Jack Holt Heron re-imagined Pt.5

Converting from a stayed mast jib and main to an un-stayed balanced lug rig

About half way through 2024, and a few years after 'completing' ERO, a Heron sailing dinghy shortened to 10 feet long from 11 feet 3 inches, (reasons previously explained), I got thoroughly sick of single handed sailing with 2 jibs and a main, endlessly tacking in narrow channels against tide and wind, working and adjusting sails constantly, and dealing with my over complicated cutter rig, (even without the gaff). Sure it works well and looks picturesque, but I'm tired, and need to relax and enjoy more than I need to 'sailor'. After some research I settled on the simplest useful sailing rig I could find: a balanced lug.

Luckily my previous modifications to the boat allowed me to relatively easily use an un-stayed wooden Heron mast, which I had in reserve. I carved a block of wood to fit hard against the front starboard side of the centrecase, located by and between two floor / bottom ribs, the edging on the top of the centrecase holding it down, and a couple of lugs on the floor ribs to stop the bottom of the block from sliding out sideways to starboard, but all allowing it to be removed, to be able use the standard stayed mast instead, easily. The centrecase edging top forms one side of the mast's old style square step hole, and a wood side brace extends from the hull's starboard, middle, side stringer, to a removeable bolt in the new mast step block, to prevent it from being forced sideways by side pressure, and so the mast step remains a square shaped hole. Some sort of general convention has the boom and yard laying on the port side of a lugger mast, so with the mast step to the starboard of the centrecase, the boom and yard should hang almost centrally over the boat's centreline, which seems convenient to me. If the mast was stepped centrally, and the spars over to port, and off centre, it may annoy me, just because. You don't notice that the mast is offset by a couple of inches.


Basic mast step woodwork.

A mast radius shape was cut into the back edge of the fore deck, to locate the mast correctly vertically, and lined with rubber to grip and position the mast upright and align the rake of the mast, after a slight mis-calculation in square hole mast step position. A hardware store galvanised steel garden gate hinge was modified to hold the mast foreward into the radiused location groove under tension, and when finished and positioned with long screws, it was removed and painted in cold galv, and screwed in position permanently, with a long screw used to secure the horizontally swinging / pivoting curved arm, holding the mast foreward. A quick release latch will be used later. The mast is held tightly in position by the hinge, which remains in place, while all else can be removed for using the stayed mast setup if I want. I just undo the long mast securing screw, open the hinge, remove the mast, pull the bolt from the mast step block, and remove the two wood pieces, to revert to a stayed mast. Or I could leave it all in place bar the mast, without much issue. It shouldn't be difficult or cumbersome to lower the mast to get under a low bridge or other overhead obstacle, but that remains to be seen, once a quick release is in place. I'll probably need a mast and spar support cradle at the bow and stern for rowing with the stick down.


Deck notch mast location.


Garden gate hinge becomes a mast securing latch.

A stiff wood boom was made of Blackbutt, 40mm X 40mm X 2.4 m, and a lighter springier yard was made from Iron Ash 42mm X 42mm X 2.4 m, (stock sizes from the wood yard), both shaped with tapered ends to 500mm in from the ends, and with 8mm diam. holes 30mm from all the spar ends, then planed, rasped, sanded, epoxied for toughness, and then varnished for UV protection. The varnish had gone off and was lumpy, giving a grippy texture, which can be sanded smooth later if it bothers me.

For a prototype sail, a white polyester cotton blend fabric was found, light and cheap, hopefully good enough for testing purposes, or even hard use, before I get a professional sail made, once I have finished testing and modifying the shape, and reef positions. I plan to have 3 reefs available for all conditions; and maybe even a single reef up to the yard, for reducing boom reefing bulk on persistent stronger wind days. It was cut with the warp hanging vertical from the angled yard, and weft more or less horizontal.

My estimated / calculated (roughly) sail dimensions, which changed once I started cutting and sewing: luff parallel to mast, 1.8 m from tack eye to throat eye, set about 600 mm ahead of the mast, depending; loose foot with extra 100 mm of hanging radius, 2.25 m from tack eye to clew eye @ 85 deg to luff and mast; leech from clew eye to peak eye 3.6 m @ ~80 deg to the straight foot line; head 2.25 m from throat eye to peak eye, @ 145 deg to luff and mast. So boom and yard are the same length, and the masthead sheave top is about 2.9 m above the deck, giving about 450 mm boom clearance above the deck, in full sail. Seating is below the deck line. I expected it all to stretch in use, so I didn't put any shape in the sail, relying on it being made baggy in use, and adjusting the foot outhaul to make an aerofoil shape.
After sewing and eyelets inserted, it ended up as: luff 172 cm eye to eye; foot 222 cm eye to eye; head 231 cm eye to eye; leech 374 cm eye to eye; all un-streched; the angles adjoining the leech will have changed a little, but the luff angles remained the same.

