Spar (sailing)

A spar is a pole of wood, metal or lightweight materials such as carbon fibre used in the rigging of a sailing vessel to carry or support its sail. These include booms and masts, which serve both to deploy sail and resist compressive and bending forces, as well as the bowsprit and spinnaker pole.

In the Age of sail large ships often carried many extra spars of all types for repairs underway, giving rise to the spar deck of a frigate where they were stored.

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 6/15/2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.