Gaff weapons. Sloop « Home yacht shipyard Gaff sloop
Armament refers to sails and all devices for controlling them.
4.1. Types of sailing rigs: straight rig (ship, brig), mixed (barque, barquentine, brigantine), forward rig (luger, lateen, rack, sprint, gaff), Bermuda (cat, sloop, tender, yol, ketch, schooner).
Sail types: A- straight (brief); b- rack (luger); V- split foresail; G- Latin; d- Chinese; e- sprint; and- gaff; h- guari; And- Bermudian.
Tenders"
A - gaff, B - Bermuda
Two-masted yachts.
A - Bermuda iol; b - jib ketch. B - gaff schooner; G - Bermuda jib schooner
Parts of sailing equipment.
The main parts of the weapon are sails, spars and rigging.
Spar.
The totality of all wooden and metal parts of weapons used to attach and carry sails is called spar.
Parts of the mast of a Bermuda and gaff cat, sloop: mast, boom, gaff, jib rack, spinnaker boom, stay pier, bowsprit.
Material for making spar: wood, metal, plastic.
Wooden spar design: solid, glued, hollow, folding mast, stepsons
Spar sections:
A - teardrop-shaped wooden mast with a face groove;
B and C - round masts with rails for external sliders;
G and D - masts with rails for internal sliders,
E - metal mast with face groove
The mast can also be folding, that is, it can be placed around an axis fixed in stepsons. The stepsons either pass through the pärtners and rest against the steps with their spur (like a regular mast), or are attached directly to the deck. Sometimes they are called standers.
Mast parts : top, spur, klotik.
The top end of the mast is called top, lower - spur. Klotik (clot; from the Netherlands kloot- ball, knob), rounded shaped fitting with protruding edges on the top of a mast or flagpole. The klotik is made of wood or metal. Inside the shelter, rollers of halyards are installed for raising flag signals, a lantern, etc. In addition, the shelter covers the end of the mast from moisture.
Devices for application and wiring of rigging : spreaders, fittings, chicks, rollers.
painters. If there is more than one pair of spreaders, they are called upper, middle, lower; if there are more than three pairs, by number, starting from the bottom (first spreaders, second, third, etc.).
On a gaff yacht, the upper ends of the standing rigging parts are put on the mast with loops embedded on them - Ogonami. Ogons rely on chicks- wooden or metal shoulders that protect them from slipping. Rolls-small pulleys for changing the direction of pull of sheets or other gear; They are usually placed on cleats or hawse. Metal parts intended for attaching rigging and spreaders to the hull and spar are called shackles.
Parts of boom, gaff, yard, spinnaker boom : nok, heel, mustache, spread, beyfoot, spruit.Device for attaching them to the mast : swivels, mustaches, bayfoots.
Geek- a horizontal spar to which the luff of the mainsail (mizzen, foresail) is attached in one of the ways. The mainsail boom is called main boom***, mizzen boom - mizzen boom, geek foka - foka-geek. The end of the boom that rests on the mast is called heel, opposite end - nok. The heel of the boom has a collar that fits into a swivel that allows the boom to rotate sideways and upward. The swivel is often made movable up the rail (especially on racing yachts) in order to be able to reach the sail without touching the halyard, using Tack lines. Gaff, like the boom, it has a toe and a heel. The heel of the gaff has mustache, grabbing the mast. Whiskers can be fixed or swivel: fixed ones are most often made of wood (oak or ash), and swivel ones are made of metal. The surface of the whiskers facing the mast is sheathed with leather, and the place on the mast where they run is covered with thin sheet copper or brass, thus protecting it from wear. To prevent the mustache from jumping off the mast, their ends are connected with a thin steel cable - bayfoot. One of the ends of the beyfoot is attached to the mustache with thin hemp tackle of such strength that when the gaff falls, it breaks, protecting the mustache from breakage. Wooden balls are put on the beyfoot - rakskloty, so that he can walk along the mast more easily and not scratch it.
Spruyt -
Devices for fastening and wiring rigging : fittings, arrows, spruits, blocks, rollers.
