What is a preventer?

authors and experts ...

I applaud the exploits and books of such as Hiscock etc. - but sometimes you find terminology or other that gets put out of context. It does not detract from the persons experience or knowledge . but tends to become accepted fact.

I would not call a Backstay a Preventer - but it does sort of fulfill such a function ??

I don't think there is any publication that can be said to be the 100% perfect write-up ... save maybe Oxford Dictionary ??

Now I could put forward a word from the Oxford Dictionary ... and I am sure that someone would counter it by using Websters .....

Vagaries of the language .....
 
Re: authors and experts ...

I assume Hiscock meant a "running" backstay. When he wrote "Cruising Under Sail" these were probably far more common than "standing" backstays.

Harold Underhill, in "Masting and Rigging the Clipper Ship and Ocean Carrier" claims the term preventer-stay dates back to sailing warship days when "...it was the practice to duplicate all the principal stays by running them in pairs.... should one be shot away its partner would carry on the good work".

You pays your money and you takes your choice!

Personally, I refer to it as "that long green and white rope with the clip on the end" and SWMBO seems to know what I mean
 
As to usage. With a boat being thrown about in a seaway it can be dificlt to keep a course that eliminates gybes. On a friends boat we werelucky not tolose the mast, but the mainsheet block broke off instead. Next time owner rigged line from end of boom and knotted to a shroud base. I wasn't sure about a twang at 90 degrees to what it was designed for. This time when the accidental gybe occurred the knot tightened, went over centre, the other end of the mainsheet blocks broke.
We now have a line rigged, ready to tie to boom end, it goes to a snap Krab from my obsolete climbing gear and then back to spinny winch. Nowt original there but friction in Krab doesn't matter because line can be tightened with mainsheet. Krab on other side makes it easier to swap line over
 
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