Differences in traditional sail types

[GregX999]

Ok, so I know what the difference is between these different types (I can tell which one is which by seeing them), but what are the pros and cons of each one?

1. Balanced lug
2. Standing lug
3. Sprit w/out boom
4. Sprit w/ boom

If a plan specifies one type, how much difference would it make to switch to a different type? I assume you just need to be sure the center of effort stays the same fore to aft, correct? (And doesn't get too much higher if the boat is tender...)

I've seen some plans that have options for more than one of these types, and am wondering how you would pick.

Also, what about the complication of...

5. Any of the above with added jib

Greg

[Thorne]

Much easier for you to read the books than for us to type 10k words in response.

Bolger - 103 Sailing Rigs
Nichols - The Working Guide to Traditional Small-boat Sails
Williams - Small Boat Sails

As with everything else, much depends on your boat, and where and how you sail her.

[Cuyahoga Chuck]

How big a boat are we talking about? Size makes some difference. On a ten foot skiff a boomless sprit is about as simple as it gets. A line comes from the clew, goes around the sheet horse and you hold the end in your hand. As boats get larger the complexity and amount of required hardware increase rapidly.

[Michael Beckman]

Lugsails are more readily reefed, look cooler, and are very easily brought down in an emergency setting.

[elad]

I have a spritsail on my swampscott, plus a small 12 sq. ft jibsail. No boom on the spritsail, which I like. I like not having to watch out for the boom passing back and forth. If I get into a situation where I need to let the wind out of my sail quickly I can just let go the mainsheet. Without the boom I can also use a brail line. I have my sail rigged with the snotter line and the brail line running aft so that I can easily manage both lines. Normally I will lossen the snotter line and tighten up the brail line when I rig the boat. I can then row out and when ready I loosen the brail line, tighten up the snotter and I'm off sailing. I do the opposite when I am returning.
The small jib does help a little when sailing into the wind and coming about.
My avatar shows the sail fully brailed.

Dale

[johngsandusky]

I also sail a sprit dory, but I prefer the boom. I added it to the rig. It gives better sail shape and easier sheeting.

[GregX999]

Thanks for the book recommendations Thorne, I'll check them out.

I was thinking about boats from 10-20 feet long. For example, most Oughtred and Vivier designs use those sail types and many offer a choice between 2 or 3 of them.

Is a boomless sail harder to reef?

Thanks,
Greg

[James McMullen]

Is a boomless sail harder to reef?

It's harder to get it to set properly, reefed or un-reefed. A boom simplifies your sheeting angles and improves your off-wind performance quite a bit. I've decided the little bit of extra work making another stick is more than compensated for with improved handling and handiness.

My favorite rig out of the ones you've listed (and I've owned boats with every one of those types plus others) is the balance lug, followed by the standing lug, both with booms. A spritsail of any type is more complicated and less handy to reef quickly--I find it sub-optimum for any generously canvassed, performance-oriented boat where you'll find yourself reefing regularly.

A jib is utterly needless complication on any boat small enough to not have a foredeck to go out on for reefing and handling--unless you just like 'em for some reason. I use jibs on my bigger boats, but I would avoid them like the plague on a small, trailered sail & oar boats like what you seem to be asking about. Unstayed rigs are so very much quicker and pleasanter to set up or strike while underweigh.

[Ben Fuller]

Sprits are harder to reef than lugs. With sprit rigged boats I have two rigs rather than reef a lot. With booms I find that if you cut them low foward and up at the clew, the boom will generally clear you taking and jibing and you will lose very little in performance. A double ended boat is really hard to get the sail to set right without a boom.


The most efficient of these rigs that I have used is a full batten standing lug with the lower batten acting as a boom and the foot cut so that the sail is pretty much self vanging. The mast for a lug rigged boat should be quite stiff so that it does not bend when you flatten the sail by pulling down the down haul. It has a very high aspect ration with almos a vertical leach so in this boat there is no problem with sheeting angles. The foot is much shorter than the boat.

[Ben Fuller]

Sprits are harder to reef than lugs. With sprit rigged boats I have two rigs rather than reef a lot. With booms I find that if you cut them low foward and up at the clew, the boom will generally clear you taking and jibing and you will lose very little in performance. A double ended boat is really hard to get the sail to set right without a boom.


The most efficient of these rigs that I have used is a full batten standing lug with the lower batten acting as a boom and the foot cut so that the sail is pretty much self vanging. The mast for a lug rigged boat should be quite stiff so that it does not bend when you flatten the sail by pulling down the down haul. It has a very high aspect ration with almos a vertical leach so in this boat there is no problem with sheeting angles. The foot is much shorter than the boat.

[slidercat]

What James says about the difficulty of reefing spritsails is a generally accepted view, but I haven't found it so, personally. The main problem is that the sprit has to move down the mast as the sail is reefed, and at some point, it can go no lower. So you won't have as many potential reefs as you might like. I have only one generous reef on Slider's sprit main.



But on the other hand, spritsails can also be reefed by a process known as scandalizing-- the sprit is simply removed, which cuts sail area by almost half, in my case. So, up to 25 knots or so, I reef in the conventional way, but if it blows harder, I can scandalize. I've been out in 30 knots with only a scandalized main, and the boat still went well to windward, to my astonishment, despite the sloppy appearance of a scandalized main.

My choice was driven by the fact the Slider is a cat, and an unstayed mast is difficult and heavy to engineer out on the crossbeam of an open deck catamaran. (Gaff has more weight aloft, not good for fine hulls with a tendency to pitch.) But the biggest pleasant surprise is that the sprit-sloop rig has proven to be quite weatherly. It's really nice to be able to eat up big chunks to windward, especially since Slider has no engine.

There are other possibilities for reefing a sprit sail. The Thames barges reefed their vast sails in sections, by brailing. But in general, sprit is a rig I would consider only for a fairly small boat.

[Daniel Noyes]

Lugsails are more readily reefed, look cooler, and are very easily brought down in an emergency setting.

Flip side is Lugs need to be reefed earlier and more often.
as the wind pressure on a lug increases it tends to bow the mast, as the mast bows this slackens the uphaul/downhaul tension on the sail causing the sail to bow and belly, the extra shape that is alowed into the sail just as the wind gust hits allows the sail to become more powerfull and generate even more heeling power just at the wrong moment.
Hence the need to reef these sails early and often.

compare a lug of 150 sq ft to a Leg-O Mutton dory rig, evolved over several hundred years in conjunction with a light narrow hull.
the dory sail has no reefs the lugg will have 2 or even 3 reefs!

The the other trick with the lug is it is set standing with the luff of the sail loose, much like a jib on a sloop, so when the sail luffs it can flogg like a jib, rather than flapping like a flag on a pole as a sprit sail will.
Not a big deal if this sail is flogging on a heavily built european style lugger but very dangerous in a narrow lightly built boat like a dory wherry or double ender.

The modern lugs mentioned above for use on light narrow craft are really quite modern...they are not "traditional lug sails" carbon fiber spars, dacron sails, and multiple purchases on the down haul, all these innovations help flatten these sails and controll this powerfull but potentially unrully sail.

Dan

[Canoeyawl]

Lugsails are more readily reefed, look cooler, and are very easily brought down in an emergency setting.

This is all correct, but having sailed a lug rig for years I'll add that "emergency settings" seem to come up more often with a lug rig.