Metal parts intended for attaching rigging and spreaders to the hull and spar are called shackles. Spruyt - a tightly stretched steel cable along which a block slides (replaces rails). Rolls-small pulleys for changing the direction of pull of sheets or other gear; They are usually placed on cleats or hawse. Blocks serve to facilitate work with running rigging and change the direction of traction. A stationary block does not provide any gain in force and only serves to change its direction. A moving block gives approximately twice the gain in strength, but to move the load it requires twice as much gear as would be required without the block. To determine the gain in strength that the hoist gives, consider how many tackles are holding the load. How many such gears - Lapps, This is approximately the gain in strength. Blocks come in many different types. The most common are plastic bound blocks, which consist of pulley- a disk with a groove on the rim along which the tackle rolls, dowel- pulley axles, fittings with a hole for the axle and cheeks protecting the tackle from friction against the forging and guiding it along the pulley.
Devices for attaching sails to spars : lykpazy, rails, segars.
4.2.2. Rigging. The rigging is standing and running. Smart stuff.
Standing rigging : shrouds ( basic, top, diamond-shaped ), stays ( mainstay, topstay, counterstay ), backstays, backstays, their purpose. Purpose.
Standing rigging comprises shrouds, Supporting the mast from the bend to the sides, stays, supporting it from bending backwards, and backstays, supporting from bending forward. On cat dinghies, for example the Finn and OK classes, the mast does not have standing rigging and bends freely under the influence of the wind on the sails. If there are two pairs of shrouds on a yacht, then the upper ones are called top shrouds, and the lower ones - main ones. To increase the angle between the mast and the shroud, the top shrouds are often spread out painters.
If there are several pairs of shrouds and they all go with their lower ends to the deck, then those that go to the very top of the mast are called top shrouds. Further down in order are: top, middle and bottom guys.
No matter how many pairs of shrouds there are, the lowest ones, going straight to the deck, without spreaders, are called the main ones. The top shrouds are always carried out in the plane of the mast, and the main ones - slightly towards the stern. When there are two pairs of main shrouds, one of them is carried slightly ahead of the mast. Often done on Bermuda masts diamond shrouds, they go to the mast from the very top through the upper spreaders.
Stag, extending from the top of the forward sail triangle and supporting the jib is called main, and if there are no others, then just a forestay. If there are several forestays, then the forestay coming from the top of the mast is called topstay**, the forestay on which the jib is placed, jib-rail. On Bermuda-rigged yachts, the top of the mast is in most cases supported by one or two more backstays, going to the stern of the ship.
Backstays go to the deck of the ship to the sides from the place on the mast where the main stay is attached. The backstays are secured in such a way that they can be released and retrieved when changing tack. To do this, the lower ends of the backstays are equipped with hoists or sliders, which move along rails fixed to the deck or tightly stretched steel cables - spruits.
Attaching them to the mast and to the hull of the ship : Puttens, turnbuckles, lever devices, winches .
The shrouds and stays are attached to the hull using appropriate fittings - guys-putens and stay-putens, securely attached to the hull of the yacht. The cable tension is carried out turnbuckles- screw ties or turnbuckle units.
On modern yachts, high-speed lever tensioners, or winches, are widely used, facilitating the work of the crew and speeding up the release and laying of the backstays (see. rice. 51). The rear main shrouds are sometimes equipped with such tensions - then the leeward shroud is weakened and does not cut the mainsail
Material for standing rigging.
Steel cable galvanized or stainless steel. Rigid cables are woven from thick wire and used for standing rigging, where they are not subject to strong bending, but experience significant loads. Such cables cannot be passed into blocks.
Running rigging . Parts of the running rigging of a Bermuda and gaff cat, sloop. Purpose of gear. Material for running rigging.
Running rigging
Where does he run and why is he needed? We pull, we lift - this is in a nutshell about running rigging.
False: to put it simply - a rope. It’s not difficult to remember its purpose - everything that rises up is lifted by halyards. The first thing we raise is, of course, the sails. In order not to get confused and not to shout - “hey, pull the green rope”, the names of the halyards usually consist of two words. The first word is the name of the sail + the word “halyard”. Everything is quite simple: “mainsail-halyard”, “jibsail-halyard”, etc.
Like any rope, a halyard has two ends. The end to which the sail or equipment is attached is called the “root”, the end by which they are pulled is called the “running”
Block: serves to facilitate work with running rigging and change the direction of traction. They taught physics and there is no need to explain why blocks are needed. The only thing that should be kept in mind is that fixed blocks do not provide any benefit in reducing force; their main task is to change the direction of thrust.
