Nearly all the boats I see have a Bermuda rig…
But is it really the best choice for river sailing?
Walk along almost any dinghy park and you’ll see the same silhouette everywhere: a tall mast, a triangular mainsail, maybe a jib in front. The Bermuda rig has become the default setting for modern sailing.
But rivers aren’t the open sea. They’re narrow, bendy, tree-lined, bridge-infested, and full of wind that behaves… creatively. So it’s worth asking the awkward question:
Is the Bermuda rig actually ideal for river sailing?
Why the Bermuda rig took over
To be fair, it didn’t win by accident.
Pros
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Efficient to windward (in steady airflow)
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Simple controls and familiar handling
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Lightweight spars and easy sail handling
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Works brilliantly on open water and race courses
For lakes, estuaries, and the sea, it’s hard to argue against.
Where rivers fight back
On rivers like the Thames, the wind rarely plays nicely.
River realities
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Wind bends around trees and buildings
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Sudden shifts of 30–90° are normal
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Gusts arrive vertically, not horizontally
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Long lulls followed by savage puffs
Here’s the problem:
A tall, high-aspect Bermuda sail depends on clean airflow. When the wind is dirty, broken, or coming from unexpected angles, that lovely triangular sail spends a lot of time stalled.
What older rigs did better
Before the Bermuda rig became dominant, river sailors knew their environment well.
Gaff and other low-aspect rigs
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More sail area lower down, where river wind often lives
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Better power at low speeds
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More forgiving when the wind shifts suddenly
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Often easier to keep moving through tacks in fluky air
They’re not as “efficient” on paper — but rivers aren’t paper.
So why don’t we see them now?
A few very practical reasons:
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Racing rules and class designs favour Bermuda rigs
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Modern materials made tall rigs easier and cheaper
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Training pathways all assume Bermuda rigs
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Fewer people now grow up sailing rivers exclusively
Efficiency won. Versatility quietly lost.
The real answer (as usual)
The Bermuda rig isn’t wrong for river sailing — far from it.
But it is a compromise, and not always the best one.
For river sailors, success often comes not from the rig itself, but from:
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Excellent sail trim
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Fast reactions to shifts
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Keeping momentum at all costs
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Knowing when not to pinch
And occasionally muttering,
“This would be easier with a gaff…”
Final thought
If you only ever sailed rivers, you might design something very different from the boats we mostly sail today.
So next time you’re parked head-to-wind under a tree while someone else ghosts past…
It might not be your sailing.
It might be 150 years of rig fashion.
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