halyards; but whereas the cutter has a forestay fixed to the stem, carries two head-sails, a jib and foresail, and has a bowsprit that can be reefed and drawn inboard, the sloop has a fixed bowsprit or bumpkin, to the end of which the forestay is carried, and for head-sail has but one large jib. A topsail can be carried on a sloop as on a cutter, and a spinnaker can be used for running before the wind. As the running and standing rigging of a sloop is practically the same as that of a cutter, it is unnecessary to describe it in this chapter.
If the mainsail of a small boat—whether she be cat-boat, balance-lug, or sloop—have a boom, it is usual to have the foot of the sail laced to the boom instead of having it secured at the two extremities only, as is often the case with the cutter's mainsail. A sail thus laced undoubtedly stands flatter, and as the lacing distributes the strain along the boom, that spar need not be so stout and heavy as it would have to be with a sail that was not laced.
I have already pointed out that the different sorts of open sailing-boats I have described are often provided with jibs and mizzens. For river and smooth water sailing the single-handed sailor had best confine himself to one sail; it is difficult to see what advantage he can gain by having more. Even if he decide to carry a mizzen as well as a mainsail in his boat, he should at any rate abjure the jib, always a troublesome sail to work in narrow waters. The boat with the single sail is not only the handiest,
