In maritime transport and sailing, jury rigging is making temporary makeshift running repairs with only the tools and materials on board. It originates from sail-powered boats and ships. Jury-rigging can be applied to any part of a ship; be it its super-structure (hull, decks), propulsion systems (mast, sails, rigging, engine, transmission, propeller), or controls (helm, rudder, centreboard, daggerboards, rigging). Similarly, a jury mast is a replacement mast after a dismasting. If necessary, a yard would also be fashioned and stayed to allow a watercraft to resume making way.

Rigging

A sail-powered boat may carry a limited amount of repair materials, from which some form of jury-rig can be fashioned. Additionally, anything salvageable, such as a spar or spinnaker pole, could be adapted to carry a makeshift sail. Ships typically carried a selection of spare parts such as topmasts. However, due to their much larger size, at up to 1 metre in diameter, the lower masts were too large to carry as spares. Example jury-rig configurations include: The jury mast knot may provide anchor points for securing makeshift stays and shrouds to support a jury mast, although there is differing evidence of the knot's actual historical use. Jury-rigs are not limited to sail-powered boats. Any unpowered watercraft can carry jury sail. A rudder, tiller, or any other component can be jury-rigged by improvising a repair out of materials at hand.

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