bermuda rig

[richard]

Has anyone used a bermuda rig on a weekender?

Any suggestions welcome.

Richard

[Barry Pyeatt]

I don't know of any that have been built with other than Gaff rigs. It lowers the center of effort so that there is less need for a ballasted keel or centerboard. It also allows more sail area for a lower masts height.

It is also more traditional, which is in keeping with the "Friendship Sloop" Heritage. There have been a couple though with top sails that fill in the triangle at the top of the gaff.

One other thing is that with a gaff rig it is relatively easy to make your own tarp sails.

[Paul J]

Yes, a guy named Steve in Texas made a weekender with a marconi rig several years ago. He has since sold the boat and his web site is gone, so I can not refer you to it. But you will have to make the mast several feet taller for that rig.

As I remember he reported the boat was quite fast with the rig. And again this is from memory I believe he made it a fractional rig it was a 7/8 rig I believe.

So the answer is yes it has been done and yes you can most certianly do it, it will just take a little extra planning for the rig and sails.

I hope this helps.

[Frank Hagan]

I remember that site ... and even his Squirt (a small Glen-L powerboat) site is gone now. I do remember that he felt the boat was "squirrelly" with the bermuda rig, and in an email with him, I found out he used the same square footage of sail in the bermuda rig that the Weekender has in a gaff rig. I think his name was Steve Woolverton.

You can see his messages on it by going to Google, clicking on the Groups tab and entering a search for "Weekender Moose" ... or maybe this link will work http://groups.google.com/groups?q=weekender+moose&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&btnG=Google+Search. There was quite a bit of discussion about it in rec.boats.building back in 1998 when he was considering it, and then later after he built it.

He used a 20' piece of 2" aluminum irrigation pipe for the mast, if I remember correctly.

[Robert Cox]

There's a gentleman in Michigan that posts here every now and again that might chime in. He built his Weekender with a Marconi rig as well. Don't remember if it's fractional or not. I would guess it is. He's got a website. I'll have to try to find it so you can see what he's done with his boat.

Bob

[T. Nelson Surbrook]

Wow, for some "old" guys you have some good memories!

[Robert Cox]

Now Nelson, I take exception to that remark.

I'm only 40! :twisted:

Bob

[Derek]

Here's a link to his archived page from the Internet Wayback machine.

http://web.archive.org/web/19991122015324/http://www.overland.net/~moose/page12.html

Couldn't get it to retireve any of the picture pages though.

[Robert Cox]

[Frank Hagan]

Too cool! I didn't know about the Internet Way Back Machine! Now I've got to see if my web page predicting the death of the Internet by 1998 is archived somewhere ... :wink: