Balanced Lug Sails

[Todd Bradshaw]

How is the partner interfering with your boom jaw? I'm not sure I'm getting your drift..... I never got much farther than a concept drawing on that one, so the fine points of the rig are still to be determined. I would probably just use a simple downhaul lashing and a parrel on the boom at the mast intersection (but a jaw would probably also work). There is enough boom/yard/battens and sail weight aft of the mast that I doubt a more sophisticated downhaul would be needed for kepping that short luff reasonably firm. Depending on where the downhaul was lashed to the boom and its angle of pull, the configuration might tend to change or tilt slightly with different trim angles, but it's probably not going to have a huge effect on performance if things wander a little bit in use. I've always really liked that sail's profile shape and someday, I'm going to use it on something. I was fooling around with a design for a solo outrigger canoe and this is just one of the rigs I pasted onto it to see how it would look.

This, by the way, was the original rig I drew for the hull. I was looking for something simple, with good visibility under the sails and which would quickly stow in a couple long, skinny bindles that could be lashed to the beams.



It will have to wait though, because If I ever get the time, money, space and energy all at once, the front runner for building an outrigger would be to strip up one of Gary Dierking's Uluas. I have a pile of scrap Dacron cut-offs that I'm saving for building the sail. The endless search for new toys in the Universe.....I'd better get off my butt and start building something other than just sails for other people one of these days. Otherwise, I might eventually die with just all the boats that I already own, which is always a sad situation....

[wtarzia]

Do you think that, if the crabclaw sails were loose-footed, the aerodynamics would be better? Gary seems to think so when he uses the oceanic sprit (though his latest adventure put a western sprit sail on his 20 foot single outrigger, which he has been sailing at Fiji during vacation -- he brought a few tools and the sail, and built the boat on the beach in two weeks with local materials). My crabclaw had the boom a little lower, but yes it did give good visiblity, and brailed up fast (I used two spiller lines, one on either side of sail, and hauling both provided brailing) -- a fine stowable sail, rapidly deployable and take-downable, and tidy when stored, as you say. -- Wade

[Lewisboats]

Am putting a BL on my current build and I have a question about the mast head. I bought a nice Sheave but it seems that most are just a hole in the mast. Should I bother to put the sheave in the mast or just bore a hole and bevel it?

[JimD]

Am putting a BL on my current build and I have a question about the mast head. I bought a nice Sheave but it seems that most are just a hole in the mast. Should I bother to put the sheave in the mast or just bore a hole and bevel it?

Depends on how fast you want to wear out the halyard.

[Todd Bradshaw]

Unless it's a really big sail, I don't think I'd bother with the sheave, although it could certainly be done if you're willing to do the extra work involved. For a sheave-less version (dumb-sheave) it's possible to ease the lower corners of the hole so that you're making a ramp for the halyard to go up, through the masthead and down again with less friction than a straight hole bored through it would present. I have seen people line the bottom bearing surface of these "up-and-over-style" slots with a strip of metal to reduce chafe and friction.

It can also be done by cutting a small vertical slot in the mast (bore two holes through it, maybe 1"-1.5" apart, with one directly above the other and then neatly remove the wood between them). Then you build and insert a pre-manufactured ramp in the slot. It could be glued in or held in with some sort of cross-pin. Here is the original phenolic ramp piece from my old Starboat's mast. I replaced it with a similar one that I carved from a block of leftover epoxy resin with a hefty dash of graphite powder added for low-friction. This one was for a wire halyard. A ramp for a rope halyard would wider, but look similar.



Wade, about the only thing I know about claw rigs is that I want to try one some day, so I can't speculate much on the loose-foot vs. laced foot question. As with any loose-footed sail though, it would probably yield a bit more draft adjustment along that edge. Whether this would make much difference in performance, I don't know - and the advantages of an adjustable foot also depend to a great extent on whether or not the sailors actually adjust it when sailing. An awful lot of people tend to set it, forget it and just sail (myself included on some occasions).

[Lewisboats]

How-bout making one of those out of high density (white cuttingboard stuff) plastic. it is self lubricating and I can get my hands on however much I want of it. The sail is 75 sq ft going on a 12 ft scow (read transom bowed) hull. I might want to use the mast and sail on a 12 ft skiff my son and I are going to build for him too...or one very similar.

[Todd Bradshaw]

I think that stuff would probably work fine. If it's UHMW polyethylene (most are) it may be somewhat tricky to glue to (rough it up on the glueing surface and then quickly pass the blue part of a torch flame over it, apply epoxy to wood and dumbsheave and stick in in place) but you could always seal the wood well and then pin the sheave in place with some sort of cross-pin....or both.

[Lewisboats]

Thnx...I think I'll put 2 small (1/8") pins about 1/2" apart...that ought to secure it enough. I work in a meat packing plant and all of the boards that are there are of this stuff. We have 3 kinds...soft, hard and shatter concrete hard. The soft ones can be planed and reused...the others are pretty much throw away after use...but they last twice as long or more...works out to about the same I guess money wise. I can get as much trimmings and scrap as I need.

[Jigsaw]

I set a loose footed balanced lug with a topsail. It looks a bit complicated but splitting up a large lug is, I think, the best way of controlling the power a lug produces. It also gives a wide range of different sail options. Although Jigsaw is only 13 foot, I think the rig would work well on a larger boat.

[gert]

jigsaw