Rigging a Bahama Sailing Dinghy

[Ewlon]

I have a Bahama Sailing Dinghy that has never been rigged. It came with a couple of small brass blocks, a few brass cletes, but nothing to attach a halyard block to the top of the mast to raise the sail. Can anyone with experience give me some ideas on how to do this?

Also, any suggestions on a traditional way to attach the leading edge of the sail to the mast so it will slide up and down when raised and lowered?

[Billy Bones]

More information would probably yield a better response. I searched for bahama sailing dinghy and got no specific craft. Where was it made? by whom? when? how? LOA? what type of rig? how many sails? how many sides to the sail? SF? More specific questions usually get more specific answers.

[Ewlon]

A Bahama Sailing Dinghy is mostly of a similar design type (class?) This one is 13 ft. hand made (as in no electricity) by Winer Malone in Hope Town, Elbow Cay, Abacos. Single mast a foot or so aft of the bow. Boom extends past transom. The sail made by someone in NC who has a loft and is from the Abacos fills that space, has grommets along the leading edge and the foot. The mast and boom were never rigged. My question is how to attach the bronze block to the mast head for the main sheet halyard, and how to rig the leading edge of the sail so that it will slide up and down the mast without such a gap that the dinghy will perform poorly. I've noticed a couple of ways to do this: circles of line (a couple of times with wooden beads) that go around the mast; and a single line that threads the grommets and around the mast. I have no idea if those are good or not.

And I have no understanding of how to fasten that block at the mast head so it's strong enough to not come down when hoisting the sail in a good breeze. Or bind.

[Todd Bradshaw]

It sounds like some sort of Leg-O-Mutton rig. Either option for lacing to the mast should work, but both may take a bit of coaxing to raise and lower the sail. Don't expect either to drop it to the gunwale the instant you release the halyard. For continuous lacing, you probably want to use a pattern other than a simple spiral, since it doesn't go up and down very well. Maybe somebody with image posting ability will put up a drawing of that method. As far as the halyard block goes, most boats in that size range do just as well, or better, with a simple dumb sheave. Basically it's just a hole through the masthead with the corners rounded off that the halyard runs through. With a rig like that with a laced luff, the lacing is going to be the thing that slows things down, not the lack of a rolling halyard block up top.

If it is a Leg-O-Mutton rig there is a good chance that the tack angle (the angle between the mast and boom) is less than 90 degrees. In that case, even with all friction removed from the system, you often still can't raise and lower the sail like you would on a "normal sailboat" because of the geometry of the rig. It binds on the mast as you try to raise it. This can be dealt with by adding a jack-line or by loosening the luff lacing as you raise or lower the sail, but it is more stuff to mess with. For a boat that size, it may be easier to drop the pre-assembled rig into the mast step and go.

[ 06-19-2002, 04:07 PM: Message edited by: Todd Bradshaw ]

[Thad]

On small craft with a halyard block I prefer to lash the block to the masthead. Take multiple turns with marline through and probably filling the block eye and around the masthead, and then mouse the lashing to tighten the hold on the mast and hold the block away from the mast. If the lashing is run 'round and round' the eye will be square to the mast, if the eye wants to be in line with the mast you need to come to the eye and go back round from the same side, mousing in the end.

[wolfietuk]

If You want to do it yourself I would suggest the Riggers Apprentice By Brion Toss. He also has a website Brion Toss.com (http://www.briontoss.com) Where they have a rigging format.

Rick

[Miles River]

My vote is for the dumb sheave and rope cringles (hoops) in lieu of lacing to the mast. For a craft of that size simple square knots on the
cringles and you're good to go. Added benefit is you can fiddle with their size, if needed to get a proper sail set.

[Dave Hadfield]

I used rope "hoops" to attach the luff (leading edge) of my dinghy sail to the mast, but with one difference: they're set up with toggles and loops, so I can "button" the sail to the mast. This works quite well.

I used 1/4in manilla because, perversely, I found that it was stiff and easy to work with. I soaked it in a pine tar/rope preservative mixture first. The toggles were turned on a lathe, made from black cherry out of my woodpile. The line is bent round the toggle and held in place by a serving (a very tight wrap of tarred nylon cord bought in Seattle at Doc Freeman's). Then the other end is passed through the sail grommet. A loop is made in it and held in place again by a serving. Arrange the length so it's a bit slack on the mast. If the grommet is large enough that the loop could be pulled through it when the sail is flapping (meaning you'd lose it overboard), you can double-back the tail of the line when you form the loop before you serve it in place. This will give 3 thicknesses, and stop it from coming out.

If you've never done a serving before, Hervey Garret Smith's books show how it's done (The Arts of a Sailor/The Marlinspike Sailor).

It's simple to use: just button the toggle through the loop, around the mast.

Up she goes.

I also used a dumb sheave at the mast head. You really don't need the block when the pull isn't that hard.

Good luck, and enjoy the sailing.

[Ken Buck]

The Abaco sailing dinghy and builder Winer Malone are featured in WB issue #135 (also on the cover in one of my favorite WB cover photos). Probably worth getting a copy if you own one of these neat boats...
The pictures in the article show more or less how to rig it, although some of the details are a little hard to make out. Good luck, and enjoy...

[Todd Bradshaw]

What kind of rig did it turn out to be?

[Todd Bradshaw]

Never mind...I got up and looked it up. The one in the picture has a track screwed to the aft side of the mast and the sail has track-slides attached to the luff grommets, a fixed gooseneck, loose foot (which helps with the tack angle/sail binding problem)and what looks like a Ronstan block shackled to an eyestrap on the back of the masthead for the halyard. Big headboard, too.

It's got an interesting mainsheet system. Looks like it has a block with a becket, hung on a bail and attached about 18" from the tail end of the boom. The aft end of the sheet is deadened to the becket. The sheet then goes down through a block near the starboard gunwale, close to the transom, then across, under the tiller to a similar block on the port side, back up and through the boom block (making kind of a triangular bridle thingy to get around the tiller), forward along the boom to another hanging boom block about mid boom and then to the skipper. Something like that, although it's hard to see - some photos look like there is another block hanging near the aft end of the boom as well and some of the blocks look like doubles but there don't seem to be lines going through them.

As far as the hoist goes, they probably started out with lacing or rope hoops and later switched to sail track on the mast. With a luff that long, it would give better sailshape for racing and go up easier. Rigged the old way without a track or block up top and with a laced-to-the-boom foot and lacing or hoops on the luff, it could be a bear to hoist the sail.

[Ewlon]

Thanks to all of you for your input. I'll look up the books and order that issue of WB.

The dinghy described as the one in WB sounds like Winer's son's boat. I sailed it from Hope Town to Man-a-War one day 15 yrs ago for coconut ice cream. His son was about 12 or so at that time. Didn't know then I needed to take notes on rigging.

Thanks again.