thumb|300px|Running rigging on a sailing yacht:

Running rigging is the rigging of a sailing vessel that is used for raising, lowering, shaping and controlling the sails on a sailing vessel—as opposed to the standing rigging, which supports the mast and bowsprit. Running rigging varies between vessels that are rigged fore and aft and those that are square-rigged.

History of materials

In centuries past, a ship's rigging was typically fashioned from rope. In the 19th century this was commonly referred to as Manilla, a reference to the origin of much good quality rope. Traditionally the running rigging was easily recognized since, for flexibility, it was not coated with tar and therefore of a lighter color than the standing rigging which was tarred for protection from weather and therefore darker or even black in color. On modern vessels, running rigging is likely to be made from synthetic fibers, while the standing rigging is most often fashioned from stainless steel "wire rope". Since the 1990s, several new synthetic fibers have become common, particularly on racing and other high-performance sailing boats. These fibers include Ultra High Molecular Weight Polyethylene (UHMWPE) (also known as Spectra or Dynema), Vectran, and Technora.

Fore-and-aft rigged vessels

Fore-and-aft rigged vessels have rigging that supports, shapes, and adjusts the sails to optimize their performance in the wind.

Supporting

  • Halyards (sometimes haulyards), are used to raise sails and control luff tension. In large yachts the halyard returns to the deck but in small racing dinghies the head of the sail is attached by a short line to the head of the mast while the boat is lying on its gunwale.

Shaping

  • Barber haulers, which adjust the spinnaker/jib sheeting angle by pulling the sheet/sail inboard or outboard at right angles to the sheet. Consists of either a ring or clip on the sheet attached to cordage which is secured and adjusted via fairlead and cam cleat.
  • Kicking straps / boom vangs, which control a boom-footed sail's leech tension by exerting downward force mid-boom. Normally this is a system of highly geared blocks, of flexible stainless steel wire and low stretch cordage but recently some sail boats have a short spar instead, often of carbon fibre. When sailing downwind the kicking strap (kicker) is tensioned to stop the boom lifting.

Adjusting angle to the wind

  • Guys, which control spar angle with respect to the apparent wind.
  • Preventer, is cordage attached to the end of the boom and fixed to (or running through a block) on the rail athwart or forward of the mast. Its most common purpose is to prevent potentially dangerous movement of the spar in an accidental gybe.

Square-rigged vessels

[[File:Running Rigging-Square-rigged ship--Biddlecombe.jpg|thumb|300px|Diagram of running rigging on a square-rigged ship.