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A moonraker, also known as a moonsail, hope-in-heaven, or hopesail, is a square sail flown immediately above a skysail (see sail-plan) on the royal masts of a square-riggedsailing ship. None of the four- and five-masted square-rigged ships carried a moonsail.
The equivalent sail, if triangular, is called a skyscraper.
Moonrakers are relatively unusual sails only used on ships built primarily for speed.
References
^ Smyth, W. H. (1867). "sky-scraper". In Belcher, Edward (ed.). The Sailor's Word-Book: An Alphabetical Digest of Nautical Terms, Including Some More Especially Military and Scientific... London: Blackie and Son. p. 631. Retrieved June 24, 2017.
