What is Fore-and-aft rig?
[[File:Outing (1885) (14594558748).jpg|thumb|right|200px|{{Center|Sailing ship with fore-and-aft rigged sails}}]] A '''fore-and-aft rig''' is a [[sailing]] [[wikt:rig|rig]] that mainly has [[sail]]s that are set along the line of the [[keel]] instead of [[wikt:perpendicular|perpendicular]] to it. Such [[sail]]s are described as '''fore-and-aft rigged'''.<ref>Austin Melvin Knight, ''Modern seamanship'' (New York: D. Van Nostrand, 1910), pp. 507–532</ref> == History == Two of the earliest fore-and-aft rigged sailing [[design]]s were the [[Junk (ship)|Chinese junk]] and the [[Triangle|triangular]] [[lateen]] sails of the [[Egypt]]ian [[Felucca]]s and [[dhow]]s.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.goodoldboat.com/reader_services/articles/foreaftrig.php |title=The Fore-and-Aft Rig |author=Ted Brewer |date=March–April 2001 |publisher=Good Old Boat |access-date=December 25, 2016}}</ref> The lateen sail was used by [[Greece|Greek]] ships as early as the [[9th century]].<ref name=Kirby101>Richard Shelton Kirby, ''Engineering in History'' (New York: Dover Publications, 1990), p. 101</ref> By the [[11th century]] the fore-and-aft rig began to be used in the [[Italian city-states]] and the [[Mediterranean Sea]].<ref name=Kirby101/> The generally gentle [[climate]] made its use practical. There seems to be no record of when it was first used in [[Northern Europe]].<ref name=Chatterton44>Edward Keble Chatterton, ''Fore and Aft: The Story of the Fore & Aft Rig From the Earliest Times to the Present Day'' (Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1912), pp. 44–48</ref> The square rigged sails came first in the North. The [[Vikings]] used square rigged sails which became popular in Britain and [[Northern Europe]].<ref name=Chatterton44/> They certainly had seen its use in the course of trade and during the [[Crusades]].<ref name=Chatterton44/> The Renaissance changed this.<ref name=Chatterton44/> Slowly the fore-and-aft rig came into common use on [[river]]s and in [[estuaries]] in [[Britain]], [[Northern France]], and the [[Low Countr