Gaff cutter to JR sloop: ANNIE's trial sail at last

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  • 13 Aug 2018 19:55
    Reply # 6555400 on 6546620
    Arne wrote:

     I also suggest you move the yard hauling parrel, YHP a bit further up the yard, aft of the halyard’s slingpoint.

    A good point, Arne. I'd missed that, in the heat of the moment as we sailed out from Ardinamir. That will make an appreciable difference. Zooming in on my photos, there's room to do it.
  • 13 Aug 2018 19:32
    Reply # 6554873 on 6346955

    Yes, I am sorry I didn't get a chance to sail in company with Annie, but I had promised to race with friends in West Highland Week on a Sadler 25.  Still, Annie was very impressive.  And she looked magnificent as she swept out of Tobermory under three panels, headed towards Drumbuie, over the Sound of Mull.

  • 13 Aug 2018 13:12
    Reply # 6546620 on 6346955
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Hi Pol, welcome home.
    I have downloaded a few photos of your boat with the sail up, which David took. I think the sail will be all right when you have finished the rigging of it.

    I suggest you fit the tack parrel (TP) and tack line (TL) as soon as possible as per Junk Rig for Beginners. The TP should be made of webbing where it rubs on the mast. The TL may well be tied on similarly to a kicking strap and with a stout rubber snubber on it.

    The luff hauling parrel, LHP should rather be modified into a throat hauling parrel, THP, as shown in the Peaking up write-up. I also suggest you move the yard hauling parrel, YHP a bit further up the yard, aft of the halyard’s slingpoint.

    After tuning up the rig with the new lines, you will soon find if you need to fit Hong Kong parrels. I would not be surprised if they turn out to be needed on one or two panels, since you are pulling the sail this far aft  -  just as they did in Hong Kong.

    I notice that the crane point on the mast has been moved quite a bit down from the mast top. The result is that there is very little drift between the slingpoint and the yard. Why?  I suggest you weld up a real, closed mast cap. This should be a close, but not wood-crushing fit. With some Sikaflex or similar added before banging that cap in place, it will stay in place with no need for screws. I try to avoid screws in wooden masts as they tend to become rot-spots.

    Good luck, you are almost there, now!

    Arne

    PS: I have a spare halyard on the sb side of the mast. Before leaving the boat, I wrap it three rounds around the mast, outside both the halyard and the mastlift. The spare halyard is also used for climbing the mast.


    Last modified: 07 Sep 2018 16:14 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 13 Aug 2018 08:39
    Reply # 6540805 on 6346955

    Pol, to silence the mast lift, try hitching a line to it, and hauling it back towards the topping lifts. Or do as I do - abandon the PJR way of tying it around the mast under the sail, and instead hitch it to the boom a little way aft of the mast. This is kinder to the sail, anyway.

    Otherwise, I think you know what you need to do, when time permits. Move the LHP up so that it becomes a THP and is more effective against the diagonal creases. Add reinforcing patches to the throat and peak of the sail, or it won't last long. Secure the tack against moving fore and aft. Try an anti-twist bottom sheet span.

    I blench whenever I look at flat barrel-cut panels, but appearances apart, I think the performance will be good when the sail is setting better. You seemed to be pointing high in the light breeze. Boat speed was not very different from Weaverbird's, though Annie is 7ft longer, but I put that down to very different types of boat, and the light breeze. In more wind, you'd have got away from me without turning on the engine!

    Last modified: 13 Aug 2018 19:07 | Anonymous member
  • 12 Aug 2018 23:21
    Reply # 6529375 on 6346955
    Just back from 3 weeks away. 2 weeks sailing, one fairly static week playing with shore-based family. 

    I'll put a few notes on this in the cruising forum. Some great sailing with ANNIE's new rig!! One in particular, rough and breezy off the wind and yet so easy-going! 2 panels up, 6 knots through the water which used to be pretty scary with her gaff rig cos we knew that we were pushing our luck. No worries of weather helm in those conditions, either. In short, amazing! Another up-wind motor-sail in a good breeze. Without the motor she points well, which will be improved upon with a downhaul and sorting the luff-hauling parrel.