Started sewing the sail on an old 1970's Singer 306K machine which I have thrashed over canvas previously, (and my father before me), and I got past half way before the old machine's motor packed up, inspected and found one commutator brush was worn away to the spring, other one still very good. Searched for replacements but no luck locally, possibly interstate but no guarantee. Days later got some old larger graphite/carbon brushes donated free, and filed one down to 3/16" square by 1/2" long, fit spring, and into motor, and it was revived. Yay, back to work. After sewing for a couple of days part time, and inserting eyelets, I laced up the yard and boom, and hoisted it up the mast. It looks better than I thought it would, (considering it's my first ever proper sail), and is just a bit too big in all directions by about an inch. Hopefully it doesn't stretch much, and maybe it will shrink instead. It has to be at the very top of the mast sheave for the boom to clear the tiller, and the yard lashings have to be pulled tight, as it is, still un-used. All four reefings have good shapes, with the top reefing to the throat eye forming a triangular sail, for in the strongest winds, maybe 30 knots; not much more I would think, or the hull will become the main sail, going sideways and out of control.

I had to modify the boom a bit, rasping a groove on the foreward underside to keep the luff reefing loops in place at all vertical angles of the yard, and a groove filed across the top to hold the downhaul rope when set at an angle to pull the boom foreward. Also adding a cleat and pulley for the outhaul cordage attaching to the leech reefing points. Keeping it very simple. The yard is un altered, and works fine so far, raised and swinging in the wind in the back yard. Two rope parrels hold the spars close to the mast, but not tight. Two cleats go on the mast, and it's ready to test.


Full sail.


Reef 1.


Reef 2.


Reef 3.


Reef 4.

Tried it out on Ero, my 10' yacht, on protected waters in 10 to maybe 15 knots at most, and was pleasantly surprised, nothing broke or was lost, and all went better than expected. The sail had very good shapes in all the reefings tried, but I didn't try the top two reefings as the wind wasn't blasting, and the tide was strong, so I needed power to make way. It points better than expected, not amazingly, but maybe a little less than 45 degrees off the wind on both tacks. I forgot to take my GPS to see my tracking, but it wasn't bad at all, considering the reports I have read about the sail type. I hadn't made the reefing tidy ties yet, so the excess was sometimes hanging over the boom.

I tried close quarters sailing in light airs in a marina; casual down wind; up wind into/against a strong tide; tacking upwind into blustery 15 knots with 1 foot chop; reaching in 10 - 12 Kn; and all points in between; over shallows with no centreboard and minimal rudder depth; and it wasn't fast, except when reaching, but it worked well generally. The yard didn't twist away as much as I imagined it would. It tacked well with a bit of boat speed to steer, gybed well, and it was so good not having to deal with two, or even one jib; simplicity, just point the boat, and the sail and main sheet does the rest. It's a good rig for entertaining un sailed guests, since no one needs to do anything except duck for the boom, and enjoy the ride. No knots became loosened in the day, and I was mostly using reef knots, pulled tight and doubled.

On final approach to the boat ramp, I was coming in too fast, on a broad reach - almost running before, and couldn't slacken the sail any more, since I had run out of mainsheet length to let off, so just lowered the yard into the boat gradually and controlled in the last few seconds, and came to a sedate and well placed halt at the pontoon, to step off with the mooring ropes in hand, like I'd done it a hundred times before; it was so easy. No dramas. Some sail hung overboard and got wet, no biggie.

At the end of my day's first trial sailing I was feeling quietly smug about the looks and performance of my first ever proper sail, even though it was made of cheap polyester cotton fabric from a craft shop, on an old beat up sewing machine, by a novice, still with pencil marks and sticky tape on it. A couple of old guys at the nearby marina called me to sail over to them for a better look, when I was still testing earlier, and commented how pretty it looked. It was already a pretty boaty shape, but now it looks classic too.


Ero at Garden Island, South Australia, at 1st reefing.