Sheet: rope again, this time to control the sails. The name is also made up of two words. “Gail-sheet”, “Jib-sheet” – these are the sheets you will use most often. The first serves to control the main sail - the mainsail, the second to control the jib. The control rule is quite simple if we are going against the wind - the sharper the course and stronger wind the more you need to “fill” (tighten) the sheets, the wind is less, the course is “fuller” - we poison the sheets. When we are sailing full course (wind at our back): the mainsheet is usually completely released, and the jib sheet is selected so that the jib sheet has the greatest fullness relative to the wind.
Topenant: tackle holding the boom. As a rule, the topper goes from the top of the mast down to the foot of the boom, forming a triangle with the mast and boom. Its main task is to prevent the boom from falling onto the deck when the mainsail is not raised; it is used during moorings and walking under the engine. When the mainsail is raised, the toppet should be loosened - otherwise it will interfere with the proper operation of the sail.
Winch: raising the sail with a halyard or setting the mainsail to the desired position with a sheet is not so easy. Strength is needed. Winches are used to facilitate this task. The halyard or sheet is wrapped around the winch (throw a hose), the stronger the force required, the more hoses need to be thrown. Three hoses are optimal. Then, using the handle, the winch is set in motion, significantly facilitating the effort. Winch devices vary from the simplest to self-locking and electric.
Stopper: We picked up the sheets, but they need to be secured, for this they use a stopper. A device that allows you to attach the running end of the tackle and, if necessary, quickly reset it.
Enough for now. Although, of course, this is not the entire list of running rigging, there is still braces, laps, tacks, etc. etc. We now need a minimum that will allow us to understand how the yacht works, and the subtleties... this is already with experience and at will.
Running rigging serves to control the spar and sails, and raise signal flags. In this case, running rigging includes mainsheet sheets– serve to control the boom, mainsheet sheets– serve to adjust the mainsail along the boom, main halyard– for lifting the mainsail onto the mast, staysail halyard– for hoisting the jib to the mast, boom guy– to attract the boom to the deck so that it does not lift up at full courses and staysail sheets- to control the jib.
Cables that serve as material for running rigging can be vegetable, synthetic and steel.
The following plant ropes are used on yachts:
- hemp- made from hemp fibers obtained by processing hemp stems. A cable twisted from pure hemp is called white (white). If hemp cable heels are passed through hot tree resin (to protect against rotting), then the cable twisted from them is called resinous (resinous). Resin cables are almost never used on yachts, since they are less strong (by 10-20%) and, releasing resin, can stain sails and painted surfaces. All new white hemp cables are stretched by an average of 8-9% under load;
- sisal- they are made from the fibers of the agave plant, which grows in Mexico, as well as in the south of Crimea and the Caucasus. In terms of strength, these cables are similar to hemp, they are distinguished by their yellow color and many protruding fibers (shaggy). Like hemp, they are used for running rigging and moorings;
- Mannlskwe-they are made from the fibers of wild banana stems. The new manila cable is silver and white. It is somewhat stronger than hemp and Sival cables. Manila rope differs from other plant ropes in its elasticity, softness, lightness and ability to float. All these qualities allow it to be widely used for running rigging, mooring lines, tugs, and imported lines. However, manila cable wears out faster than hemp cable;
- cotton- they are made from cotton threads. These cables are significantly inferior in strength to hemp cables, they stretch strongly (especially when wet), decreasing in thickness, and wear out and rot quite quickly. However, the lightness, softness and elasticity of cotton rope make it very convenient for working on sheets. The new cable, thanks to its completely white color, has a very elegant look.
IN last years Cables made from synthetic fibers are widely used. Due to their excellent qualities, they are gradually replacing plant cables in the maritime industry.
Main advantage synthetic cables - complete imperviousness to rotting. They are more durable, elastic and lightweight than plant-based ones. So, according to some data, with the same thickness, a nylon cable is 12% lighter, two times more elastic, more than three times stronger than a hemp cable and two and a half times more elastic than a manila cable.
Synthetic cables (nylon, lavsan, perlon, etc.) are used for running rigging (sheets and halyards), as a lift cable for sailing sails made of synthetic fabric, as well as moorings and anchor ropes. Despite the relatively high cost, synthetic cables more than pay for themselves due to durability and other advantages.
