A new rig for Leeway

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  • 16 Jul 2022 18:14
    Reply # 12850855 on 4138614

    While waiting for the last of the sailmaking materials we made some line-reels for Leeway.  As we're working toward launching this summer, child labour is being utilized (much to my enjoyment).

    The reel sides are made from PVC sheet with PVC pipe for the arbor.  We tried plastic welding but it wasn't satisfactory.  The only glue we had on hand that showed much desire to stick to the PVC was the West Systems G-Flex.  With four additional washers (two per side) cut from PVC to increase the the area for gluing it has made some sturdy line reels.
    Last modified: 16 Jul 2022 18:18 | Anonymous member
  • 12 Jul 2022 16:57
    Reply # 12846007 on 4138614

    Work on the Rig Underway!!  I thought I was going to get to sail around the world in my slippers :-)

    Thanks Annie

  • 10 Jul 2022 03:08
    Reply # 12843468 on 4138614

    If chafe is a problem running down wind, it will also be a problem on other points of sailing, and I should have thought your best bet would be to put some antichafe on the sail and/or batten.  The main reason that H/McL junks usually have their sails on the port side of the mast is so that should you have to work on the rig while underway, you will be on the starboard tack.

  • 05 Jul 2022 19:18
    Reply # 12838818 on 4138614

    As sailmaking draws near I realize I'm going to need to do a lot of labelling if all the sail bits are going to go together correctly.  I've had it in mind for some time that Leeway's mainsail would be to port of the mast and the foresail to starboard.  I think I liked this arrangement as when running downwind each sail could fly in front of the mast with less chafe.  However, this morning I did a quick survey of all the Junk Schooners I could find on the JRA and although there is every possible combination of sail arrangements you could imagine it looks the most common arrangement is both sails to port.  Although I'm sure this must have been discussed before, the search engine has failed to find anything for me.

    From a COLREG perspective it makes sense to have the mainsail on the port side of the mast, so you have a Starboard Tack (stand on vessel) if you are sailing downwind with the battens pulled off the mast.  Fortunately for Leeway this is also the best side for routing the lines.

    But, what about the foresail?  Starboard side to limit chafe when wing-on-wing downwind, or is there a compelling reason to have both sails on port side?



  • 30 Jun 2022 03:57
    Reply # 12833509 on 4138614
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Darren: thanks for the very clear write-up.

    I too found it difficult to span a gusset across the luff end of the double lens, and same as you did, pulled the sail flat into that same shallow vee to do it. As I recall, I then fudged it a bit, and put the tabling on last. I still wasn't totally happy with it, in my case.

    (Its an especially difficult detail with the SJR jib luff as the sail is cut a little bit fuller at that point, and it seems desirable to try to keep the sail shape right down to the apex. I suspect the SJR jib luff gets pulled into a bit more tension than the main luff, or the luff of a contiguous sail, so I threaded a thin dyneema bolt rope into the pocket made by the tabling, and fastened it top and bottom of the over-all luff (ie at the throat and the tack of the sail). My sail sets OK now (after some assembly mistakes were rectified) but I never regarded it as more than a prototype and I’m still not totally satisfied with it structurally. This remark applies more to SJR)

    Your double lens has a wide(ish) strip down the centre, between the two half-lenses (obviously to accommodate the batten pocket) and I wonder if the width of this might be an important key to getting the apex of the lens-luff area of the sail to set nicely on both tacks, (ie especially on the tack where it gets pulled around the battens).


    I never thought much about that until looking closely at this photo.  Perhaps it is a non-problem on this sail, which is powerful and sets well anyway (but for a SJR jib luff it would matter, I think).

    Thanks again, there’s valuable stuff on both your threads. Those people who have made a number of sails will probably have made improvements with each iteration. The wonderful thing is, everyone gets to learn. I feel very grateful.


    Last modified: 30 Jun 2022 06:53 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 30 Jun 2022 02:02
    Reply # 12833421 on 4138614

    I think I’ve convinced myself that this strategy for a shelf-foot sail could work. Although, there were some hiccups in the test model.

