John B

When a topsail is set without yard or jackyard it's usually called a fisherman topsail. And that fits with the heritage of a working boat like the friendship sloops.Just a sail set on a halyard, probably hanked or clipped on a jackline running up beside the mast. sheeted to the end of the gaff and with a tack line/ downhaul as with a jackyard topsail. Some of the later racing gaff boats set yardless jackyarders on tall marconi masts . And some racing boats would carry a set of topsails. A couple of different size Jackyard topsails for the light and a fisherman for the moderate

Gidday Jo. I don't know what goes on with imagestation. I can post images on the WB forum ok. :roll: Thanks for hosting the pic Tim. You can tell my scanner is on the blink eh. draw it, photo it , post it.

Nice of you to make those comments Tim. She's a nice old girl we bought about 20 years ago and have been playing around and cruising on ever since. Yes she was marconi/ bermudan but under rigged when we got her and as you guys well know, leaving something alone is not an option so I changed the rig back to one evocative of her original rig. Performance was pretty radically enhanced by changing but that might have something to do with about 40 % more sail area. Back to the topsail. See the point is, its a light weather sail which you don

Here's one anyway. hope the pic works...The halyard goes from halfway up the yard, through a sheave( or block) down to mast padeye, to yard padeye, to deck/cleat/winch. It's a pearler of an idea.As I said... works like a dream.

One of the reasons that I like to lurk around this forum is the way you guys love to think about ways of doing things and the innovation that comes with it. I

Sorry Tim. I had meant to find a pic. Then I recalled that I had trouble posting the image last time and yours just shows as the dreaded red x to me so.... :wink: anyway,here's a link to an imagestation album with a bunch of photos... see if that works. http://www.imagestation.com/album/pictures.html?show_all=1&id=4292011237&start=1 if it does, there are some other albums there which may be of interest. Mahurangi regattas over a couple of years etc. various dinghys through to keelers etc.

Hi Tim. Backstays can be set up a number of ways. often block and tackle. sometimes on slides like a track type traveller. Mine are on levers. Levers are usually referred to by a generic" Highfield lever" term because Mr ( or was he Vicar)Highfields design became the most common type. My levers are Giles designs as it happens. The disadvantage with levers is A, that they are on or off and off generates a lot of slack. B , that when you haul them on you can trap a finger perhaps as they go overcentre. The advantage with block and tackle is that you can let them off a bit ( say for a reach), without having a whole lot of slack to catch around a buoy etc and so you won't get them hooked around your spreaders.(Lots of rigs lost historically due to that) Levers are faster and easier IMO and we sail 2 handed most of the time so.....It suits us.

We have running backstays on our boat so its imperative that we haul the boom in hard amidships. Once the boom is about half to 2/3s the way in we can cast off the weather runner if we want ( so both are off)but we have to get the new weather runner on at the time of the gybe.. basically as the boom comes in hard to the centre. it can get character forming but inevitably its better and less strain on the boat and rig than a chicken gybe( where you round up and tack through it). I save that for an 'emergency' myself. LOL. every time I do one of those I think" must remember not to do that again."

Infamous? what a laugh Tim. Wait till I tell my wife. I know what you mean about changing things.( wonder if I should make that bowsprit a bit longer, hmmmm)

Cross posted with Frank. Yeah, I agree. running flat off with a gaff rig. scary sometimes. I'd rather a good beat to windward. exactly the opposite to when I sail bermudan/macaroni.

When you completely lose traction with the rudder and the boat rounds up thats called a broach. Something I'm intimately aquainted with seeing as we did one under kite in a breeze, in front of a video camera, on sunday just gone. LOL. Gaff rig always does load up a bit on a run but it might just be that you're not being aggressive enough with the helm. Sometimes you really do have to haul hard on it, get the tiller up to your ear to keep them going straight. One thing you can do when it gets too much if you don't want to reef( assuming you have the main out as far as it will safely go, is to dump a wee bit of peak halyard off. ( heading towards scandalising the main). this depowers the head of the sail and relieves a lot of helm I find.A lot easier to do too.

Cool story eh. Dave Perillo has his own site here http://www.openboat.co.nz/ a bit of duplication with the other site but worth a good scout through. Barrett has been detailing her build progress on the woodenboat site ... building/ repair forum. Very interesting watching the process.

There's some stories, links etc here http://www.woodenboat.net.nz/ If you do nothing else , you MUST read the story about cruising the yasawas.