    Sailing around the anchor: We have heavy ground tackle. The chum/angel is about 15kg. I think this is effective at reducing the swing from 100 degrees to about 75 in some circumstances, mainly over 10m depth minimum, and gusts of 15-25 knots. We had a lot of squally anchorages with quite smooth water, so there was scope for testing this. I've just realised why ANNIE used to sail about her anchor before, even with gaff rig. Well, with big fat roller staysail and jib there's a bit of windage out there, but also we used probably to anchor in quite shallow water as she is a shoal draft centreboarder and we like to make the most of cosy wee places. The recent experiments taught me what I knew all along: that deeper water and more of our heavy chain out is going to steady her up a bit!  I didn't have success with the bridle from the chainplates. Wanted to do more with this, but time was a bit limited. Weird, isn't it, there you are on yer hols and yet where DOES the time go??!! Unfortunately did not get to try the "stormsail on a backstay" type of arrangement. Very much hoping to do this in a week or two if we get a few nights aboard.

    Niggles included silencing the rig for a good night's sleep. The mast lift in particular! In the end I "got it" with an 8mm rope looped round the mast, hoisted about 2/3 the way up on the flag halyard, with the loop then drawn good and tight and lashed to the aft end of the bundle, pinching the blighter to the mast and silencing it. 

    The top 1/3 of the mast is very flexible. When sailing I just don't look at it too much, I'm just sensitive to its mood and happy to drop a panel if I think it might be flexing unnecessarily. The sail seems so powerful that we don't slow down much... In the F6 gusts we had at anchor on occasion the topping lifts wagging about were enough to set the top of the mast doing the same, felt throughout the boat! As Annie said, what bends don't break, and I'm happy with that. Incidentally, the Douglas fir wedges at the 300x300mm partners only needed one tapping down in our admittedly modest-mileage cruise.

    I must replace that black bin bag (weakly disguised with a bit of old bed-sheet and wound up with old rope) with a decent mast coat.... Thanks Arne for your recent post on that!

    It was great to meet up with Ian on SOLITUDE and David on WEAVERBIRD. Two "junkettes" (brief junkets?) full of interest. Sadly we didn't sail with Ian, but WEAVERBIRD looks terrific. Very neat and totally effective.

    All for now,

    Pol.

     


  • 20 Jul 2018 12:11
    Reply # 6389911 on 6346955

    Frederik,

    That is a thought. But I guess we need to get the CE of the sail as far aft as possible and, in the absence of a mizzen to carry it, a bit of flat cloth hung from a backstay is as far aft as i can get. I'm have no gallows yet, but a basic crutch which I will be experimenting with, and so something which relies on the bundle being reasonably static may not be possible in my case. I'm going to look at all of the suggested options, though, and see what works best.


    One bother with having the mast (with bundle on the port side) set so far forward in the boat is that the anchor stowage and windlass on the port side is very cluttered. Big mistake of mine when planning it all out. However, if I rig a tack line I hope this may help to keep the bundle slightly further aft when stowed and allow a few more inches of of space up there. 

    Following up on Annie's suggestion of setting 2 anchors routinely. I forgot to say above that ANNIE has always had a fisherman anchor. It must be about 15-20kg! So ungainly but great in kelp and stones I think. We stow it lashed to the toe rail to port. Getting it there is a grunt especially underway. My current pipe dream in setting two anchors is: 2 Rocna self-stowing anchors one on each bow roller. Another windlass to starboard, with chain locker ditto!

    Pol.

  • 20 Jul 2018 08:15
    Reply # 6389730 on 6346955

    I was thinking that a tiny jib of sorts, set low on a topping lift with the luff facing aft might do the trick. Using the spare halyard to hoist it..

    Anyone tried this?

    Last modified: 20 Jul 2018 08:27 | Anonymous member
  • 20 Jul 2018 00:00
    Reply # 6389463 on 6346955
    Hi Arne, Annie, David and Mike,

    Thank you all for your thought-provoking ideas. I had concluded in my wanderings that a chum or something like it might help, and we have a good heavy chum - though he's a bit of a struggle to deal with - but not thought of the bridle. Arne and Mike are along the same lines. Arne, let me be your guinea pig! I'll try this and let you know. The chum may get an outing. He normally resides at the bottom of the deepest locker in denial that we ever get a gale when we are anywhere but the most sheltered little place. After the high pressure weather we've been having for so long, it's bound to break as soon as we venture out.... 

