the end of the boom to lift in a breeze and for the sail to belly out, as is the case with the standing-lug and other sails. The boom cannot lift without the yard lifting also, and the sail is always perfectly rigid.
It must be allowed that the balance-lug is not an easy sail to handle in squally weather. One cannot reef it without lowering it into the boat; one cannot trice up the tack and lower the peak till the puff is over, as one can with the cat-boat; one cannot brail it up as one can the spritsail. But with all these disadvantages it is, when skilfully handled, the best rig for the river.
The Main and Mizzen is a favourite rig for balance-lug canoes and small boats, and it is no doubt a very handy one. Sometimes the mizzen-bumpkin is fastened on to the rudder head and so moves with it. The result is that in tacking, when the helm is put down, the mizzen is forced to windward and helps the boat round. This plan, which is adopted on the Thames sailing-barges, will certainly prevent a clumsy boat from missing stays; but the mizzen becomes a back sail every time the boat goes about, and must stop her way to some extent. Moreover, with the mizzen so arranged the helmsman dares not leave his tiller for a moment, for if he does so the wind pressing on the mizzen forces the rudder down, and the boat falls off before the wind (at the risk of capsizing if the breeze is strong), instead of luffing up into it, as all
