Gaff rigs

[KevinMcKee]

A lot of people think she is a Garden Eel.

[alan white]

That may be what I thought, began with an E. Anyway, nice boat!

[Fanie]

I thought it was Manie in this 3rd pic

Manie, I wonder how many school flag poles ended up on boats
If you really want a wooden mast, wait till the tshwaniers stole the phone wires again (which should be any time now) and then just take the pole. It will save you the time to cut the wires loose from it

[M&M Ovenden]

Hi Manie, I started adding some pictures to my gallery, it's taking a while.... My pics are all over the place and many are in 35mm (I should scan all that some time). I'll try to get some detailed pics out there.

Here's my previous boat, a gaff rig schooner. I drew it's sail plan and fully rigged it. Amazingly it turned out very well balance and a charm to sail. I am sold to gaff split rigs.
The beauty of older rigs is that everything can be fixed with a spar or a rope, all dead simple. Some bad mouth will say it's slower to handle, I'd say it allows you to take your time. Anyway if I start praising gaffers it won't end so I better stop now.





Murielle

[alan white]

Is that a Gozzard, Murielle?

[M&M Ovenden]

Not a Gozzard, she's a one of her own steel hull. The hull reminds a Colvin, but as far as we know it's non of his designs.

Heavy hull, sailed surprisingly well.

[MikeJohns]

From the working days of sail. A local (Australian) coastal trading ketch . As in any shipping , time is money and these vessels were no slouches the distances they had to cover made scows unviable. But they needed a crew to drive it.

Note the battens on the sails. Circa 1910.

[diwebb]

Hi, for information on gaff rigged vessels and lots of pictures try the Old Gaffers Association website.
I owned an 1876 built 19 foot long Itchen Ferry and everything said about the ease of rigging and repairing is true. Performance of the rig is also under rated. I remember a 26 foot Bristol Channel Cutter beating two half tonners in force six headwinds from Ilfracomb to Barry in the Bristol Channel. The half tonners had crews of five and six and arrived soaked to the skin although dressed in full sets of oilies. The Gaffer skipper sailed single handed and in oilskin trousers and arrived just slightly damp. This was in the mid 1970's and I forget the boat names(the gaffer may have been the Polly??and her skipperwas Jamer who worked at the Avonmouth docks and sailedout of Pill on the Avon, can anyone from the Portishead cruising Club add further information,added June 22) but it taught me a lot about boats and rating rules!!!
My oldfriend Jon Wainwright who died last year was the secretary of the East Coast Old Gaffers and raced his boat Deva against the JOG fleet and frequently surprised them with the speed of the rig and its weatherliness. I am about to stary construction of a 45 foot cruising barge yacht which will be a junk rigged schooner, also an easily repaired and much underrated rig.

[MikeJohns]

For weatherliness I'm told you really want that topsail since it increases the luff length significantly, you want as little gap as possible between the foot of the topsail and the gaff.

Wide sterned boats can prevent the twisting off of the gaff with a line from end of the gaff to the quarter which also adds some drive.

[Kaa]

Speaking of small gaffers...

Ian Oughtred's Eun Mara:



and a sister ship



Kaa

[diwebb]

Mike Johns is correct in the use of the topsail but the gap betwen the topsail and mainsail can also be useful in creating slot effect similar to jib and main. This can also improve performance and make the rig closer winded, on the tack where the slot is opened up (the side on which the topsail is set). John Wainwright was a great exponent of of using his topsail in all conditions, setting his topsail over the single and double reefed main, rather than just dropping the topsail as the first reef. On my Itchen Ferry, "Dilkusha", I had a very high peaked main with the gaff as long as the boom, and a narrow topsail which made her quite weatherly.