SNODDERS' SNOTTERS

<< First  < Prev   1   2   Next >  Last >> 
  • 08 May 2012 21:27
    Reply # 914979 on 914704
    Postscript.  Thanks you to all for your comments.  On the second dog walk of the day, round a different  hill, I realised that I should have mentioned batten parrels.  In the same magazine issue is Chris Scane's advertisment which shows one of Lexia's sails.  This clearly shows the batten parrels and one luff parrel.  Bob's sails have no batten parrels.  I am happy to cast of the luff parrels.  However, I would be very reluctant to remove the batten parrels.  The new sails were originally rigged without batten parrels and I found that in rough wind and waves the scope for getting battens thoroughly mixed up was considerable.  Robin and I subsequently added batten parrels and they have served me well for a few thousand miles.  As well as keeping the battens in order, it seems to me that the batten parrels apply the load from the sail to the mast along its length rather than just at the top and bottom.  I presume that we will be able to try Bob's system whilst keeping the batten parrels in place, providing that the batten parrels are long enough.  They can be seen clearly in the photo.  However, Lexia's masts are very tapered, not parralel.  Hmmm ... !  Any further comments will be gratefully received. 
    Last modified: 08 May 2012 21:40 | Anonymous member
  • 08 May 2012 21:00
    Reply # 914954 on 914704
    Jonathan,
    Pete Hill and Tom Colvin adopted the name "snotter" for the line that PJR calls a "yard hauling parrel". I think it better to use the latter, as being more immediately descriptive of its function.
    I think that what you are going to use is a standing luff parrel, albeit one that goes from a batten end around the mast to the same batten end, rather than to an adjacent one, as has been more usual. A standing tack parrel goes from the boom end, around the mast and back to the boom end, so is in the same form as you will try. The inventive step that Bob Ager has taken is to add parrel balls. Obvious, once it's been done, but not before anyone has thought of doing it. A standing luff parrel adds a lot of friction during hoisting and lowering, quite apart from the difficulty of getting the length right, and so has not been much used. If the parrel balls on a standing luff parrel that attaches to only one batten get over these problems, then progress has been made.
    I'd just point out that Bob tried this on a smaller boat with parallel section masts. You are trying it on a larger boat. Nobody will know how well it works under heavier loads until you do. Go for it!
  • 08 May 2012 17:40
    Reply # 914825 on 914704

    Juergen

    Thank you for that. 

    First Pete Hill and now Tom Colvin.  I am now certainly outnumbered and probably outgunned.  However, what is the difference between what they are describing and a "yard  hauling parrel" or "yard parrel"?   

    And what therefore should be the title of what is described in the article?  Or, has Bob come up with something new that was not seen in thousands of years of junk rig in East and West?  If so Bob should have the right to name it. 

  • 08 May 2012 17:30
    Reply # 914821 on 914704

    Roy,

    I think that what you are describing is a "yard hauling parrel" or simply a "yard parrel".  You will see that Bob Ager retains a "yard parrel" as one of  his only two other parrels.  However, please note the "I think" because, as you are aware, I am only two steps ahead of you on this business and certainly not one of the experts.  Certainly if Pete Hill describes that as a Snotter, then who am I to say that he is wrong.  However, I would say that a Snotter on a sprit rig is pretty much what Bob has put on his battens. 

    Peter,

    Robin Blain will scour the chandleries in the Southhampton area for nylon brail balls, probably the largest size.   (Nylon may not be the exact material but I think that most non chemical engineers would understand that general description.)  Thirteen Snotters, if hthat is what they be, at say ten balls per Snotter at say 50 p each.  Ouch. Bob's photos show each loop attached by a plastic clip but on the larger sail size that may need to be a small metal carabiner.   More ouch. 

  • 08 May 2012 17:13
    Reply # 914816 on 914704
    Tom Colvin writes about a "Snotter" in "Cruising wrinkles" p. 50 :

    Other parts of the rig include an adjustable yard parrel which I call a "snotter". In the total
    "up" position, it functions primarily to hold the yard against the mast, but when the sail is in
    various reefed positions, the snotter performs the additional function of holding the yard
    against the mast and allowing the sail to be peaked higher ( by use of the topping lifts or
    lazy jacks ). In the low, broad sail seen in South China, it is possible to alter the center of
    effort of the sail plan in the reefed condition ( by approximately 10% ) by topping up the
    reefed portion of the sail and hauling the snotter, bringing the yard snug against the mast.
    On the smaller Chinese sails, a downhaul is needed on the boom. Since there is seldom enough
    weight to this batten ( or boom ) so that it will hang down completely docile and hold all the cloths taut, it is rarely necessary to adjust the downhaul - except int the rare instance of reefing
    from the bottom upwards rather than from the top downwards.

