Roger Dewhurst wrote:

"Brian Sandle" wrote in message
...
Roger Dewhurst wrote:

A ketch has two masts, the aft mast being shorter than the main mast.
Sloops and cutters have one mast. Schooners have two masts the main
mast
being aft. Sloops and cutters appear the same when unrigged. The
problem
is that Wallace said that he dropped them off at a ketch. Watson's boat
was
a sloop or cutter. You cannot turn a sloop into a ketch overnight! If
you
are alongside a ketch with any light at all those two masts are going to
stick out against the sky like the proverbial dogs' balls. A ketch could
be
mistaken for a sloop only from dead ahead or dead astern when the two
masts
are lined up. A sloop would never be mistaken for a ketch.

Some boats you enter over the stern? Many years ago I had a 16 ft sea
scout cutter, and did not know the meaning of the name. Is it something to
do with the shape of the bow cutting through the water?


Where is the stay-sail mounted on a cutter-rigged boat?

Forward of the mast.

Oh, silly of me. It is the sail attached to the forward stay wire, of
course. My boat had a cabin built on it and a motor added and the little
mast I don't think had any stay. It had a Maori name which turned out to
be a bit rude, someone later told me, `Tutae Wera'.