Peeve revived at Maine Boatbuilders Show

[Ian McColgin]

The spiral hitch to bend sails to spars twists my knickers and ensures that the sails set badly.

The only possible place for the spiral hitch might be when the sail is fixed to the spar, like the foot along a boom or the head along a gaff. Even there it's bad as it's so hard to adjust the outhaul tension without leaving little scallops and because the spiral tends to "self-adjust" to bag in the middle.

For a fixed application, the marling hitch (so often tied backwards to be essentially half-hitches running through grommets but that's another peeve) is better.

But why did not one single boatbuilder at the show set up with a proper lacing? Everyone on this board knows what I mean - looks like a series of alternating shallow V's. I roamed the show searching in vain for a properly laced sail. I hope I overlooked at least one correct example and someone can point my memory towards it.

For all that and for all Saturday's storm and freeway blockages that kept attendance down and for all the whisps of cheauvanistic "Brand-Name-Maine" lurking in the corners (what about all the Cape Cod exhibitors and Thad and all?), this boatbuilders show remains worth the pilgrimage and

Finastkind.

[Hwyl]

I didn't even look, there are so many gaffes It helps my demeanour to ignore them.

I'm not really crazy about three strand mainsheets either, that might be O.K. with the traditionalists (like you), but the high end boats must have had some other easy to handle kind of line available, before multiplait.

[Andrew Craig-Bennett]

The really high end mainsheet, before multiplait, was plaited rawhide.

I agree with Ian!

[Tylerdurden]

I didn't see as many turned up noses this year, Investment returns keeping them in last years boats?

I ticked off the guy with the big finned puke of a boat. A woman next to me said "I better not touch it" with a smile because of the prominent "Hands off "signs.
I said he doesn't have to worry about me and she laughed. I got the dirtiest look from that.

[Thorne]

Ian -

Is this the lacing that's putting knots in the twists in your knickers?

[Ian McColgin]

That's the right way. At the show I kept seeing simple spirals.

[Ben Fuller]

Yup, and then there is really gamy jaws for booms and gaffs. Non lanyards for oarlocks. Lack of a drain hole for boats that live on trailers. The devil is in the details. Look beyond the varnish.

[Thorne]

Wot's a "really gamy jaw"?

Speaking of drains in trailered boats, who else besides me puts them at the front of the boat?

I understand that the theory is that drains at the stern allow the water to drain out as she's pulled up the ramp. But these days you'd have to be a serious ramp hog to take enough time to drain one properly.

And when you return home to wash out the boat, pull up the floorboards and really get things clean, most small boats will weigh too much to just toss around like a canoe.

Drains in the front can be used by folding up the swing-away rolling jack (if you have one) and setting the hitch on the ground. But rear drains involve tilting the boat aft, something many boats are too heavy to do as they are balanced the other way on the trailer.

[Ben Fuller]

Clunky, fat, heavier than they should be etc. Local term. The a is like the a in aah not like the a in game.

To the point, people laminate knees, or pick stuff with natural grains instead of making a large fat knee. Do the same for jaws. Its amazing what a big knot in a piece of oak can give you for gaff or boom jaw stock for a 3 inch mast.

[Tom Lathrop]

Wot's a "really gamy jaw"?

Speaking of drains in trailered boats, who else besides me puts them at the front of the boat?

I understand that the theory is that drains at the stern allow the water to drain out as she's pulled up the ramp. But these days you'd have to be a serious ramp hog to take enough time to drain one properly.

And when you return home to wash out the boat, pull up the floorboards and really get things clean, most small boats will weigh too much to just toss around like a canoe.

Drains in the front can be used by folding up the swing-away rolling jack (if you have one) and setting the hitch on the ground. But rear drains involve tilting the boat aft, something many boats are too heavy to do as they are balanced the other way on the trailer.

If you have a decent auto bailer (like an Andersen) in the middle of the boat, there won't be any water to drain out on the ramp. Leaving the bailer open while the boat is on the trailer allows any rain water, etc to drain from the low point.

