A device to keep a sailboat's boom level. As wind fills the mainsail, the force on the sail lifts the boom. The vang pulls down on the boom to keep it from lifting.
Most vangs are block and tackle arrangements, but on big sailboats they are often based on hydraulic cylinders. The latter kind can also lift the boom in light air to help the mainsail catch more wind.
Vang (?), n. [D. vangen to catch, seize. See Fang.] Naut.
A rope to steady the peak of a gaff.
© Webster 1913.
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