The disadvantage of synthetic cables is their increased rigidity: when pulled through your hand, you can easily tear off your skin. In addition, they are very stretchy: a nylon cable can be extended up to 40% of its original length without compromising its strength. Having a low coefficient of friction, synthetic cables can become damaged if they are poorly secured. Therefore, when tying knots, the running end of the tackle from such a cable should be grabbed to the main one. Synthetic cables are silky white.
Steel cables have a number of advantages: with the same weight as plant cables, they are much stronger and more reliable in operation, wear out less and are less susceptible to the influence of dampness. At the same time, they are much more rigid, they are afraid of kinks, and only particularly flexible steel cables can withstand some knots. Steel cables are inelastic and break under sudden tension.
A steel cable is made from individual wires coated with zinc (or stainless steel). Depending on the type of production, steel cables can be rigid, flexible and especially flexible. Flexible and especially flexible cables are made from thin wires with hemp cores in each strand. Therefore, they have good flexibility and are used for running rigging. At the same thickness, rigid cables are eight times stronger than hemp cables, and flexible cables are six times stronger.
Making cables
Vegetable cables made as follows. From fibers, if you imagine them hanging vertically, rotating clockwise, “in the direction of the sun,” they are twisted heels. From a certain number of heels, but counterclockwise, “against the sun,” they twist strands From three or four strands, again “in the sun”, a three- or four-strand cable is twisted cable work direct descent.
If the heels are twisted “against the sun”, the strands - “in the sun”, and the cable - “against the sun”, you will get a cable made of cable work, but return descent.
A four-strand cable inside between the strands has a fifth, loosely twisted and straight strand, which is called the core. A four-strand cable is more elastic, but weaker than a three-strand cable by 10-20%.
If the strands for the cable are three-strand cables, then each of them is called a strand, and the cable twisted from them is called a cable cable. work. Typically, cable work cables are of direct descent, and cable work is of reverse descent. The structure of these cables is shown in rice. 55.
To find out what kind of descent a given cable is, you can use the following rule: if the Russian letter “I” can be superimposed on the direction of the strands, this is a direct descent cable, the turns of the strand go like the turns of a right-hand pitch screw; if you can put a Latin letter on the direction of the strands "N" then this is a return cable (like a left-pitch propeller).
Cable work cables are 15-20% weaker than cable work.
They are also widely used on yachts braided (halyard) ropes. They are manufactured in the form of a braided tube with or without a core. These are the best ropes for running rigging that does not experience very high stress: sheets, spinnaker rigging, etc. Braided ropes are made from linen, cotton or synthetic threads.
According to technical indicators, plant cables are divided into special, increased and normal; according to the degree of twisting - tightly and loosely twisted.
The production of synthetic cables is no different from the production of vegetable ones. So, a nylon cable made from nylon fiber is made as follows. Nylon fiber threads are twisted “against the sun” into a so-called filament thread; several of these threads are twisted “in the direction of the sun” into heels; The heels are twisted “against the sun” into strands, and from three strands “in the sun” they are twisted into a rope-working cable. Next, the nylon cable can be subjected to heat stabilization to fix its twisted structure and impregnated with a special composition to protect it from sunbathing.
Unlike vegetable and synthetic steel cables, they are woven from six, seven or more strands. Strands of galvanized or stainless wire are twisted around the hemp core, and a cable is twisted from the strands around the hemp or wire core. Hemp cores give the cables flexibility and retain lubricant, which protects the core from rotting and the internal wires from rusting. Rigid cables are made only with a central wire or hemp core.
According to the manufacturing method, steel cables can be:
- spiral lay or single strand, when the cable is one strand, the so-called benzyl cables;
- cross lay or double cross lay; this descent is similar to the descent of an ordinary hemp rope of cable work; the wires in these cables, according to the surface pattern of the cable, are located parallel to its axis;
- cable work, like the same hemp ones; made from three, four or six cross lay cables (strandey).
In addition, steel cables are distinguished by the direction of lay: it can be straight - “in the sun”, reverse - “against the sun” and combined, when the cable is made from alternating strands of straight and reverse lay.
For standing and running rigging of yachts, a six- or seven-strand cross-lay steel cable is used. On racing yachts, they try to use spiral lay cables for standing rigging or replace them with strings - rolled wire made of high-quality steel, as they create less air resistance due to their smooth surface.
Rope strength
The strength of the cable is determined to find out how much load it can withstand. It depends on its thickness. In order not to make a mistake and not to take a cable thinner or thicker than necessary, use calculations using approximate formulas.
