Wishbone rig Wishbone rig A wishbone rig is a type of rigging on sailboats. This rigging is most popular on heavy two-masted vessels. On a ketch it is called wishbone ketch and is considered a subtype of ketch rigging. A wishbone ketch rigged vessel is a vessel that is rigged as a ketch where a permanent splitting gaff is mounted between two masts. Contrary to the gaff rig (where the gaff is hoisted together with the sail) the gaff stays in the mast. The gaff is typically fixed on the first mast (the one closer to the front) and fixed via a
Jack Ketch in 1828. He is mentioned in the Charles Dickens novels "Oliver Twist", "The Pickwick Papers" and "David Copperfield" and in the C. M. Kornbluth science fiction story "The Marching Morons" (1951). More recently, Jack Ketch plays a role in Neal Stephenson's 2003 and 2004 volumes "Quicksilver" and "The System of the World", the first and last volumes, respectively, in his "The Baroque Cycle" series (though the last volume is set in 1714, well after the death of the historical Jack Ketch.) A Jack Ketch character appears in Neil Gaiman's "The Graveyard Book". Jack Ketch is featured as a non-speaking character