    Last modified: 08 May 2012 17:17 | Anonymous member
  • 08 May 2012 15:27
    Reply # 914732 on 914704
    Deleted user

    Jonathan,

    No entry for snotters in the index of my copy of PJR.  Pete Hill referred to the yard hauling parrels on the boat I bought from him as snotters, and I continue to think of them as such.  These lines go from the cockpit to a block at the mast foot, then to a block on the yard at the lifting attachment, round the mast and back to terminate at the block on the yard.

    Sorry to upstage your SS's!

    Roy.

  • 08 May 2012 15:17
    Reply # 914717 on 914704

    Jonathan

    David Chidell refers to fitting 'snotters' to Tin Hau, in Cutting the Dragons Tail.  I have the book next to me, but can't find the exact reference just now ........

    Some pictures of the finished assemblies would be of great interest, and of course how it all works!  What are using for the beads? 

    Peter

  • 08 May 2012 15:06
    Message # 914704

    I was very pleased to receive the paper copy of the Maqazine Issue Number 59, full of interesting and useful information.  John Dinnin's article on pages 26 and 27 is titled:  "With two masts, who needs parrels?" 

    John describes and shows photographs of how Bob Ager on his Hunter Liberty has rigged loops from the tack of the boom and  the luff of each of the horizontal battens round the mast, each loop fitted with wooden parrel beads to allow the sail to be easily hoisted and dropped.  He states that "the only parrels he (Bob) has are: 'tack downhaul' and 'yard'."  The sails cannot be moved backwards and forwards relative to the mast "because he can do all the sail balancing with his two sails."  As a result, "Bob ... did away with both the creases and the yards and yards of lines involved with luff parrels."

    John's article states that the loops are "attached to the forward ends of the booms and battens numbers 2, 3 and 4" but the photographs show them attached to the booms and what would normally be desribed as battens 1, 2 and 3, ie in Bob's case, all the horizontal battens.  Simply a minor difference in nomenclature I think. 

    Well, we have a Sunbird 32, Lexia, with two masts.  I am very interested. 

    I was then telephoned by the ever generous and encouraging Robin Blain:  "Have you seen ... ?"  "Indeed I have, and thought about it a lot!"   Robin offered and I accepted that we should combine to try Bob's arrangement on Lexia.  We have set ourselves the target of achieving this by the Plymouth rally on 26 & 27 May.  That is not long ahead and I have lots of other things to achieve before then, on the boat and elswhere, not least getting the boat out of the water, scrubbed and antifouled.  However, that target is now public.  

    John's article does not give a name to the loops.  I wondered if they might be described as "batten luff brails".  However, as I walked round our Peak Distict hill today with two collies, always a good time to think, I realised that if it were a sprit sail, the loop would be called a "Snotter". 

    Back to the computer and put "Snotter" into Google and up comes the following from Wikepedia:

    A snotter is a rope or tackle used in sailing to tension the sprit on a spritsail, or a sprit boom on a sprit-boomed sail. It is also used in a junk rig.

    "Junk rig" no less.  However, follow the link to junk rig in Wikepedia and there is no mention of "Snotters".  My copy of Practical Junk Rig is on Lexia which is 300 miles away so I can't see if "Snotter" is in there, but perhaps someone else could. 

    However, it appears to me that Lexia, dear fortunate lady, is to have 13 "Snotters".  Any resemblance to "Snodders" the name to which I answered for 38 years in the Army is purely coincidental but "Snodders' Snotters" does have a certain aliterative ring to it.  As Mad Dog has said: "Never let it be said that he took himself too seriously!"

    Robin and I will keep you posted and with any luck Lexia will be showing off her Snotters in Plymouth.  Whether they will work remains to be seen ...

    In the meantime, if anybody has any comments or further information, Robin and I would be very pleased to receive it, the sooner the better. 

<< First  < Prev   1   2   Next >  Last >> 
       " ...there is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in junk-rigged boats" 
                                                               - the Chinese Water Rat

                                                              Site contents © the Junk Rig Association and/or individual authors

Powered by Wild Apricot Membership Software