Elective Parts

The luff and leech are identified by how the spinnaker is flying and they reverse after a gybe. When the sail is not flying, the reference is to the two leeches. The starboard leech typically has a green leech tape and the port leech a red tape. The foot has a white tape (or some other color not red or green). Each corner has a ring. When the sail is in the bag, only the three rings stick out. The ring with the red and green tape coming to it is the head, the one with the red and white tapes the port clew and the one with the green and white tapes the starboard clew. When hooking the lines up to the sail before launch, it is useful to color code either the sheets themselves, or at least to put tape over the shackles. Then the bowman can attach the red shackle to the red-white ring, the green shackle to the green-white ring, and the halyard to the red-green ring.