The piece of chain running diagonally up and right from the bottom-left of this picture to the upper of the two yards is the fore-lower-topsail sheet. A yard is a Spar on a mast from which Sails are set It may be constructed of timber steel or from more modern materials like Aluminum or Some of the lines on Prince William 's larger sails are made of chain to handle the heavy loads while remaining flexible enough to pass through the various blocks on their route to the deck. Prince William is one of two Tall ships used by the Tall Ships Youth Trust (formerly the Sail Training Association

In sailing, a sheet is a line (rope, cable or chain) used to control the moveable corner(s) of a sail. Sailing is the art of controlling a Sailing vessel. By changing the Rigging, Rudder and dagger or centre board a Sailor manages the force A rope is a length of Fibers twisted or Braided together to improve strength for pulling and Connecting. A cable is one or more Wires or Optical fibers bound together typically in a common protective jacket or sheath A chain is a series of connected links. This article is about the literal physical chain A sail is any type of surface intended to generate Thrust by being placed in a Wind &mdashin essence a vertically-oriented Wing.

Fore-and-aft rigs

Fore-and-aft-rigs comprise the vast majority of sailing vessels in use today, including effectively all dinghies and yachts. The sheet on a fore-and-aft sail controls the angle of the sail to the wind, and should be adjusted to keep the sail just filled. Most smaller boats use the Bermuda rig, which has two or three sets of sheets:

• The mainsheet is attached to the boom, and is used to control the mainsail. The term Bermuda rig refers to a configuration of mast and Rigging for a type of Sailboat and is also known as a Marconi rig; this is the typical In Sailing, a boom is a Spar (pole along the foot (bottom of a Fore and aft rigged Sail, that greatly improves control of the angle A mainsail is the most important sail raised from the main (or only mast of a sailing vessel In a rig with no boom on the mainsail, the mainsheet would attach directly to the mainsail clew. A mainsail is the most important sail raised from the main (or only mast of a sailing vessel In Sailing the parts of a Sail have common terminology for each corner and edge of the sail A mainsheet is a rope connected to the boom which allows a sailor to control the speed of a boat.
• The jib sheet attaches to the clew of the jib, and controls it. A jib (also spelled jibb) is a triangular Staysail set ahead of the foremost mast of a sailing boat The jib has a sheet on each side, only one of which (the leeward one) will be in use at one time.
• The spinnaker sheet attaches to the clew(s) of the spinnaker, if carried. A spinnaker is a special type of Sail that is designed specifically for Sailing off the wind from a reaching course to a downwind i A symmetrical spinnaker has two sheets, an "active" one and a "lazy" one, in the same way as a jib, but they are attached to the sail's two separate clews. On boats larger than around thirty feet, the spinnaker will also be fitted with guys, which are similar to sheets but control the pole instead of the sail. A guy is a term for a line ( Rope) attached to and intended to control the end of a spar on a sailboat On smaller boats the lazy sheet is used as a guy.

On the smallest boats, a sheet is often a simple rope, pulled by hand; on larger boats, usually on the mainsheet, it is often a system using several blocks to provide mechanical advantage. In Sailing, a block is a single or multiple Pulley. One or a number of sheaves are enclosed in an assembly between cheeks or chocks In Physics and Engineering, mechanical advantage (MA is the factor by which a mechanism multiplies the force put into it At one time, headsail sheets on yachts also involved blocks, but the disadvantages of having large amounts of line and loose blocks free to move all over the forward part of the vessel mean that such systems have been almost universally replaced with single-line sheets holding immense forces but controlled by powerful winches. A winch is a mechanical device that is used to pull in (wind up or let out (wind out or otherwise adjust the " Tension " of a Rope or Wire rope

Square rig

Square rigged vessels are much less common, and are usually large ships. Square rig is a generic type of sail and rigging arrangement in which the primary driving sails are carried on horizontal Spars which are perpendicular or square Nevertheless, they too have sheets on the moveable corners of their square sails. Unlike fore-and-aft sheets, though, square-rig sheets do not control the angle of the sails (which is performed using braces); instead, they are used to haul the corners of the sails from their stowed positions down towards the tip of the yard below. The braces on a Square-rigged ship are lines used to rotate the yards around the mast to allow the ship to sail at different angles to the wind They are then not adjusted significantly while sailing until the sail is to be handed (put away) again.

Three sheets to the wind

The term "three sheets to the wind", meaning "staggering drunk", refers to a ship whose sheets have come loose, causing the sails to flap uncontrolled and the ship to meander at the mercy of the elements.