jibing

The Sailor's Word-Book

, or gybing.


A corruption of jibbing. The act of shifting over the boom of a fore-and-aft sail from one side of the vessel to the other. By a boom-sail is meant any sail the bottom of which is extended by a boom, which has its fore-end jawed or hooked to its respective mast, so as to swing occasionally on either side of the vessel, describing an arc, of which the mast will be the centre. As the wind or the course changes, the boom and its sail are jibed to the other side of the vessel, as a door turns on its hinges.

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