Thats what we do on our boat Jake. we set the jib on a wyham martin furler behind the forestay. When its light we hank a big jib/genoa on the forestay. If we are racing we'll start on the wind with the jib say, and then when we round a mark for a reach or a run we'll haul up the genoa and furl the jib and drop in on the deck. have you put up a post on WBF about your launching? ( I've missed it if you have)

Good site isn't it ,Barry. I see what you're doing now ... you ARE replacing the forestay with the furling unit. That solves one problem I get from time to time. when I set too much tension on the jib luff( remember , mine is set flying inside the forestay,) I can get a nasty wrap where the part furled sail will pick up the forestay and try and furl it too. Not good. I've learnt what sort of tension I need to make it right . Your way eliminates that. I can't bring myself to do it though( much as I'd like to) , because my mast depends on the forestay when we sail in differing configurations with different sails set. Anyway, it sounds like you're dealing with the strength aspects. Oh BTW, If you want to see a modern version of the old wykham martin type do a search on code zeros. They are a "new"( there ain't nothing new) type of sail the race boats use. I just bought a new code zero top swivel and it's transformed my old furler. I forget what the bearings are made of ... some sort of fantastic plastic only kryptonite will effect.

The first commercially available furling system is generally regarded to be the Wykham Martin furler from sometime around the 1920's or so and it works the way you describe. I have a couple myself and they make a neat job of rolling the sail into a flexible sausage the length of the luff. makes it very easy to stow etc. They have some vices and you can read about those at one of the agents sites at http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/index.htm They can be quite hard to furl when the sail is full of air. We got into some trouble that way one day , and had to dump the halyard in a big hurry to get the sail down. That's one of the reasons why its considered a better idea to keep a forestay rigged, and run the furler on its own seperate luff wire just inside it( the forestay) although there are advantages to going without it if you dare. I've found that the most critical factor in using this( general )type of furler is the condition of the top swivel. Any resistance there means the lower part of the sail furls, but the top hangs, gets full of air and gets even harder to make turn. So If I can make any suggestion to you as far as developing your idea is concerned, it would be to concentrate in that area. Have a read of the site. look for any link to furling and in particular look at the articles that he's written on using the various components he sells. Quite interesting reading.I hope its of interest.

I've been looking for a photo without dinghies in it( dang things, can't take a step without tripping on a kid or a boat) There's this one. oh , but hang on Jo, there's still dinghies in it...... but seriously now.... This is a link to an imagestation album. photos taken at The Mahurangi wooden and classic boat regatta in late Jan this year. that will give you an idea of some boats floating around in NZ. No weekenders though. I'm keen to see one in the flesh. http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4287869799&code=8576142&mode=invite

what they said. too much fun playing with the halyards for a good set. why don't you just have the 2 halyards with no purchase.ie from the span, through a turning block at the masthead to the deck. same for the throat ( but through the throat crane obviously). That would be enough for a 100 ft sail wouldn't it.( you're all going to tell me that is how it already is aren't you).LOL.

that's a pretty unique device you've got there Wayne. I just let the gaff lay on the shrouds gently and sheet in if it looks like it's developing any load. The thing I don't like about running the halyards to the toerail with the shrouds is that the halyard tension alters on each tack with the movement in the rig. That adds a variable which kind of makes it hard to figure out what is making your boat go well or not. It's spelt cranse iron. if you did a google on it you'd find quite a few references. I always get the gammon iron and cranse iron mixed up terminolgy wise myself. The gammon iron is the fitting on the stem that the bowsprit passes through. talking spreaders ...one local boat, Jonquil( a buzzards bay 25) was sailed hard one weekend and the skipper ( new owner)did not realise the implication of letting the gaff lie hard against the spreaders in a breeze. (these spreaders were the rigidly fixed type). He wrung the whole mast, twisting it so badly that it had to be removed and reglued. They then fitted swinging spreaders to allow some give. When I was aboard Lark... the falmouth quay punt, at christmas I noticed that he had this swinging type too. Good idea I think.( If you have spreaders that is)

Aww Jo ! it's built ,and I've only been varnishing in the living room. and a bit of light sanding before that. there was the dremel tool name carving incident I suppose, but no one knows I dropped it or saw the incredible reactions I possess( when motivated).

Gidday guys. another NZ 'er here. Lurking mostly. I sail a gaff keeler in Auckland. Compliments of the season to you. Cheers.