[Benson Gray]

For a fixed application, the marling hitch (so often tied backwards to be essentially half-hitches running through grommets but that's another peeve) is better.

The traditional lateen rig on a sailing canoe is a fixed application that is usually attached as shown below.

Is this your marling hitch or do you have a different suggestion?

Benson

[Ian McColgin]

Benson, you have very nicely made half-hitches. These are perfectly adequate but if you want me to induct you into WIMPP (World Institute of Maratime Perfectionism and Persnickitiness) you will learn the marling (or marline to those not persuaded by Brion Toss) hitch.

In the marling hitch the parts running along the spar, both lead in to the hitch and lead away, are UNDER the part of the hitch going around the spar. The advantage of this hitch over running half-hitches is that once you get it settled, it holds position. Half hitches are unlikely to slip but it can happen. If it does, you end up with a bit of bag in the center of the sail. Not nearly as inevitably as the sag that happens with a spiral hitch but still . . . don't you want to know one of WIMPP's secret club signs?

To make the marling hitch lacing a sail to a spar (check out Brion's book or any other standard text or on-line source) pass the line through the grommet, around the spar. Then pull a bight out where the line enters the grommet, form a loop such that the standing part is under the running part that goes to the grommett (counterclockwise if you're working left to right), pass the running part that went round the spar through the loop and carry on.

[MiddleAgesMan]

In the rigging instructions for Boatmik's Goat Island Skiff he suggests the half hitch method for the yard and boom for better aerodynamics. There is less string exposed to the wind so there is less turbulence along the spars.

[Ian McColgin]

Aerodynamic subtlty on a skiff. HehHehHeh. Could as easily argue that spiral hitching, especially if the boom is cocked up just right, eases the flow over the boom better than a series of obstructions normal to the flow.

The key thing is to get the foot to set with the correct foot curve up through the shelf depending on wind strength. With either half or marling hitch, it makes sense to set the tension first and then the hitches. Most boats that use these hitches do not fiddle much with foot (or head) tension anyway, so the fact that they are both way inferior to the proper V lacing Thorn illustrated does not matter much.

The V lacing can be used on the luff as the sail can be set and struck without fussing with it - won't jam - and you can adjust both the lacing and outhaul or luff tension independently for very nice sail trim.

Take your pick but as Commadore of WIMPP I must note:

The spiral hitch is for farmers.

Half-hitches are for Boy Scouts.

The marling hitch shows depth of seamanship.

The V hitch shows that you care a lot about sail shape.

[Yeadon]

Good point Ian.

I moved away from the simple spiral a while back. I could tell that the sail had a lousy shape to it.

But I wasn't aware of the method that Thorne illustrated. Instead, I've moved to simple loop and button robands. (If in fact "roband" is the correct term.) I used a quarter inch three strand dacron.

I took this photo a while back, and have since began to work on their individual fit to the spar and the sail. Some needed to be let out a little, some needed to be hemmed in a bit.


(Please disregard that goofy mouth-breather in the photo.)

[Thorne]

Yeah, WIMPP seems to have left us "roband users" out in the cold, even though Todd B. and others often suggest that robands are the best all-round method for sail shape, dealing with potential line failures, and ease of bending on and off.

[Ian McColgin]

I got carried away by all the examples of continuous line attachment. Robands are cool. Mea culpa. Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa.

[J. Dillon]

Next years boat show could present a good opportunity for some enterprising individual to volunteer his or her services to the various builders to rig their boats right.

JD

PS, Neet looking boat Thorne. Glad you like robands too.

[Thorne]

You-a bett-ah be Culpa!

My current robands are cotton utility cord tied in a square knot. I also made up these nifty rolling beads / toggle and loop robands on an earlier sail -- then made a replacement mast with a larger diameter -- DOH!

