fore-and-aft sail

1. 1.

   any sail not set on a yard and whose normal position is in a fore-and-aft direction

   Broadersail

   Narrowergaffsailgaff topsailjiblateenlugsailmizzenspankerspritsailstaysail

   Partsluff

Questions about fore-and-aft sail

What does fore-and-aft sail mean?

fore-and-aft sail means "any sail not set on a yard and whose normal position is in a fore-and-aft direction".

Is fore-and-aft sail a common word?

fore-and-aft sail is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.