A jib sail increases the sail area of a yacht or dinghy, which will make the boat go faster (and faster is usually better, isn?t it? ;) ).

A jib is effective for sailing any course outside the no-sail zone. The jib is therefore one of those sailing ?essentials? on any sailboat with a headstay.

Jib sails are available as hank-on sails or self-furlers. A hank-on jib needs to be manually clipped into position and hoisted, while a self-furling jib has a mechanism that rolls the jib sail into its storage position around the forestay.

To fly a jib sail, other jib equipment is also required. The jib equipment usually consist of adjustable fairlead blocks, sheets and sometimes also a self-tacker or spinnaker pole.

The jib sail attaches to one of the forestays, while the sheets lead through adjustable blocks mounted on the cockpit coaming or on the gunwale. The forestay keeps the windward edge of the sail in position, while the port and starboard sheets tighten the clew on either tack.

When buying a new boat, the jib sail and jib equipment is often sold separately as optional extras.

In areas of consistently heavy wind, the jib sail is often the skipper?s sail of preference.