Distinguish rope breaking strength- the load under which it breaks, and working strength- a load that can be applied for a long time without the risk of damaging or breaking the cable. The working strength is taken to be approximately six times less than the breaking strength. By measuring the thickness of the cable, you can calculate its working and breaking strength ( table 1). The thickness of plant cables is determined by their circumference in millimeters, and the thickness of steel cables is determined by diameter, and when measuring, you need to take the largest diameter along the protruding opposing strands.
It is important to keep in mind that a wet plant cable is weaker than a dry one, and the presence of mold (see below) reduces the strength of any cable by about 10-15%.
Depending on the thickness, plant cables have specific names. A cable with a circumference of up to 25 mm is called tench, cables from 25 to 100 mm do not have special names and are simply called rope or cable cables of so many millimeters. Cables from 100 to 150 mm are called pearls, from 150 to 350 mm-cables, over 350 mm - ropes.
It is useful to remember that 25 mm- this is the circumference of a thick pencil, 100 mm is a jubilee ruble, and 200 mm is a cut glass.
For temporary contractions or other work that does not require special cleanliness of the finish, in addition to piles, use a lot of money- a cord twisted by hand from two threads, or a special linen cord; used for calcification, benzels and making mats shkimushgar- a lace made of low-grade hemp, factory-twisted from two, three or six strands.
Winches, hoists. Their purpose, parts, gain in strength.
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which is devoted to the sailing rig of a gaff schooner, its details and features. It will primarily be useful to builders of the Dudley Dix-designed Hout Bay 40, but “every man has a harbor with a small schooner in his heart.” These are the words of Henry Miller, and I love these words. And if suddenly you have a desire to figure out how to raise the sails and set off, this book is for you. Critical comments and suggestions that will help improve the quality of presentation and expand the list of topics considered are actively welcomed, since the book includes a fairly small part of the available materials, and their relevance is not always clear to me.
This book continues the series "Schooner "Chava".
Other books in the series:
Schooner "Chava". Project selection.
Housing assembly
Schooner "Chava". Evolution of the ship's engine
Efficiency for ocean cruising
It is absolutely clear that in the conditions of the Olympic Triangle race, the yacht armed with the Bermuda tender will come first. This type of sail is by far the best on sharp courses, and when the wind moves to the stern corners, there is always the option of setting a spinnaker or gennaker. However, the specifics of a long-distance hike pose slightly different requirements for
sailing ship . On a boat sailing under the control of an autopilot, on the ocean swell, it is unlikely that any of these “pot-bellied monsters” will be installed, and without them, a Bermuda boat on favorable courses relative to the wind will go slower than a gaff boat.
2016 Note
- this is not entirely true. The gennaker and gollywobbler are now successfully used on our boat sailing in the ocean with a wind machine. Another thing is that the short and thick masts of the gaff schooner determine the small size of these sails and the simplicity and safety of working with them.
The sail distributed along the length with a long bowsprit and main boom to the transom allows you to accurately center the boat in different weather conditions, facilitating the helmsman's watch and simplifying the adjustment of the thrusters.
A gaff rig, and even a two-masted one, is, of course, noticeably inferior in efficiency to a Bermuda sloop or tender on sharp courses. However, the schooner successfully maneuvers and gains altitude even in very fresh weather, and this drawback cannot be considered decisive for deciding on the choice of armament for a cruising yacht.
Addition 2016. The practice of participating in races with mixed participation of gaff and Bermuda cruise boats of similar sizes in the Philippine archipelago has shown something that is not obvious - when tacking in a fresh wind and on a serious wave, schooners can emerge victorious.
Drive with a family crew or alone
To work with Bermuda tender sails of approximately 100 sq.
m. in such conditions, serious mechanization will be needed. Bow sails are furled, mainsail with mechanization, for example, retractable into the mast, powerful clew winches. At the same time, the expenditure of muscular strength becomes minimal, the boat is perfectly controlled by two people and even alone, taking advantage of all the advantages of effective sailing equipment.
However, there are also problems here. In order for all this to work reliably, you will need to invest a lot of money in purchasing high-quality equipment with an appropriate margin of safety, in addition, this modern equipment operating in marine conditions will require constant ongoing maintenance.
