gooseneck or alternative options

[peterAustralia]

hi all,

I think I need a gooseneck or something similar. I live in Melbourne Australia, I have a high quality tapered hollow 19ft mast from a 45 year old skiff. I have built a boom. I have high quality dacron sails if a bit old. Sail area of mainsail is about 60 square feet.

Any tips as to what sort of gooseneck I require. The people at the yacht chandlers had one, but said it was suitable for a 30ft yacht, not a 12ft skiff. Are there alternatives to a gooseneck, like jaws or something, or lashings?

Should I be looking at fittings for similar sized boats with wooden booms, maybe mirror dingies. As background that mast, sails were my father's and I am assembling it once more after 45 years. I have a few fittings but do not know what half of them are.

So is there an off the shelf gooseneck for a 60 sqr ft mainsail for a wooden boom and a wooden mast, where can I get one. I live in Melbourne Australia.

n peter evans

[Wild Wassa]

Riley here in Australia make the largest range of goosenecks and slidings for the dinghy classes. Most if not all the chandlers here will order in Riley gear for you.

In Melbourne Whitworths Marine have a huge discount supermarket at 556 Elizabeth Street Melbourne. Ph 9347 6511. They are open until 12.30 on Saturdays.

Unfortunately I don't have a Riley catalogue, for some reason I just can't find it at the moment, I'll go and have a look for it. Google, Riley Performance Yacht Fittings.

What boat do you have? ... or can you tell me what is the Class symbol on the mainsail.

If you are stuck for sorting out the rigging and the hardware ... I'm sure we will get it right.

Warren.

[Jay Greer]

I highly reccomend that you contact the Port Townsend Foundry in Port Townsend WA. They have all of the patterns from my company.
I am sure that what you are seeking can be found there.
Fair winds,
Jay Greer

[peterAustralia]

The boat was a 12.5 ft skiff called a Jenny,

however that was 45 years ago. I have seen one photo and it looked like a pretty standard general purpose sailing hard chined skiff. The rig I intend to put on my new boat. I have an 18ft dory and a 14ft outrigger and intend to make a tacking outrigger. I have rudder, daggerboard and case built, 2 crossbeams built as well.

I can get some photos soon.

peter

[rbgarr]

60 square feet is not a large sail. With a nineteen foot mast, allowing a fifteen foot hoist on the sail, that would mean the boom is about 8 feet long. A set of jaws with a leathered saddle and fitted collar on the mast may work just as well as a gooseneck fitting.

[Todd Bradshaw]

I don't know how your boat is set up for luff/tack ring/foot attachments, but if I thought I could get away with a simple set of jaws to avoid having to purchase a gooseneck, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/JAWS.jpg

This type can usually be set up so that the sail's tack ring can also be attached through the slots for the block hanger. If not, some sort of eye on top will work. If you run the sheet forward as shown here it will act as a self-tensioning downhaul. The harder you sheet in, the more luff tension it generates (flattening the sail) which is usually desired in those situations.

http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/SHEET.jpg

Whether you use jaws or some sort of gooseneck assembly, it's critical that you get the tack setback measurement right. Sails often have the tack ring moved aft a bit to properly meet the boom tack fitting on the gooseneck or jaws. The sail's corner is modified and trimmed back to do this. Since you already have the sail, you will need to reverse-enginner a bit and make sure that you find a gooseneck that matches the setback that the sail was cut for. Here is a drawing showing a tack corner and the notch cut in the sail to move the tack ring aft to fit the gooseneck fitting.

http://webpages.charter.net/tbradshaw/setback%20copy.jpg

In this case, if the sail was cut with just a straight bottom on the luff and no setback, the tack ring would not line up properly with the eye on the gooseneck. This would tend to cause big wrinkles in the sail. Other insallations are different and in some cases there may be a plain square-looking sail corner with no setback needed. You'll need to figure out what your sail needs before you build or buy jaws or a gooseneck.

[peterAustralia]

Hi all

I bought a gooseneck today.

I have a little experience sailing, but am no expert. Thanks to Wild Wassa I googled Riley and found there stockist in Victoria. I phoned them and they were very helpful, but they do not deal direct with public and put in in touch with Discount Marine in Elizabeth street city, up from Whitworths.

Discount marine were pretty good, they had a lot of stock. I got the gooseneck that should do the job. The original boat had a very early sort of goose neck but I do not know how it worked. I got a Riley RM681

Yes 8ft boom is about right.

The mainsail has a rope on the front and bottom (technical terms luff and foot I think?) This rope goes through a wooden slot in the mast. I made the boom with a similar wooden slot, so the sail kinda slides into the boom.

Maybe a jaws may have worked am not sure... I am no expert.

The issue I have now is how to reinforce my overbuilt solid wood boom (I was not smart enough to make it hollow when I built it) so that it can accept the pin from the gooseneck. The fellow said that I need some metal tubing inside the boom (drill a hole and epoxy it in), and I also need to reinforce the outside of the boom to stop if from splitting. I guess fiberglass and epoxy with do this, though I am tempted to try a metal fitting it I can find.

I was also able to take many of the old fittings form the boat and find out what they did. I do not think the fellow was very happy, but at least I now know what all those fittings are meant for, as I had no idea.

Made some progress today, that is good, and thanks for the advice, much appreciated.

n peter evans

[katiedobe]

Glad to hear you had such great success.
Send photos when she is all rigged up. I want to see em.

Todd, thanks for those great pictures. I may need that info in the future.

[George Ray]

Boom/Gaff jaw !!!

[Thorne]

I'm going to try something like Todd shows for a boom on my dory skiff, so that I can reef my sail. Need to make the gaff jaws, not sure to try solid chunks of white oak, or to laminate up the jaws -- don't think I can find any WO with the correct grain orientation for jaws.

Other than that I've been happy with a sprit-boom on a standard sail (not leg o' mutton), as the absence of that head-banging-device and additional clearance for crew sitting on the forward thwart has been nice. I'm sure the sail doesn't set completely correctly but it's been good enough up to now.