[Pernicious Atavist]

Wow--two subjects in one...Doublemint?
Sorry....
ANYway...drain plugs in trailer boats...I installed one on each side below my thwart when I built the sharpie. Since the hull is 3/4 cypress, I inserted brass tubes to strengthen the holes, and use compression type plugs. I pull the plugs when I retrieve the boat and leave them out 'til next launch. I can wash it and it can get rained on without holding water. All I have to do is ensure the trailer is jacked up to allow the water to flow to the holes.
I have nothing to contribute re the robands, etc.

[Tom Robb]

Marline hitches are what Western Electric installers used in Bell System Tel.Co. central offices to tie cable down onto the cable racks except that instead of tarred marline they used waxed dacron 12-cord (used to be 12 strand) - very tough stuff that looks like heavy sail makers twine.
Small world

[shark_ef]

i disagree with the diagram for its "correctness" if you actually look at what the line is doing, you are simply creating a sling for the spar....
...also ian, you said you have issues with a simple spiral? that's funny tho, bc for many sailing ships that IS the proper way to lace a sail, historically documented and advised by the saillmakers...many sails are actually cut to have that curve in the bottom, and it is the sailors who lace them too tight and destroy the shape...always ending up yelling that sail isn't hauled tight enough somewhere, when it is acutally too tight lacing messing with it
-i'd check your sources, before coming down on anyone saying they are "wrong" bosunry/rigging is a black art, half science, half gut instinct that it will work, and half magic (yeah i know that makes 1.5, but you get the pic)

-also marline hitches have a disadvantage of not distributing the load of the sail along the entire edge of the sail, if one hitch is not the same tension as the rest of them it strains the sail at that area, and can damage it or wear it out before the rest of the edge, marline hitches lock down where as a "simple spiral" doesn't (when lacing a sail you DO NOT WANT IT LOCKED DOWN!)

[Ian McColgin]

The zigzag V lacing Thorne illustrated is rather a sling, isn't it. As with robands and unlike the marling hitch, it is meant for use where the luff, foot or head tension is adjusted. Used on the luff, you can even hoist or drop the sail. Can't do that at all with a marling hitch and can't do it conveniently without jamming with a spiral lacing.

It's certainly true that the marling hitch requires accurate adjustment while being set up. Great for a square sail, this is less desirable on fore and aft sails where foot, luff and head tensions are adjusted for different breezes.

There are no doubt many sailmakers' tricks of which I am unaware but on gaff sails I've made or seen all three sparred edges have some shape. The shelf built in for the foot and head is much more than a curve built into the "bottom." It's actually a way of joining the areodynamic curve of the sail to the straight line of the spar and the sailor then controls the draft of the sail by outhaul tension.

Most sailors don't consciously play the head tension and the outhaul at the peak is usually pretty fixed, but the head tension shifts a good deal with the gaff's angle, tightening as you peak up, and thus the head of the sail needs slides, robands or the V lacing: not a marling hitch.

There is often a bit of curve along the luff but it's usually convex, not concave. In sum that curve also has a bit of the feeling of the shelf and perhaps really is, but in sails that are cut perpendicular to the leach it's made a bit differently. I've not made a sail with the panels parallel to the leech so I don't really know how the shelf happens there.

The implication that some sails have a simple curve at the foot exactly to accomodate the spiral hitch's tendency to sag at the center is interestingly unlike any sail I happen to have seen. If pictures are available, they would certainly broaden my understanding.

