Quote Originally Posted by Broadsword56 View Post
And brigs are highly vulnerable to even one good mast hit, since they have only 2 masts and that rear mast also has the spanker -- so they can lose speed and control fast due to rigging damage.
[nod] I keep reading about how British "brig-sloops" were "inferior" (their words) to US "ship-sloops" due to being more vulnerable to rigging damage; aside from "two masts vs. three", I can't really figure out how it would be a problem. Something was said about brig-sloops being particularly vulnerable to upper-sail damage, but no details were provided.