spars and yards?

[Frank Burroughs]

Are these terms interchangeable?

[ccoyle]

The term spars includes both masts and yards.

[Keith Black]

 Frank, kinda, see the below. The way I understand the explanation, it depends on how the sails are rigged whether it's a yard or spar. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yard_(sailing)#:~:text=The spar at the head,the original square-rig yard.

Edited May 8, 2024 by Keith Black

[popeye2sea]

5 hours ago, ccoyle said:

The term spars includes both masts and yards.

To put this another way. Yard is a subset of Spar.

The definition of a spar is a round wood or metal pole.

Some items that can be called spars:

Booms

Gaffs

Yards

Masts

Spreaders

Pig Sticks

Whiskers

Marlinspike ( the dolphin striker, not the hand-held one for rope work)

 

Regards,

Henry

[paul ron]

never gave it much thought and used them interchangeably. but im sure there must be a technical difference. 🤔