Need help identifying rigging type

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  • 16 Oct 2020 00:42
    Reply # 9306605 on 9306172
    Anonymous member (Administrator)

    Congratulations to David for figuring out the sail plan (it had me bluffed.)

    However, the builder seems to have rigged the boat with something a little more conventional. The actual set-up as seen in the photographs, seems to be nothing other than a conventional gaff sloop, the only odd thing being it is unstayed, except for a forestay to the stemhead, and a naked bowsprit. Perhaps the bowsprit is intended to be used for a flying jib or a ghoster or something like that, in light weather. As David pointed out, the "spinnaker pole" in the drawing doesn't look like a very good idea, but setting  such a sail to the end of a bowsprit is not quite so impractical, if you want to fool around with that sort of thing in light weather.

    I imagine the sole purpose of the forestay is to allow a moderate-size working staysail to be easily managed.

    As actually set up, with gaff main and a staysail hanked to that forestay, it is not all that off-the-wall. You would never get the forestay as tight as some people would like, but it would be plenty good enough. It might quite possibly sail very well just as it is. As a plain gaff sloop it looks like a delightful proposition for sheltered shoal water. I don't think every boat with a free-standing mast necessarily has to be converted to a junk rig.

    If you want a junk rig, David is right - but don't forget, an unstayed aluminium mast can easily be extended - extended aluminium poles seem to be de rigueur here in NZ, where we can't get tapered lamp poles. You don't need to settle for a short mast , though I don't think this little boat wants too large a sail area. 

    Couldn't resist spending 5 minutes to plonk some junk sail plans on this neat little adventure boat, with a slightly extended mast in its current position. The low AR Johanna sail looks good, to me. Actually, they all look a little too far forward on the hull, especially the SJR which looks plain wrong - but there are ways around every problem. (I would be interested to know what Arne thinks of the Johanna sail - with vertically raked mast and minimum balance through to a good forward rake and more balance - there seems to be enough scope for adjustment to get things just about right?)


    Last modified: 16 Oct 2020 02:09 | Anonymous member (Administrator)
  • 15 Oct 2020 22:12
    Reply # 9306334 on 9306172

    Zooming right in on the sail plan, I can see a gaff mainsail that's just a bit unusual in that it has a sprit to hold out the clew, rather than a boom. I can also see a large headsail that is not tacked down to the bow or bowsprit, but instead attached to a kind of spinnaker pole ( though I can't imagine how that pole could attach to the mast with the gaff sail's hoops sliding up and down). So it has something in common with modern asymmetric spinnakers/code zeros and the like. I would hazard a guess that Bolger might have drawn such an off-the-wall rig, but a practical seaman wouldn't have built it like that.

    If you were thinking of converting it to JR, the mast is rather short, and being well aft, the sail would need a lot of balance area, so could be a low AR SJR or possibly something similar to the one I've drawn for Annie's Fanshi. 

  • 15 Oct 2020 21:49
    Reply # 9306326 on 9306172

    Wikipedia tells me that catboats were traditionally gaff rigged. The Com-Pac Horizon Cat has a spar at the top of the sail.

    Last modified: 15 Oct 2020 21:51 | Anonymous member
  • 15 Oct 2020 21:42
    Reply # 9306319 on 9306172
    Deleted user

    Interesting indeed. That is the same boat. According to the boat's name anyway.

  • 15 Oct 2020 21:37
    Reply # 9306313 on 9306172

    Interesting. It looks a whole lot like this boat. Maybe even the same one with a doghouse, or whatever you like to call it, added forward of the cockpit?

    From the little bit I know it seems like catboats have the mast WAY forward, even more than a PJR style rig. I expect you would need to move the mast or make some other significant modifications to balance the boat with a junk rig. (A second mast and two smaller sails maybe?)

    I like the deck on that boat.

    Last modified: 15 Oct 2020 21:38 | Anonymous member
  • 15 Oct 2020 20:29
    Message # 9306172
    Deleted user

    Hello all. My untrained eye is having trouble discerning what type of rig I'm looking at here. I have talked to the broker on the phone and he knows nothing of sailboats. He's a powerboat guy.

    It's a Bolger design with an unstayed mast. It doesn't look like there several battens as with a junk. The diagram on the info sheet looks to be a gaff rig though the broker says there is only one sail.

    There seems to be some discrepancies. The info sheet lists it as an unstayed cat rig. The broker says there is one spar at the top.

    Could this be some sort of lug rig possibly?


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