Sailing Dinghy

[weheritage]

Have recently acquired a sailing dinghy that is 10' 3". It appears to be a lapstrake Columbia design w/dagger board, tiller and boom-less spritsail. My main question is how is the sheet secured. There are no blocks or jams.


1743

[sailboy3]

On thumb cleats attatched to the inwale just forward of the transom

In this pic you can see them above the last three ribs on either side. Two on each side, so that you can adjust the sheeting angle.

http://www.tadroberts.ca/pics/Billscatspaw1.jpg

[Ian McColgin]

It's likely light enough that a line from the clew through a ring that slides on a small bridle at the transom might do. Another simple rig is for the sheet to lead up from one corner of the transom, through the clew grommet, down to a ring or fairlead or something on the other transom corner and thence to the helms' hand. A third simple version leads to the rudder post or tiller head, possible 2:1 going up from the rudder, through the clew, back down and then forward to the helm's hand.

Look for signs that something was ever attached to the transom corners.

It's also possible that it was never finished for the rigging. If that's the case, or if you like change, I'd go with the first idea. I'd also experiment with seeing if some sort of boom makes her sail better by reducing the twist in the sail.

G'luck

[weheritage]

Thanks, My quandary was that I can not see any marks where I thought hardware might have been. I like your first suggestion (beautiful dink) and have toyed with making a boom. There is a jam on the dagger board that I could employ if I use a bridle. Looks like there is more than one way for me to go.

Capt'n Billy

[WI-Tom]

Thumb cleats work quite well with a small simple sail. Not having to mess with blocks or multiple parts is really nice--I'd try it that way before even thinking about adding hardware. This is what I used on the Bolger Cartopper I started sailing with, and have gone back to on my Pirate Racer after trying a ring lashed to the rudderhead.

By the way, the boomless spritsail is really nice, too; I had one on both of the boats mentioned above. You might try making a simple sprit boom for it, which really makes the sheeting angles much less critical, and also really helps with downwind performance. And you can leave it off whenever you want.

Tom