    I used the fabric from one of Leeway’s old sails for the tests. Because it is 1/3 scale model, all the stitching is a single row where the real sail will have double rows of stitching.

    Many of the panels in the sails are the same, so I’m making templates for all of them out of 3mm plywood door skin. It’s inexpensive, rigid and doesn’t steal much heat from the hot-knife, so cutting is reasonably quick. I’m using my cheap old soldering-gun style hot knife, I tweaked it by filing the cutting edge a bit so it gets hotter, but otherwise I think it is up to the job. I find the hot knife works better on a hard surface, in the past I’ve used tempered glass, but the melamine panel provides a larger surface and seems to hold up to the hot knife just fine.

    Sewing the sailmaker’s style batten pockets to the shelf-foot lens is easy and quick with nice small bits of fabric to work with.

    Sewing the doubled-over tabling to the luff/leach of the hourglass-panels worked very well, I used rectangles of cloth a little over-length and just cut off the excess after sewing with the hotknife (using the same template as to cut the panel).

    The oval patches that span the leach panel joints were easy to do, just lay the cloths flat and sew.

    The patches that span the tabling over the shelf-foot lenses at the luff were a bit more tricky. I liked the paper models I started with because they’re good at showing you if your trying to force a panel into a shape it doesn’t want to go in. Since the patches seemed easy in the paper model I had high hopes for the cloth scale model working easily. This was not the case. I first tried sewing the patch to the leading edge, and then working the rest of it to the shape of the sail before sewing. Done this way there was no way to get the patch fabric to lay nicely with the rest of the sail.

    I also tried a “taco holder” form to see if having the sail close to its set shape would make the patch seat nicely.

    This variation involved 3M Super 77 adhesive and basting tape, the fit was much better, but painful to do and still not quite right. I did notice in this version that the leading edge of the patch only met the sail at the ends of the patch.

    Finally, the light dawned for me (probably much slower than it would for many others), I splayed the sail flat at the leading edge, centred on the batten pocket. This leaves the leading edge of the sail in a very shallow V-shape. With the sail splayed flat like this, the patch matches the leading edge only at its periphery and spans the hollow of the “V” for the rest (this is what I had missed seeing in the paper models).

    With the luff splayed flat it is easy to tape and sew the patch in place, and when you fold the sail back into its set shape everything lays nicely. It does result in a slight bulge in the leading edge of the patch and you have to run the first row of stitching a bit back from the edge of the patch to make sure you catch the panel fabric below. Overall, I think this is a compromise I can live with.


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  • 28 Jun 2022 19:57
    Reply # 12831768 on 4138614

    Sounds good to me. They only need to be 12 - 16in long, so not too heavy even if they're thick walled or solid. 

  • 28 Jun 2022 19:50
    Reply # 12831747 on 4138614

    As it happens, Lars has become pretty handy with a lathe and is almost done his schoolwork for the year.....   Do you think 1.5" schedule 80 T6 pipe might be adequate for the inserts? (Schedule 80 T6 Pipe has an OD of 1.900" and a wall of 0.2"  Most of my battens are 2" by .065", which has an ID of 1.87"). 

    I was going to use 2"x .125" wall for the top sheeted batten.  So, if I used Sch80 pipe for its repair insert it would only have .125" wall when turned down, maybe that would be better with a solid insert.

  • 28 Jun 2022 18:04
    Reply # 12831626 on 4138614

    Split tube is much weaker than unsplit tube. How about keeping all those 4ft pieces, and getting some solid joining pieces to splice four of them - maybe nylon, if not solid ali?

  • 28 Jun 2022 17:11
    Reply # 12831584 on 4138614

    I'm about to order Aluminum and wondering if I should order some spare battens.  It seems like extra battens might be nice for a voyaging boat, but I don't see a spot where I'd want to store 16' long battens on our 40' boat.  Since I need to order 20' lengths, perhaps I could rip the 4' offcuts to put a slot in them and then they could go inside a 8' length to be kept handy to splice a repair?

    Barring any comments I'm going to use 5" by .125" 6061 T6 for the yard.
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