Is it Trisail or Trysail?

Jul 27, 2011
5,134
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Helping another member on the question of storm jibs, I encountered the word “Trisail” which substitutes for the mainsail in a storm. I think the word is “Trysail.” Anybody know?
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,554
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Actually I think it is either tri-sail or trysail.

If you google either you get a wiki page but if you type trisail you get a "did you mean ..."

Now if you want to get cute.... you could say that it is the sail you use when the wind is too strong and you try to sail. So it should be trysail.
 
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Jul 27, 2011
5,134
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Maybe, but one is likely correct based on historical nautical usage, which I suspect is trysail, and the other proliferated misuse based on not knowing what one is, or its history.

It’s like swimming strokes. The are three basic stokes. Breaststroke, Backstroke, and Crawl. A competition where one may choose which stroke to use is a Freestyle Competition. Nearly everyone chooses the Crawl, so it is seen most in freestyle competition. After a few decades of this, the Crawl is mutated into the Freestyle Stroke, and the Crawl virtually disappears from usage, etc.
 
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Jan 11, 2014
12,841
Sabre 362 113 Fair Haven, NY
Let us not forget the debate over whether it is a "cutless" bearing or a "cutlass" bearing.
 
Jan 19, 2010
12,554
Hobie 16 & Rhodes 22 Skeeter Charleston
Ah

I just did a google thingy for the origin. Looks like my "cute" attempt was not that far off..

Origin of trysail
From obsolete try a lying to, heaving to


 
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Jul 27, 2011
5,134
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
This is all very interesting, a TRIangular sail on a boom that usually carries a sail with four “corners.“ Not like most of our mainsails today that are themselves “three cornered.” So, put on the “tri(angular)sail“ to sail a try, or put up on the “trysail“ to sail a try?:doh: Now you got me!
 
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Jul 27, 2011
5,134
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Just one more reason to stick with an O.B.:poke:
Apparently, a “cutless” bearing is an invention that used rubber to seal against a turning pump shaft that was eventually branded/trademarked, and stamped with the image of a cutlass. The rubber seal meant that the turning shaft was “cut less“ (i.e., suffered less scoring) than with the conventional seals of the time, hence the name.
 

jssailem

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
Oct 22, 2014
22,979
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
I am not sure how it is spelled. I type it and let the Apple dictionary make it what Siri thinks it should be. She has sometimes just given up. “Try sale”...
 
May 25, 2012
4,338
john alden caravelle 42 sturgeon bay, wis
a fellow here asked about what "sailing" on lake michigan was like. more than ten responded about their favorite marinas and restaurants in different towns along the coast.
not one word about the prevailing winds and waves. lake michigan has great and interesting weather to play on these wind toys.
if your motoring on a sailboat, are you sailing? if the autopilot is driving, are you sailing? are there stinkpot people disguising themselves with a mast on their boat as they motor along?
what does "sailing" mean anymore? :)
 
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Jul 27, 2011
5,134
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
My 2129-page Webster home dictionary gives trysail as “a small, stout, fore-and-aft sail hoisted when other canvass has been lowered, to keep a vessel’s head up to the wind In a storm.” Does not mention the shape of it, unless fore-and-aft means triangular.
 
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jssailem

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
Oct 22, 2014
22,979
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
KG if hoisting a bit of cloth on a mast, it would not take sailors long to figure out a triangle shape would work better than a square or rectangle.
 
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Jul 27, 2011
5,134
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
what does "sailing" mean anymore? :)
In some environments “sailing” has been equated with the term “boating.” In a yacht club, I’ve heard at least one Commodore remark that we should use the word “boating“ generally to describe our on-the-water activities, so to be more inclusive of the powerboaters who are members, etc.
 
Jan 22, 2008
8,050
Beneteau 323 Annapolis MD
I am not sure how it is spelled. I type it and let the Apple dictionary make it what Siri thinks it should be. She has sometimes just given up. “Try sale”...
My paperback dictionARY IS NOT VERY GOOD. tHE CLOSEST IT CAME WAS TRYST .
 
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jssailem

SBO Weather and Forecasting Forum Jim & John
Oct 22, 2014
22,979
CAL 35 Cruiser #21 moored EVERETT WA
Jon. You can’t believe a word that’s printed on the digital images of that book. It is from 1920 man. It’s a hundred years old. That’s. That’s like a zillion years in internet computer years.
 
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Jul 27, 2011
5,134
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Ha! It’s a weather vane to hold the vessel into the wind. A different form of heaving to than today!
The question now is, what does a trysail do for us on our modern yachts where it is mounted to a track along the mast? It does not secure to the boom at all. Does it still keep the head to wind? Anyone ever use one? This almost seems like something that one would mount to the mizzenmast.
 
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May 25, 2012
4,338
john alden caravelle 42 sturgeon bay, wis
in a big blow, it's the waves that are dangerous to the vessel. the wind can be used to calm the vessel. the wind will steady you from the waves bashing you about.
 
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