ballanced lug building questions

Discussion in 'Sailboats' started by TwoBirds, Sep 15, 2017.

  1. TwoBirds
    Joined: Aug 2016
    Posts: 40
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    Location: Gulf Islands

    TwoBirds Junior Member

    Hi
    I'm seriously considering building a goat island skiff and I want to try a balanced lug rig on my dingy first to see if I'm nuts about them :)

    I've got sail dimensions from the designer of the dingy for a 50sq. ft. balanced lug, but no info on rounding the edges or spar size.

    from what I've been able to find online I can get away with leaving the luff strait but the head and foot need quite a bit of rounding and the leach needs a bit of hollow, however I can't find any hard and fast info on just how much or where the rounding peaks at.

    I've got solid spar plans for a 105 sq. ft. balanced lug so I can kind of see how they're supposed to taper, but I've no idea what dimensions would be appropriate for a 50 Sq. Ft. sail. and I'd like to make square hollow spars to keep weight down as much as possible.

    I've read that a loose footed balanced lug is a bit easier to reef and produces a bit more power, are there any other pro's/con's?

    I'd greatly appreciate any links to info on building balanced lug sails.

    2b
     
  2. messabout
    Joined: Jan 2006
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    Location: Lakeland Fl USA

    messabout Senior Member

    Lug sails are widely thought to be old school. Nonetheless they work very well, sometimes exceedingly well. If you are anticipating the build of a GIS then follow the sail plan as the plans specify.

    If you build a 50 sf lug to see if you like it, you may not be comparing apples to apples, if it is to be the deciding factor for the GIS sail. Storer did not just fall off the turnip truck. His judgement about the efficacy of the lug for the Goat should be accorded more than casual merit.
     
  3. TwoBirds
    Joined: Aug 2016
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    Location: Gulf Islands

    TwoBirds Junior Member

    some good points Messabout.

    liking the balanced lug is the deciding factor as to whether I build the goat at all, I bought the plans, but if I don't like the rig I'll build something else.

    I'm not sure the rig will work well here as I have to switch from sail to oar and back quite often due to wind conditions and it looks like that might be a huge pain with the Balanced lug, with the spritsail and spritboom rigs I've tried it's pretty simple, takes about 30 seconds to pull the sprit and throw a bungee around the mast, sprit, and sail, and about a minute to set it again.
    also looks like the balanced lug will be less handy for crabbing, with the sprit rigs I can just drop the sheet and let the sail luff out over the bow while I pull the trap in over the transom, not sure that'll go nearly as smoothly with the lug rig, but I'll try anything once, twice if I'm not sure I didn't like it :)

    would I maybe get a better test by scaling down the sail and spars drawn for the goat island skiff?

    2b
     
  4. messabout
    Joined: Jan 2006
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    Location: Lakeland Fl USA

    messabout Senior Member

    You could use a peak sprit sail to keep the mast at moderate height. The sprit boom rig would need a pretty tall mast to get enough sail area for the GIS to fulfill it's performance capabilities.

    I am using a sprit boom sail on a little skiff similar in dimensions to the GIF. I have a love- hate relationship with the sail. It is a free standing rig. It is certainly convenient and easy to handle, reef, douse or store. My mast is 17 long feet and the sail has a measly 60 square feet of area. 15 feet at the luff and 8 feet from luff to clew. Not enough to provide many thrills short of a half gale.. I have considered a peak sprit sail of about 90 sf. The peak sprit is also easy to get along with but it has three sticks instead of two. That is, it would have three sticks unless you mean to leave the sail loose footed. A 90 sf sprit boom sail would need to be some thing like 20 x 9 or 19 x 9.5 if normal proportions were kept. Way too much mast I am thinking.

    The lug has a lot going for it in terms of spar sizes with respect to area.... or visa versa.
     
  5. TwoBirds
    Joined: Aug 2016
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    Location: Gulf Islands

    TwoBirds Junior Member

    Hi

    The plans for the GIS include a 21' mast for a laser rig that's marked as discontinued, you could squeeze a 19'x9.5' spritboom rig on that, you're right though, probably much too much mast is why it's discontinued.

    The spritboom rig (Three corner) is pretty simple to deal with unless I need to reef, then it's not much fun, actually it really sucks when I need to reef, but aside from that I love it, and I do wear my wetsuit when I'm sailing :)
    it could definitely be a bit bigger though, I've been playing with the idea of using a club, could get about another 10sf with 3' club, seems silly to complicate a rig that's main virtue is simplicity though.

    The spritsail rig (4 corner) I used with a peak sprit and added a boomsprit if I needed to run or sail close to the wind, or just a boomsprit with the peak tied down if the wind was blowing too hard, I was really amazed at how close to the wind I could sail with my very badly designed spritsail, I used my oars for sprits :) and 1 1/2" abs pipe bolted to eyelets for sprit pockets which worked well although the pipe pockets could be deadly if the sheet got to flogging.

    I went ahead and made a set of spars and cut out a balanced lug scaled down to ~50sf from the dimensions in the GIS plans, would have got it done but the rope I bought to edge it with has either wandered off or turned invisible :( I'm sure it'll turn up about 10 minutes after I get home with a new rope tomorrow though :)
    the spars are way too heavy but I'll whittle 'em down after I've tried them for a bit.
    It's just polytarp so I don't expect it to set very well, but I'm just looking to get an idea of what it's like to handle, if I build the GIS I'll either buy the custom sail from really simple sails, or buy a kit from sailrite.

    and if I don't like it well, I just ordered a book with plans for the Wa'apa in it :)

    not sure why, but I think the balanced lug is one of the best looking rigs out there.

    2b
     
  6. TwoBirds
    Joined: Aug 2016
    Posts: 40
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    Location: Gulf Islands

    TwoBirds Junior Member

    hi all

    finished the sail and did a bit of lawn sailing with it to get tuned up, it works quite well in spite of a few mistakes in fabrication, I'll make another one soon now that I've got it more or less figured out.

    2b
     

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  7. Milehog
    Joined: Aug 2006
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    Location: NW

    Milehog Clever Quip

    I'm a fan of the balanced lug. Easy to adjust the center of effort (to a degree) decent performance and dirt simple.
     

  8. TwoBirds
    Joined: Aug 2016
    Posts: 40
    Likes: 1, Points: 6, Legacy Rep: 10
    Location: Gulf Islands

    TwoBirds Junior Member

    I'm learning to like it, not a fan of boom dodging but I'm getting better at it :)
     
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