Gunter

In sailing, a gunter is a wire that leads from one end of a gaff to the other. A block travels along this wire, and a halyard is attached to this block. This allows the gaff to be raised by a single halyard. A sail raised by this means is called a gunter rigged sail. A vessel with a gunter rigged mainsail is called a gunter rig.

Gunter rig is normally used on small gaff rigged sailing vessels, such as sailing canoes and dinghies. Such rigs commonly carry the gaff very nearly vertical, forming an extension to the mast so that the sail is triangular and there is no space for a topsail. Gunter rigs include the Mirror dinghy.

On larger gaff-rigged vessels, the gaff is raised by two halyards and there is no gunter, see gaff rig.

Famous gunter-rigged boats in fiction include the Swallow and the Amazon in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series.

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