With the interest building in Algerian pirates, I've started exploring the sailing characteristics of xebecs in depth. Let me tell you, lateen sail handling is not simple!

So far, I've decided to use my schooner sailing arcs and rules as the base movement, with changes to reflect the lateen rig.

First of note, it seems that on a xebec all yards would pretty much always be on the same side on all masts all the time. It would be a real trick to swing one yard to the front of the mast to run "wing and wing", the weakest point of sail. The sail would have power in it the whole time while being moved. I think that xebec sailors probably just accepted that one sail would press against the mast when wing and wing.

Second, tacking is the only way to swing the yards from one side of the mast to the other. This wouldn't work jibing or wearing because the sail would have the wind in it while trying to swing the boom behind the mast. It sounds too exciting to me!

A crew could choose to tack without switching the yards, but then the sails would backwind against the masts. This is acceptable, but the boat wouldn't point as high (sail as close to the wind) because of the lack of sail shape.

More to come...