[shark_ef]

-mast hoops
-killer parrel beads on those robands (they work so well don't they?)
-i doubt you'd ever see a square sail bent on w a marline hitch by anyone who knows what they're doing, they almost always (yes they prolly are exceptions) laced ontop the top of the yard, due to the way the sail hangs (from the TOP of the yard, not below it, differing from gaff rigged sails)
-on the picture below you can see pride using robands, and even though the sail is set, there is some sag in them, and creases in the sail...our sailmaker was onboard later in the season and suggested we spiral lace the sail because there was a curve cut in the foot, which you can see here in this pic
<img src="http://s135.photobucket.com/albums/q...ndringtail.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i135.photobucket.com/albums/q...ndringtail.jpg" border="0" alt="main, fore, ringtail">
this may be a repeat

-several more examples:

[shark_ef]

here's one of adventuress: the fore is spiral laced and the main is what looks to be a style of robanding
http://bp2.blogger.com/_rqLNS-z1IIU/...34_DXO_800.jpg

-just again with the "right" and "wrong" thing, i can pull images like these any day of the week, ( and twice on sunday ) but there also is variation, simply bc you believe it is right for your boat, may not be right for another boat, due to spar shape, sail cut, uses, yadada
-but on big standing sails, i've seen spiral lacing tight (no middle sagging) to keep a straight edge, and i've also seen robands not be "correct" due to sail cut, with spiral lacing being used more often
-robands or hoops seem the best way to deal w a luff, IMHO, the difference being the use of the boat (mast hoops are a PITA to have for a sail that gets packed away after every trip) robands are pretty swell on sails you lace each trip, fast, work well, etc

[Ian McColgin]

Thank you for the pictures. The sails look almost like they were made to be loose-footed, what with the high tack and, indeed, slightly hollow foot. I’ve not see quite this rig before and it’s always good to have my horizons broadened.

The one spiral laced sail where I can see anything looks like a nice set. At least no visible creases near the tack so ubiquitous in the smaller boat examples I despaired over in Portland. That is the only perpendicular to the leach cut sail I see. We can't see enough to know whether there's a real shelf along the foot or whether, like the other visible sails, it's meant to ride away from the boom. The Adventuress sail looks like it's vertical cut and I can't see enough to remark on the set but it's closer to the boom to the extent we can see.

Anyway, I have no doubt that the sail maker is bang on right that the robands were holding the sail's foot too straight along the boom and thus flattened the sail forward of the proper draft.

I am sure we can agree that the spiral lacing is unsuitable for the luff as it jams both on setting and striking sail. The alternate V's do not.

I like the alternate V on my gaff because they accomodate shifting head tension as I play the peak halyard on or off the wind and because it keeps the head snugly along the gaff as my sail maker designed it. On Marmalade, the foot is tracked, the luff hooped.

On small boats the spiral along the foot, head or luff causes sagging in the center and bunching at the ends as the sail slides back and forth on the lacing. With the alternating V the lacing moves across the spar keeping the grommets in their planned orientation, even on a sail laced closely to the spar. Perhaps on big heavy sails such as these schooners fly, this is less an issue.

The marling hitch is a wonderful binding hitch for holding things close, which is why it is good for bending square sails which do indeed lie flat against their spar and come off with a curving tangent. As mentioned above, it's good for binding electrical cables and is really a finastkind lacing for bimini tops - not that the sort of people with bimini's would really notice.

I am not convinced that the spiral lacing illustrated is better than robands properly sized to the sail's curve but it's probably more practical. It's fussy enough to make robands all exactly alike and somewhere south of insane to make each one subtly different.

I still think the alternating V's would allow the sails to set better but it may be that in very large sails the difference is not really worth arguing. It's not like those schoonermen put the jib and forestaysail halyards on the starboard side of the mast. Different boats, different long splices. De gustibus and all that. A spirited counter to curmudgeonly dogmatism is a good thing.

However I remain dogmatic (and, need I say? right) that for bending sail to spar in small boats V lacing is seriously superior to spiral.

[shark_ef]

and hammock's, it is excellent for tying up hammocks
-i do agree that the marline hitch has its place in some applications
-i've never seen the v hitch thang, does it not make the luff all zigzaggy? as usual pics of it in application woul be swell...and my experience is on stuff where i have trouble wrapping my arms around the said spar, so maybe on smaller spars it doesn't make the luff all zigzagged...but i'd love to see it