    I think our hulls are fine, Mike! One of the reasons I was originally inclined to a split junk rig was that it meant a mast pos. further aft. But then we got a bit precious about our interior and the amount of joinery I was going to have to do to make the hatches and interior work with that mast position.  I'm glad we have what we have, even if the previously palatial head can now only accommodate v small or v thin people! (It does work, David, it's just a bit of a squash and a squeeze, and there'll always be plenty of buckets around for the bigger folk!)

    I've been meaning to make a drawing of something else entirely. I hope the next few weeks will be my opportunity to try this idea out. The spare halyard from the masthead hoisting a jib from a smaller boat (for experimental purposes) tacked hard down to the taffrail. I guess the centre of that sail needs to be as low as possible, but a wee jib might just tell us if we are up the right tree or not. There will be plenty of places to take the sheet. Essentially all I'm after is enough windage aft to counteract some of the windage forward, even if it does get some funny looks. It'll have to be totally silent to be a success, though.

    Thanks to your help I think we can steady her up without going ashore and felling any mizzen trees just yet! I'll let you know as and when we've tried some of these methods.

    All the best,

    Pol.

    p.s. I am very proud of my batten fendering. a 1m bit of placcie plumber's pipe which is a snug fit over the aluminium batten plus sail cloth of the pocket. A generous slot is cut out of the pipe, lengthways, and rounded and sanded smooth as poss.. A strip of 10mm thick closed cell sleeping mat foam is impact-glued to the pipe, slightly shorter than the pipe and covering about 2/3 of the pipe's circumference. The finishing touch is a piece of the right size of sail cloth impact-glued to the foam strip so that it protects the foam and covers the cut ends of it. The sail cloth is just about the same length as the pipe, so the cut ends of the foam are not visible. It's not very tidy at the ends because the cloth rucks up a bit as the circumference reduces from the foam to the pipe but it's not at all bad from a distance and the slotted pipe snaps onto the battens with alarming force and hasn't moved at all. I hope it is quite a durable solution. Maybe there's an article in it once it's been properly tried out. 

  • 18 Jul 2018 09:36
    Reply # 6386833 on 6346955
    Deleted user

    Hello Pol, I have been thinking about Annie kiting about at anchor.
    Our hulls don't really fit junk sails do they!
    Anyhow up till 10 years ago I sailed Trimarans. Now the way to make
    them behave at anchor is to us a bridle. That is a rope from each
    float bow (about 22 feet apart on my last one) connected to the anchor
    chain about 20 ft or so forward, thus making an equilateral  triangle.
    The chain is slacked off a bit so the ropes take some weight.
    This was a wee bit of a fuss; so most often I'd attach a rope to the
    chain with a rolling hitch then let out a good bit more chain. Then
    I'd attach the rope to one of the float bows (this time only 11ft from
    the anchor roller) and heave in with some tension to make a triangle.
    The Tri would lie a bit off the wind but without kiting.
    I know Annie isn't 22 or perhaps not even 11 feet wide but if you
    hitched the rope amidships (max beam) it may help. There must be some
    tension on the rope to make the bridle.
    Fair winds,
    Mike

  • 16 Jul 2018 09:08
    Reply # 6382737 on 6382328
    Pol wrote:

    In the meantime, there's only one complaint, and for me it is quite a significant one. ANNIE has always sailed around a fair bit when at anchor. We almost never go alongside. This tendency is of course exacerbated by the whole rig being further forward. A bit unsettling. Arne and I did talk about a tiny mizzen as a steadying sail. Flat cut. Even just a small leg'o'mutton job sheeted to a bumkin. I'm sure this would make a great difference. Should not be too hard to fix up, but not this year unless this summer goes on until November! But I'm sure Annie mentioned some kind of snubber (is that the right term?) that they had on BADGER to limit her sheering around at anchor. Anyone have any suggestions on this? I need to do something if possible before our 3 week (yes, THREE WEEK - unprecedented) cruise coming up soon. Annie if you see this - I'd be very grateful for your suggestions

    All the best, Pol.

    As I'm anchoring Weaverbird on a 5m x 10mm chain + warp, she tends to sail around a bit too. This year, I've been using a chum/angel/sentinel/kellet (it needs to be the same weight as the anchor, to have any noticeable effect) almost every time I anchor, and this slows down the sailing to and fro considerably. Idea: tie a bucket or drogue to this weight as well?
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