3193: Sailing Rigs

Sailing Rigs

|< < Prev #3193 (January 12, 2026)

Title text: I wanted to make the world's fastest yawl, so I made the aft sail bigger, but apparently that means it's not a yawl anymore! It's a real ketch-22.

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Explanation

This is one of 60 incomplete explanations: This page was created by the birds flying in my kite. Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

This comic shows the side profiles of a variety of different sailing boat/ship rigs, not all of which are real. The first six which are listed are real, as well as the tenth, but none of the others are. A Flettner rotor (shown in the tenth one) is a cylinder with disc end plates which is spun along its long axis, generating force at a right angle to the direction of the wind.

• Lateen: a single triangular sail.
• Bermuda rigged sloop: a front and rear triangular sail share a mast.
• Ketch: two triangular sails as above, with an additional triangular sail on a second rear mast.
• Gaff rigged sloop: front triangular sail shares mast with rear quadrilateral sail.
• Yawl: two triangular sails share front mast and a much smaller aft mast holds a small aft.
• Schooner: two triangular front sails share foreward mast with quadrilateral center sail. An aft mast supports a quadrilateral aft sail.
• Ketch-rigged gaff: The first fictional rig. Resembles a gaff, with the aft sail reduced and two triangular sails mounted above. The resulting shape resembles a vertical ketch.
• Kloop-rigged sketch: A mixture of the names of ketch and sloop, poking fun at the unfamiliar names of some rigs.
• Bunkbed rig: A gaff-rigged sloop is mounted on top of a second hull.
• Flettner rig: The rectangular outline of a cylinder with motion lines around it, indicating a Flettner rotor.
  • Flettner rotors were previously mentioned in 3119
• Oops, all spinnakers: three masts each with a sail only attached to the top.
• Keel rig: three sales in a ketch arrangement, but mounted to the keel, which would typically put the **sails underwater**.
• Kite rig: all sails are replaced by two groups of kites, each tied to the mast with an independent line.
• Longsail rig: bermuda rigged sloop with the aft sail extending ~5 times as far back, well beyond the end of the hull.
• Deckhand obliterator: all sails replaced by an anchor that swings around the mast on a chain, similar to tetherball. Any deckhands (crew) on the deck could be knocked off or fatally hurt if the anchor passes through their space.
• Offset rig: gaff rigged sloop sails are mounted on a mast that is offset (forward) from the hull via an underwater extension of the keel.
• Mastless rig: a single sail is attached where the mast would normally be mounted, flapping around freely. This provides much less propulsion or steering.
• Unclassifiable chaos rig: includes elements of the schooner, yawl, lateen, and possibly others.

The title text is a pun on a Catch-22, a no-win situation in which the thing needed to succeed would cause it not to succeed or not to be necessary. For instance, "the only way to qualify for a loan is to prove to the bank that you do not need a loan." Per the main panel, a ketch is similar to a yawl but has a larger aft sail, so increasing the aft sail of a yawl effectively turns the yawl into a ketch.

Transcript

This is one of 37 incomplete transcripts: Don't remove this notice too soon. If you can fix this issue, edit the page!

[The comic contains views from the side of boats, each with a different sailing rig. All boats are oriented to the left of the comic.]

• Lateen: a single triangular sail.
• Bermuda rigged sloop: a front and rear triangular sail share a mast.
• Ketch: two triangular sails as above, with an additional triangular sail on a second rear mast.
• Gaff rigged sloop: front triangular sail shares mast with rear quadrilateral sail.
• Yawl: two triangular sails share front mast and a much smaller aft mast holds a small aft.
• Schooner: two triangular front sails share foreward mast with quadrilateral center sail. An aft mast supports a quadrilateral aft sail.
• Ketch-rigged gaff: The first fictional rig. Resembles a gaff, with the aft sail reduced and two triangular sails mounted above. The resulting shape resembles a vertical ketch.
• Kloop-rigged sketch: A mixture of the names of ketch and sloop, poking fun at the unfamiliar names of some rigs.
• Bunkbed rig: A gaff-rigged sloop is mounted on top of a second hull.
• Flettner rig: The rectangular outline of a cylinder with motion lines around it, indicating a Flettner rotor.
• Oops, all spinnakers: three masts each with a sail only attached to the top.
• Keel rig: three sales in a ketch arrangement, but mounted to the keel, which would typically put the **sails underwater**.
• Kite rig: all sails are replaced by two groups of kites, each tied to the mast with an independent line.
• Longsail rig: bermuda rigged sloop with the aft sail extending ~5 times as far back, well beyond the end of the hull.
• Deckhand obliterator: all sails replaced by an anchor that swings around the mast on a chain, similar to tetherball. Any deckhands (crew) on the deck could be knocked off or fatally hurt if the anchor passes through their space.
• Offset rig: gaff rigged sloop sails are mounted on a mast that is offset (forward) from the hull via an underwater extension of the keel.
• Mastless rig: a single sail is attached where the mast would normally be mounted, flapping around freely. This provides much less propulsion or steering.
• Unclassifiable chaos rig: includes elements of the schooner, yawl, lateen, and possibly others.

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Discussion

Here before all the "here im first" comments TheTrainsKid (talk) 05:06, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

I can't help but notice that he forgot about cutters. PDesbeginner (talk) 05:07, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

:D Qwertyuiopfromdefly (talk) 05:15, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

Flettner Rig may refer to https://xkcd.com/3119/ 73.225.91.80 06:19, 13 January 2026 (UTC)

I see Randall has taken up a new hobby :D 152.115.135.109 08:21, 13 January 2026 (UTC)
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