multisail

Multisail refers to any sail plan on a boat that uses more than one sail simultaneously. The term is used in a generic sense to describe both single-masted boats with multiple headsails and multi-masted vessels with several fore-and-aft sails. In practice, multisail arrangements are chosen to adjust sail area and balance the boat for different wind conditions and courses.

Common configurations include a single mast with a mainsail plus one or more headsails, such as a jib, genoa, or staysail. On two- or more-masted vessels, multisail rigs are seen in forms like ketches (main and a smaller mizzen), yawls (similar to a ketch but with the mizzen placed farther aft), and schooners (two or more masts with fore-and-aft sails). Some rigs use additional sails on the same mast, such as a staysail paired with a mainsail or a topsail above the mainsail. Downwind, crews may deploy spinnakers or gennakers in conjunction with the working sails to increase sail area.

Advantages of multisail configurations include greater flexibility to adapt sail area to wind strength, improved upwind and downwind performance through tailored sail combinations, and redundancy in case of damage to a sail. Challenges include more complex rigging, higher maintenance and cost, and more demanding sail handling and sail management during maneuvers.

Historically, multisail rigs have been common on traditional sailing vessels and remain prevalent on many cruising and racing boats. The term broadly encompasses the wide range of rigs that deploy multiple sails to optimize performance under varying conditions.