Future works and sewing includes 2 or 3 short batten pockets, reefing tie reinforcement patches, and an extension on the 100mm loose foot curvature, giving it another 200 mm of depth I reckon. The mast needs re-varnishing, with a wind indicator on top. I missed having telltales on the shrouds to see the wind direction. A downhaul pulley is needed further foreward on the deck / bow sprit; move the boom downhaul attachment further back; and the yard uphaul attachment needs to slide back a bit further on the yard, for more foreward balance. About 20% sail should be foreward of the mast, according to various readings. Need a longer main sheet now, due to the increased boom angle range. Maybe a big asymmetric jib could be useful for down wind only, to gull wing with the main, made from my left over fabric.

I'm so impressed with its ease of use that I want to try the balanced lug on my 16 footer, a Cherry, so I need to investigate how to hold an unstayed mast, without detracting from the standard setup; lots of thinking to do there.

I'd like to thank the many contributors to Boatdesign, for the many snippets of information which enabled me to make this rig, which worked quite well first time out, and only needs a few minor modifications to improve it.

 

That is a salty looking little boat Seasquirt. You can remove the bowsprit now that you no longer have any use for it. The lug sail is certainly appropriate for a little boat of that sort. Much easier to live with than having to tend all the strings on a multi sail rig.

 

Thanks messabout, yes it gives me great joy, proving the formula that the bigger the boat the bigger the worries and expenses. 10 feet long, lots of fun, now more relaxing, few costs and worries, easy to launch and retrieve, peace and quiet and solitude. It does 20 miles in a day not including tacks, and has done a 200 + mile inland camping trip as a cutter. I'll keep the bowsprit though, since its accessories are supporting the oar blades, for when the wind dies and I can still make 4 knots under oars in a slack tide; and I still have the Heron gaff rig, and mast head cutter rig to play with if I really want to go faster. The mast footing is in the bowsprit base now too, and the original mast footing is long gone, so I still may need it. And a bowsprit still looks cool, even if not needed. Thinking of making a smallish down wind asymmetric to hang off it, and gull wing, maybe.

Just today I painted the lug sail a dark red (called 'Indian red'), to look more traditional, and less like a bed sheet. Photos later when I sail next. The 50/50% cotton / polyester material was hosed down and hung to drip dry, then while damp, cheap hardware store acrylic paint was watered down 3:1 with water, and with the sail on a plastic tarp, it was roughly painted both sides and hung on the washing line to dry. It looks better, but I hope it doesn't fade into a pink sail, or wash out too much in salt water. Also it went from feeling soft and supple like a bed sheet, to feeling stiffer like a thin canvas. Hopefully it shrinks a little bit too; we'll see.

 

This is my bed sheet sail painted with watered down acrylic, as mentioned above. It did shrink a bit across the yard and boom, but the leech went a bit floppy, and I may need battens now. Spent too much time mucking about to go for a sail, so here it is in the back yard again, at full sail. Doesn't look too bad considering I wasn't too fussy doing it.

 

Took the balanced lug sail out in 15 - 20 knots, mostly 15 with gusts, for a test. Streaks on the water, wind singing (no rigging), white caps and 400mm chop at highest in protected waters. Down wind with the tide was good, doing 4 - 5 knots. Sailing reaching past ships, dock sheds, bridges, and silos in Port Adelaide was a pain, with back winding and dead spots followed by gusts. The old wood mast had a good bend in it, and I was worried; it would be a long slog back to the ramp under oars. Started out with 2nd reef, and was OK until I turned back from the town wharf, and was beating into the wind and tacking, had to pull over in a small bay and use 3rd reefing, and bring it all down low. It was an exciting sail, so much so that I changed plans and cut it short to avoid getting any more wet; and the cold was getting to me after 5 hours, despite being rugged up. I took advantage of a fast running tide to go against the wind under a bridge, but had a nasty scrape against oysters on a bridge base, causing some minor gunnel / deck plywood damage, but made it through after a few push offs. Pulled into mangroves for a break on the way back, it was tiring despite no jib to handle.
The sail in red seems popular, and many cameras were on my little boat at different stages. I was the only sail boat on the water, there is a lack of keen or mad sailors here.
Thinking I might need to make a stiffer aluminium mast for in a good breeze, or rig the stayed mast setup, and jib / mast head sails in those windy conditions. I don't want to snap the mast. It can take a moderate beating, but it's not all fun, (mostly fun though). The sail itself held up well, with no strains or damage. Still don't need battens, it shapes up well enough as it is. Still very happy with it, for a home made job costing less than $100, and a few hours work.


At Garden Island S.A., low tide, ready to go, on second reefing, loaded for a day trip.