As a rule, failures of such equipment occur in difficult situations under high loads - in stormy conditions, during maneuvering, when the capabilities and time for repairs are limited and the likelihood of crew errors is high. Do-it-yourself repairs of high-tech components during a long voyage are excluded or very limited, so it is necessary to provide for the possibility of duplicating equipment or other options for restoring the functionality of weapons. I must say, this seems to be quite a serious problem on the islands. During our stay in Vanuatu, a very beautiful charter yacht, one of the former America's Cup contenders, came there for repairs. The breakdown of the lykpaz led to the fact that they were forced to stand for two weeks waiting for ordered spare parts, and when we left for NZ, they continued to stand sadly in the roadstead. Such a disruption to the transit schedule is a serious loss of money and reputation for the ship.
Another example is in Majuro, Marshall Islands, our anchorage neighbor was a new American yacht with a family crew. During the passage they lost the bow furler of the genoa. And Jim quite seriously told me that I would have to wait at least a month for new parts from the States.
When armed with a gaff schooner, the total sail area is divided into several fairly small sails, each of which can be set by a single person. There is no mechanization; in order to select the sheets of the bow sails, a pair of small winches on the cockpit coamings is enough, in addition, you only need another small winch on the main boom for reefing.
The foresail and mainsail gaffs are lifted manually through pulley systems.
The absence of lip openings on the masts eliminates many problems when setting and cleaning the mainsail and foresail, which are typical for Bermuda sails. At the same time, the use of new materials - relatively light gaffs made of aluminum pipes, sails made of Dacron, give this type of weapon new useful qualities. Luff like this gaff sail
You can pull it much tighter than before. As a result, the gaff falls off less in the wind, the shape of the sail is less distorted due to the “twist” - twisting the upper luff relative to the lower one, a “light” gaff, due to less inertia, is less inclined to unpredictably shift from side to side and distort the shape of the sail in low wind conditions and roll...
The yacht is easily balanced with sails. Unlike the modern "Bermuda" concept, the sails are divided into main and additional ones. The main sail is carried by the schooner constantly, until the onset of conditions close to stormy ones. In moderate winds, additional sails are set. When close-hauled, she carries all possible sails, this is the main sail - mainsail, foresail, staysail and jib, and additional - topsail and fisherman.
As the weather cools, the fisherman is removed successively, then the topsail, leaving only the main sails. As the wind picks up, the mainsail begins to reef as the boat begins to beg, showing a tendency to drift. The time to remove the jib usually comes when the mainsail is already reefed to a couple of shelves. By the way, the gaff schooner is drifting steadily. To do this, it is enough to leave the bow sails on the windward side during the tack and put the rudder slightly into the wind.
A topsail is placed on the topmast of the mainmast, which operates on all courses relative to the wind. The topsail is raised from the leeward side of the mainsail by a topsail halyard passed through the top of the main topmast to the deck. The topsail sheet is passed through a block at the toe of the mainsail-gaff, then through an intermediate block in the area of its heel, and further onto the deck.
In addition to them, the topsail is held at the ezelgoft by the upper tack, passed through the butt on the top of the mast, and is pulled down by the lower tack, fixed to the cleats of the mainmast. On long tacks, the topsail is removed before the turn and raised again to leeward. When tacking on short tacks, the topsail is often left where it is, and some loss of thrust is tolerated due to the deterioration of aerodynamics. Setting up and removing the topsail is difficult big amount
gear that needs to be selected or baited at the same time, but its area is small, and after setting it does not require special attention.
This is especially true for additional windage. For example, setting and retracting a topsail will require working with four different running rigs, as will setting and retracting a Fisherman.
Setting a gaff sail requires simultaneous work in a certain sequence with two tackles - a dirk-halyard and a gaff-gardel, which requires some experience. To gain strength, these tackles are held with tackles in two lopars, so the time required to set and remove the gaff sail, including laying the tackle in the bays, is much longer than in the Bermuda version. It should be noted that the presence of two gears for raising the gaff, on the other hand, allows for fine tuning of the sail shape for different conditions
, and gives very interesting results after gaining experience. Gaffs and sails on full courses require protection from abrasion, since they rest on the shrouds in these conditions. Long booms on full courses must be secured with block hoists to prevent them from being dangerously thrown to the other side when pitching.
Working with bow sails, with access to the bowsprit on a wave, can become quite unpleasant, therefore, for cleaning the jib, additional gear is provided - a niral, which pulls the halyard corner of the sail to the bowsprit tip, and all further work is laying along the bowsprit and tying the retracted sail in a sailing manner can be done from the bow deck.
