New Gaff

[Dave R1]

As part of my preparation for the coming sailing season I'm making a new gaff for Julie K. I thought I'd put up some pictures. The old gaff is visible as is the bowsprit which is getting a new coat of spar varnish.

The jaws on the new gaff are laminated from oak and maple. They are epoxied to the birdsmouth gaff with brass rod driven through instead of using bolts. I chucked the rods in the drill press and filed grooves for epoxy. There'll be no getting those rods out again.

Although they don't show, there are a couple of maple fittings on the underside of the new spar. One at about the midpoint will get a small strop to hold a midspan halyard block. The other fitting is close to the end and will get the end of the peak halyard as well a length of line from the peak of the sail.

I still need to get a piece of leather and install it in the mouth of the jaws.

[Barry Pyeatt]

Looking good Dave. Save the old one you can use it for shuffleboard on ice in the winter.

[adla]

really nice dave - very very nice. To be admired - indeed! :shock:

a.

[Bill Paxton]

Nice work, Dave. Can't wait to see the new gaff on Julie K

[Dave R1]

Thank you all. The new tanbark sails came on Saturday and look great. I can't wait to get it all together.

[Andrew_Butchart]

How did you get the curve on the gaff jaws? They look a bit thick for steam-bending.

[Dave R1]

Andrew, I imagine you're right about them being too thick for that. Actually they're sawn out of a laminated stack of wood. The laminations are vertical; two pieces of oak, a piece of maple and two more of oak. I did a quick drawing of the jaws in SketchUp and rotated the pieces to figure out how small a block I would need to saw out the parts. I even printed templates I could glue to the block.

I didn't think about it when I was gluing up the stock but I noticed after cutting the parts out that the top and bottom oak surfaces show the rays of quartersawn wood. looks kind of cool.

BTW, when I laid the jaws out for cutting I did it assuming no space for the stick. That left me with flat faces I could use to clamp the pieces together for shaping and sanding. This also allowed me to make sure it would fit around the mast without having to clamp the stick in there, too.

After I got the jaws shaped and the stick made and turned to diameter, I trimmed those inner faces and then shaped the jaws to fit the stick. I cut out most of the waste with the tablesaw and then sanded to shape with sandpaper wrapped around the spar.

I turned the birdsmouth spar round with a router and the ornamental mill which had to be modified because it wasn't long enough. That's given me an idea for a spar lathe I could build in my shop that would handle up to about 20' between centers.

[adla]

well - it is just beautiful and I can't wait to see the new sails .... i like the tanbark....your Julie K. is going to be even more sharp lOOking than ever!

a.

[Mike Pennington]

Salty, Dave!