Ropes are essential elements for the navigation of a sailboat like the Don du Vent, an auric ketch moored at the Vieux-Port (Old Port) of Marseille. They belong, like the sails, to the moving parts of the running rigging. The standing rigging, for its part, includes the fixed elements of the boat: the mast, the boom, and a whole series of cables that hold or stiffen the mast(s). Running rigging and standing rigging allow the sailboat to move forward with the wind.