Sloop vs. Barque — What's the Difference?

A sloop is a sailboat with a single mast typically having only one headsail in front of the mast and one mainsail aft of (behind) the mast. Such an arrangement is called a fore-and-aft rig, and can be rigged as a Bermuda rig with triangular sails fore and aft, or as a gaff-rig with triangular foresail(s) and a gaff rigged mainsail.

A barque, barc, or bark is a type of sailing vessel with three or more masts having the fore- and mainmasts rigged square and only the mizzen (the aftmost mast) rigged fore and aft. Sometimes, the mizzen is only partly fore-and-aft rigged, bearing a square-rigged sail above.

A single-masted, fore-and-aft-rigged sailing boat with a short standing bowsprit or none at all and a single headsail set from the forestay.

Variant of bark3.

(nautical) A single-masted sailboat with only one headsail.

A sailing vessel of three or more masts, with all masts but the sternmost square-rigged, the sternmost being fore-and-aft-rigged

(military) A sailing warship, smaller than a frigate, with its guns all on one deck.

(archaic) Any small sailing vessel.

(military) A sloop-of-war, smaller than a frigate, larger than a corvette.

(poetic) A sailing vessel or boat of any kind.

A vessel having one mast and fore-and-aft rig, consisting of a boom-and-gaff mainsail, jibs, staysail, and gaff topsail. The typical sloop has a fixed bowsprit, topmast, and standing rigging, while those of a cutter are capable of being readily shifted. The sloop usually carries a centerboard, and depends for stability upon breadth of beam rather than depth of keel. The two types have rapidly approximated since 1880. One radical distinction is that a sloop may carry a centerboard. See Cutter, and Illustration in Appendix.

A sailing ship with 3 (or more) masts

In modern usage, a sailing vessel having one mast, commonly with a Bermuda rig, with either a center-board or a keel. In the United States, a sloop may have one or two headsails, while in Western Europe and Great Britain a sloop has only one headsail.

A sailing vessel with a single mast set about one third of the boat's length aft of the bow