Anonymous wrote:

Hi all,

Here in Perthshire, Scotland, I have a 52 sqm "Arne" type sail with yard and battens and its Douglas fir mast for sale. Total cruising use something like 3 months, since being completed in 2018.

The sail is made with batten pockets in the Arne Kverneland manner, from something very like Clipper canvas which turns out not to be Clipper canvas(!) It is beautiful soft handling cream cloth which has not stretched or discoloured. 

The battens are cream painted (Jotun 2-part) 63mm ali tube with a painted Douglas fir plug in each end, overall length 6m. These are fitted in pockets and lashed at the ends. The yard is 85mm tube, attached to the sail with lacings and similarly lashed. Attachment to the 5 part halyard is by lashings. 

The mast is solid laminated Douglas fir to Practical Junk Rig specs. It is 13.7m long, from 280mm at the partners to 100mm at the truck. Weight estimated at 180kg, giving our 61/2 ton boat a lovely easy motion. The masthead fitting is galvanised steel, there being about 450mm above this to the truck. The mast is squared at the partners, is fitted with wedges, and tapers to 180mm square at the heel. The partners are around 1.6m from the heel, although the mast is squared parallel for approximately 600mm in the usual way, so there is some flexibility at that point.

This rig is entirely built by us, with the help of a professional seamstress when it came to the sewing bit. We have never tried to make it crease-free but it gets pretty close to that on some points of sailing! It is very much better these days compared with our profile pics and those below, which were all taken in our first season. We are better at trimming it after a bit of practise. The drive it develops, even under reduced sail, is nothing short of awesome. It has proved very robust. There is no comparison with her original gaff rig which we loved but found quite hard work at times. However on trying to sell the boat we had to convert her back to the gaff...

The mast is reassuringly flexible though we respect the masthead treating it with care, under full sail, just as you would any tall rig! I built it from locally-grown seasoned D fir which I milled on our sawmill (my day job). It is laminated from 60mm full-width slabs using the wonderful MAS epoxy system. Paint is Jotun 2-part.

Price £2200 or offers.

Please get in touch if you would like to know more. Photos are on my profile. I will try to add some to this post also.

Hi Dennis,

These were taken in 2018, our first year with this rig. We got better at setting the sail, thanks to advice from one of the photographers - David Tyler - and others, although it pulls like a train however it is set.

I meant to say, there is a non-stretch webbing right round the sail in keeping with Arne's advice. This maintains the luff and leech.

I see you are fairly local! We sail from Crinan. I modified a trailer to get the rig over here, so delivery to Cowal area should be possible.

Hi Dennis,

Sorry so slow to reply. Yes I think this one would be a wee bit too big! I must say that I'm a sawmiller/timber merchant, so do have an axe to grind, but if you wanted to build a timber mast I'm happy to share with you how we made ours. I also have a table 6mx2.5m approx which we used as a sail making table if you were going that route. Easy enough to cut down to suit your sail size. It is mostly 75x50 frame and polished shuttering ply top.. 

Good luck with the work!

Pol.

Could this rig replace the gaff cutter rig on my boat

35 foot  double ender deplacement  hull. +_10 t

thanks