NEW RIG??

[Rob Blackburn]

Stay tuned, it is at the sailmakers as we speak.

The flogging is definitely something to think about but I guess if push came to shove you could just attach your downhaul and forget about that bit of the luff pocket.. Shall send some photos when it comes back.

Rob

[Richard Whitney CS#70]

Hi Rob

Go for it mate

I love being able to reef since I shifted to a track on my masts.  My CS 17 has been gathering dust (I am not allowed to build any more boats at present - so have been building a ukulele) - but we are getting the first taste of spring today - so nearly time to dust things off.

Hope you have a good sailing season over the ditch.

[Tom Lathrop]

Rob,

At first, I intended going with tracks on Lapwing.  Remembering the nice luff shape on my Spindrift 10 and Lasers, I came up with exactly the same solution as yours for reefing on Lapwing.  Whether I will use either of these or not, I don't know yet. 

One great advantage of the unbattened rig, whether sleeve luffed, parelled or tracked is the ability to rotate the mast and roll the thing up.  Remembering the many times this made life so simple and easy compared to having to deal with the sails in any other way is about to convince me to go with unbattened sails again.  My Bay River Skiff "Loon" was the first unbattened sail rig I had ever had and I frankly never felt the loss of any performance it might have had.  This is from a long time racer too.

Every time I work rigging the Southern Skimmer, I think about the simplicity of the old rig on Loon.  Now Skimmer is a racing boat and needs the extra sail area and control over sail shape that leech battens gives but, especially now that I'd like to be sailing Lapwing in my dotage, I'm leaning toward simplicity.  Loon is perhaps the most traveled and sailed of Graham's small boats and I don't think the sails have ever been taken off the mast since I rigged them in 1994.  Ten minutes from trailer to sail away is hard to beat.

Maybe tracks and no battens is the best way to get reefing with good sail shape and easy handling.  The slides and track will make for a less neat roll though.

[fatehunter1972]

This is a very relevent topic for me.  I have a 13 foot clinker fiberglass dinghy with a luff sleeved laser 1 main.  That's 21 feet of mast above the gunwale with unbattened sail on a boom.  Currently there is no way to reef effectively at sea.  I am looking at alternative rigs as this is the perfect camp cruiser for me.

Thanks everyone for your input.

Rob,

I use ballast for my boat.  I have 8 x 25 pound (200 lbs) bags of drain rock.  That's rock that is 1/2 to 3/4 inch. (not sandy or liable to leave a mess)  I put it in plastic bags and then inside burlap sandbags available at the hardware store.  The bags are only a third full so the rest forms a handle.  I throw them around to distribute the load.  Sometime I row and my wife wants to sit on the side and look over the side.  I just throw a couple bags on the other side to balance the load.  Works great for me.  Gives the boat a heavier feel when rowing through a heavy slop.  Ordered up some 8 foot oars but even the crappy 6 ft ones I've got let me row easily at 2.5 kts.