riging conversion

Hi I`m concidering converting a 19 foot threequarter deck sloop to a gaff rig. Q1: What should the lenth of the mast be from the deck and the lenth of the gaff and the boom.Q2: has anyone got info on a thru hull electric (12 volt)motor . thanks in advance, driftwood

 

sail on sail on ,sailor

 

A lot more information is needed than you've provided. You need to show a sail plan with your current rig. In general, sail area will be slightly lower and larger.
What do you have? There are a lot of 19 ft boats----- Lightnings, Typhoons, Rhodes, and so forth. Or is yours a custom design?

Alan

 

Hi Alan,I don`t have all the info on the class or make at this time,what I do know is she was built in Eroupe some where on the mediterranean,construction materials is fiberglass over a planked hull,the deck was glassed over at a later date covering the cypres wood upper which at this time the owner has started to remove the glass leaving about one layer left,I have plans to lay down another layer of thin wood on her deck,to give her back some lost beauty.there is no cabin,the cockpit is 8 feet long by roughly 4 feet wide.the mast step is about 6 feet from the bow and the mast is 36 feet long with a boom of 16 feet.fixed keel with 1,000 lbs of steel in her.you may of guessed I hav`nt actually bought her yet. I hope this will help.driftwood

 

Hard to say what dimensions without seeing the sailplan drawn out, because the center of effort needs to be known to draw a gaff sail.
There's no problem rerigging with a gaff sail however. The mast becomes shorter and the peak is moved back, causing the jib to want to move forward a bit, or the mast itself relocated a bit further forward, or tilted forward. All this is based on the boat having been well balanced to begin with, which it may not have been.
Sounds like it could easily be done based on the boom's length. It's obviously a low rig to begin with. It also sounds like it has a small jib, also a plus for conversion.
I don't believe your mast is 36 ft long. 26 is more like it.

Alan

 

There's a fair number of calculations to perform for a sail plan change as you envision. You could do this yourself, but it requires a good understanding of the principles involved.

Typically a Bermudian to gaff conversion requires the mast be moved forward and a smaller fore triangle used. Of course anything more specific is a crap shoot without an appendage profile and a sail plan so the current CE and CLP can be determined and a new rig balanced on the fixed elements of the design.

In short, considering the nature of your request, you need a designer to draw up a new sail plan for your boat. If wouldn't cost much.