book for sailing dory

[bart]

I'm looking for some good books on how to rig and sail the 16' dory I built. I rigged the spritsail according to John Gardner's drawing but I'm thinking there must be a better way. The rolling hitches seem awkward and the 8' spar gets in the way. I guess I'm looking for alternatives on the rig but also a good book or two on how to sail it.

[Ian McColgin]

Check Pete Culler's book, "Skiffs and Schooners" or something such for good rigging wrinkles.

I'm not sure there's all that much on actual sail handling of the rigs that evolved from traditional working craft like dories, peapods, whaleboats and such. These were really homan powered boats, ment to be rowed mostly, especially in their work, and the sails were really for off the wind ease.

There are traditional designs ranging from Friendships and such in the lobster fishery to the sail powered Chesapeake oyster dredges were primarily sail powered and consequently call for a different order of sail handling, but they are not what you're talikng about here.

The main thing in handling the traditional rigs that are add-ons to an oar powered boat is to keep them a bit off the wind, sheets eased quite a bit more than you would with a sloop or cat rig on a boat designed to sail first and row maybe in a calm, and let her romp freely.

[guillemot]

The sprit just takes some practice. Do you have a boom on it. If yes, is it loose footed?

You just have to play with the tension on the sprit by adjusting the snotter as the wind intesity changes. You'll know if its too tight or slack by the orientation of the wrinkles on the sail:

- Wrinkles in line with the sprit = too tight -> loosten it.
- Wrinkles perpendicular to the sprit = too loose - tighten it.

You'll need to keep the snotter high enough so that you keep adequate tension on the head of the sail. If your mast is varnished and glossy the snotter may want to slip. The masts on all the sprit rigged boats I've sailed were just linseed oil/turpentine finished and pretty tacky. If you need to reduce sail in a hurry, just scandalize the main by untying the snotter and letting the peak fly free.

The only trouble I've had with this rig is reefing. Unless you have a shorter "storm sprit", reefing the main requires that the sail still be flown at full mast. If you lower it by lashing the snotter lower on the mast, the lower end of sprit comes down into the cockpit and bangs up you, your friends, and your boat. So you can fly less sail, but it's still way up there and has a lot of leverage, which is something that you don't want on a day when you've decided to reduce sail.

Best is to get out on the water and learn by making some mistakes. Hope this helps.

edited - are the rolling hitches to lash the sprit to the mast? The way I've done that is to make a snotter with an eye splice in one end, double wrap the snotter around the mast and pass the bitter end (the tail) through the eye. Then you run the long tail through a hole bored in the lower end of the sprit and back up to a cleat mounted on the side of the sprit. The cleat allows for easy adjustments and the double wrapped snooter rarely slips.

[ 11-08-2005, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: guillemot ]

[bart]

Yes, I have an 8' boom with a fork on the mast end that goes around the mast and the other end fits into the eye at the bottom of the sail. I have 2 rolling hitches about 3' up from the bottom of the sprit then the rope goes through a notch on the bottom of the sprit and back up to snap onto the mast. When I want to loosen the sail I have to fool with the rolling hitches.
This is Gardner's Modified Swampscott Dory if that explains it a little better. I've become pretty good at building the boat but I don't know how to sail at all. Was amazed the first time I put up the sail and she moved into the wind!

[Thorne]

Looks like you've got several questions here:

1. How to tweak and/or redesign a spritsail and rig.

2. How to sail your boat.

One way is remove the "your boat" from the latter, and just go out sailing with everyone you can -- the smaller the boat the better. Once you get experience sailing different boats and rigs, you'll have a better perspective on your own boat and sail rig.

Once you get more experience with different rigs, you can play with the spritsail, position of the mast, size and design of the rudder, etc.

As Gardner points out in his books, some of the working dories had two mast steps for changing the position of the mast, and sometimes different masts and/or sails for different weather.

If you think the issue is the spritsail, see about borrowing a sailing rig from another small boat, or even buying a mast, boom and sail from some defunct boat from a one-design fleet -- they can be really cheap. Try sailing with this and see what differences, benefits or drawbacks the different rig has compared with your current "proper" one -- then tweak that til you're happy.

;- )

[ 11-08-2005, 04:42 PM: Message edited by: Thorne ]

[guillemot]

A spritsail is a perfectly good rig. I understand what you're talking about now. I'd say scrap the two rolling hitches. Make a small cleat and fasten it to you sprit at the spot where you'd been tying the hitches. It'll make adjustments much easier as I described earlier. I remember speaking with you a while ago. We're building the same boat. Did you ever post photos of it completed?

Cheers,
Jeff

[bart]

Good ideas everyone. I have a good sail, mast and spars it's more a matter of how to make them work together. I definitely need to get some sailing time in so if there's anyone from Seattle that needs and extra pair of hands email me. I will be available.
No Guillemot, I haven't put any photos on this site. My guess is that it looks just like yours. The boat is better than I had envisioned. Its got great balance, rows well (not as good as a Whitehall maybe), and handles rough water admirably. And she's pretty!