Gallows and Crutches

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  • 04 Sep 2012 19:38
    Reply # 1064277 on 632604
    Thinking in terms of a boat of Fantail's size, I'd suggest:
    • 25mm dia gallows tube, welded near the forward end of
    • a base of 50 x 3mm strip, 250mm long, fastened longitudinally onto the deck with three 6mm bolts - one at each end, one in the middle.
    • a 20mm dia diagonal bracing tube welded to the gallows tube 200mm up, and to the base 150mm aft of the gallows tube.
    The diagonal bracing tube is important for stiffness, but also gives a useful place to lash things to.

    Using the new photogallery for illustrations, here's a photo of one of the feet of Tystie's gallows.
    Last modified: 04 Sep 2012 23:27 | Anonymous member
  • 04 Sep 2012 11:31
    Reply # 1063942 on 1059985
    David Tyler wrote:
    Perhaps the most practical form of gallows is a trapezium shape, fastened inboard of the deck edge, perhaps to the coachroof sides.

    Any suggestion on how best to support such a gallows, for those of us with flush decks, David?
    Last modified: 04 Sep 2012 11:31 | Anonymous member
  • 30 Aug 2012 21:35
    Reply # 1060944 on 632604
    Just in case any member has difficulty in locating Lynda's pictures, they're in Public Pages > Photogallery. (Lynda, the Photogallery images tend to get 'pushed' down the page after a time. It would be a good idea to edit your captions so that 'Tin Hau' is mentioned in all of them.)
    Last modified: 30 Aug 2012 21:38 | Anonymous member
  • 29 Aug 2012 23:57
    Reply # 1059985 on 632604
    Patric,
    Perhaps the most practical form of gallows is a trapezium shape, fastened inboard of the deck edge, perhaps to the coachroof sides.
    • angled sides shed the sheets as they are sliding over, and don't force you to lean outboard as you move up the lee sidedeck, giving you a good handhold as you do so.
    • a flat top gives plenty of space for  lashing down the sail bundle.
    • easily formed with a standard tube bending tool.
    An alternative is a semicircular hoop fastened to the same points. 
    • can be laminated in wood or formed from tube - both methods need a former of MDF or similar.
    • looks similar to the rounded shape of the deck shelter that you see on many junks and sampans.
  • 29 Aug 2012 21:19
    Reply # 1059845 on 632604
    Deleted user
    <p> Thanks Lynda, as always a picture's worth a thousand words ;) </p>

    <p> Unfortunately an arrangement far better suited to boats slightly larger than my humble 30 footer. Would certainly look a bit odd! </p>

  • 29 Aug 2012 09:39
    Reply # 1059378 on 632604
    We replaced three gallows with three new structures.    I have put some pictures up on the website so you can see.  I will try and find a more comprehensive one for you to view.   Of course, we had an advantage in having sheetlets on either side of each sail which allowed us to drop the sails into their lazy jacks then sheet sail bundles amidships above the gallows.  This negated the problem of bumping and sliding on the gallows.    The pictures show the old gallows and the redesigned units.
    Last modified: 29 Aug 2012 09:43 | Anonymous member
  • 26 Aug 2012 18:05
    Reply # 1056993 on 632604
    Deleted user

    A picture would be nice, I've seen full beam gallows on traditional Chinese junks but not sure I got that correctly.Did you mean you built three of them or replaced three with one single gallows?

  • 26 Aug 2012 13:24
    Reply # 1056879 on 632604
    When we built Tin Hau,  Tom Colvin's plans made provision for gallows for each of the three sails.   David and I followed the plans,  but later scrapped them and replaced them with a higher gallows that spanned the entire beam of the boat.   These structures fulfilled two functions,  they provided a rest for sails that were not being used and a handy control point (belaying pins) for the sheetlets.   Because we had a double sheetlet system,  we were able to use these to stop the sail bundle from sliding from side to side when not in use as well as give  much easier control of the sails when under way.   I can put a picture oup for you to see if interested.
  • 24 Aug 2012 01:36
    Reply # 1054854 on 632604
    Arion has a single, well padded gallows with recess, mounted on top of the cockpit roof, (visible in some of my photos) which was fitted by Jay Reynolds during his custodianship of Arion.  I had been just tying the bundle off before that, although I do have adjustable lifts for lowering the bundle if needed.  Even though I now have a gallows, I usually just leave the bundle sitting in the lifts and tie it off to stbd, which triangulates the bundle against the mainsheet which is slightly offset to port and this is adequate most of the time.  There have been a couple of occasions when I was rolling heavily in an anchorage when the bundle still moved a bit.  Concerned about chafe and annoyed with the noise it made (alloy masts are very noisy), I dropped it into the gallows.  If the sail is already furled and the sheet tight it just drops right into the recess.  I think the gallows might be useful when under bare poles in a gale at sea.  If I was building one I would probably use David's design as I always end up lashing the bundle to the gallows anyway (or it still moves, defeating the purpose of the exercise).
  • 05 Aug 2012 00:38
    Reply # 1038715 on 632604
    David wrote: " I do not think it at all a good idea to have a gallows with a recess into which you are supposed to drop a wildly thrashing sail bundle at the moment that it passes overhead."

    On Paradox  the main's boom is a bit too high to reach comfortably from the deck or even the cockpit seats, unless you're wearing very high heels. The recess that we had built into the gallows gives us an extra foot of drop, which is handy when making adjustments to the sail. Had the boom been lower we could certainly have done away with the recess. Whether you build in a recess or not there will be times when 'lassooing' the sail bundle in the way David described may still be necessary. 
    Last modified: 06 Aug 2012 20:51 | Anonymous member
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