on board; if the blocks are overboard, they drag through the water and stop the vessel's way when she leans over to the wind. In order to give the bowsprit shrouds more spread and so make them more effective, they are sometimes extended by whiskers, e, iron rods fitted to the stem head, and terminating in little iron jaws on which the shrouds can run easily.
When a bowsprit is reefed, both bobstay and bowsprit shrouds have to be tautened up by taking in the slack of the tackle. A small line (19 in Fig. 55) is attached to the bobstay so that it can be hauled up out of the way—the tackle having been first slacked off to a sufficient extent—when the vessel is lying at anchor.
RUNNING RIGGING
We now come to the cutter's running rigging; and to commence with the mainsail, we find that it is hoisted by two sets of halyards, the throat halyards and the peak halyards. The throat halyards of a small vessel would probably consist of a luff-tackle purchase, the single block being hooked on to an eyebolt at the throat of the gaff, and the double block on to the after-side of the mast close to the hounds. On larger vessels a more powerful purchase would, of course, be employed. The fall of the throat halyards leads down the starboard side of the mast and is belayed to the mast bitts; these are stout upright timbers securely bolted through the deck into the
