Hi Robert.  I think your timber yard will be strong enough for your relatively small sail, especially if it is solid.   A round section is probably best for alloy spars, but rectangular timber yards have a long and reliable history.  90 x 85mm sounds perfect to me.

Hi David,

Thank you for your comments. I have a copy of PJR and we actually made Pacific Spray's yards to exactly the PJR specifications. PJR favours a rectangular section tapered off to the ends. I recall quite a bit of discussion on the forum a while back where people, including David Tyler, thought that round yards were preferable, being equally strong in all directions. Since my chunk of Oregan is already sort of round I thought that I might be able to work from there. I've only got one shot.

Rob

Diameter and/or shape of yard 

Converting Blondie is going well with the sail, boom and battens made or under control.

I have cut 4 metres of good looking Oregon off the old mast to make a yard. The old mast has an oval shape being 95mm in one direction and 85mm in the other. There is a small flat on the 95 mm side where the mast track was. Blondie's sail area is 22 sq metres and the yard is planned to be 3.71 metres long. Please could I have advice on shape and diameter of new wooden yard.

Blondie is now back in the water with her new mast. I'll write up about the conversion later but have added 7 photos to my profile. Really delighted with the new look and Blondie's trim. Can't wait for our first sail.

Rob

Asmat Khan wrote:

Arne should know all about using stones as ballast. The Norsemen did so aboard their longships. I believe the idea was that they rolled out in the event of capsize.

Asmat,

the workboat descendants of the Viking ships (14 – 50’ long) were in use in Norway under square sails (mostly) and oars until motor boats started to appear around 1900. These boats (photo) were all undecked to make fishing work and rowing possible. Some, in the late 19th century were fitted with a removable cuddy aft, used under longer transport.

Ballasting and loading these vessels was quite a science: Both the amount of ballast and the right distribution of it, alongships and athwartships was critical, and the stone ballast was not secured. In case of a capsize the boat was meant to automatically dump the ballast and thus stay afloat to act as a liferaft. Since two or three boats often worked together, there was a chance of getting rescued that way.

On a decked boat like Blondie, it is of the greatest importance that any inboard ballast (and other heavy items) are thoroughly secured if one has offshore sailing in mind.

Arne

PS: Apart from this, I agree with David's 3 points, below for case Blondie.