As a safety measure, a net is stretched between the water backstays and runs under the bowsprit, which also adds to the charm of the boat. Routine maintenance and repairs boil down to timely replacement of running rigging gear, leather on the gaffs, and restoration of worn out protectors. A traditional wooden spar also requires constant attention, but in our case we were able to get rid of this, since the masts and all other spar trees are metal. The most they need is periodic restoration of paintwork in areas of wear.
In these times of dominance of Bermuda sloops, it is rare to see a gaff schooner at sea. Nevertheless, my “Chava” is equipped exactly like this. What is this, a reconstruction of a classic, desperate savings on an aluminum spar, or a tribute to romance?
The project allowed, among others, the option of arming the yacht as a Bermuda tender or a gaff schooner. Let's try to consider in detail and impartially the pros and cons of these sailing options for a specific project, as well as some features of the design and operation of a gaff schooner.
Bermuda tender.
Bermuda weapons have long been the standard for sailing yacht. New materials and technologies used in the development of sails and spars have led to very effective and easy-to-control weapons that have no equal on sharp courses.
On full courses, a yacht so rigged can carry twin staysails or a gennaker instead of a spinnaker when sailing with a small crew or alone. The main problems of Bermuda weapons are a large number of standing rigging and serious loads transmitted to the hull by the spar and equipment.
The relatively large cross-section mast is supported by two rows of spreaders. The sail area of the project, armed with a Bermuda tender, is 78.2 m2.
Gaff schooner.
The gaff rig masts are relatively short and of large diameter, secured with shrouds and stays in the top area, since the gaff tendrils moving along them when setting the sails do not allow the placement of additional attachment points.
The mainmast is installed on the deck, the loads on the hull are distributed by the submast pilser. The foremast shrouds are located in the bow of the hull; the width of the hull here is much smaller than at the midships, where the mainsail shrouds are installed. In addition, the mast is additionally loaded with bow sails.
Therefore, the foremast passes through the deck in steps on the bottom, and is additionally braced at deck level.A special feature of the gaff rig is the absence of backstays. The shrouds of the standing rigging and boomsails take the entire load from the installed sails, and the booms of gaff sails, even at full courses, almost do not extend beyond the deck in plan.
This leads, on the one hand, to an elegant and swift silhouette - the masts have a noticeable design tilt towards the stern, on the other - long booms at full courses require mandatory block hoists, short drawn from their legs to suitable attachment points on the deck - as a rule, to the leeward side and slightly forward.
They rigidly fix the booms against involuntary jibes.The rather long bowsprit is another feature caused by the shape of the gaff mainsail and the need to balance its windage with forward bow sails, otherwise the yacht will be strongly driven to the wind.Main sail area –65.8 m 2 . Taking into account the additional windage, the yacht can carry about 100 m 2 sails.
Spar design.
The choice of a steel pipe in the project as the basis for the mast columns seems, at first glance, strange. There is an opinion among sailors that steel is not a suitable choice for a spar. They believe that such masts will be too heavy, the boat will lose stability, and corrosion will make them very short-lived.
However, the mass calculation tells a different story. A traditional timber spar requires an increase in mast diameter and will be heavier in weight. Aluminum alloy provides virtually no advantages over steel. If we introduce a couple more criteria - the cost of the material for making the mast and its availability, then steel certainly becomes the best choice.
The mast is assembled into a single unit by electric welding and sealed to prevent corrosion, after which it is protected with paint and varnish coatings in the same way as the steel body. All necessary electrical cables are routed externally, along the cables, as well as the running rigging.
Booms, gaffs, topmast.
These spar trees, according to the design, should be made of wood and hollow inside. The designer does not approve of their manufacture from solid pieces of wood due to excess weight and the risk of cracking.
The fittings and other useful things for the wood were already ready when, for reasons of durability, strength and reducing cost and labor, the decision was made to replace it with affordable aluminum alloy pipes.
In particular, this was prompted by correspondence with the owners of the American sistership schooner “Adventure”. They had to replace the booms after ten years of use of the boat, although the masts and sails were still in good condition. Just at this time, pipes made of aluminum alloys ceased to be in short supply, and the issue of spar was resolved in one fell swoop.
The blanks were thoroughly washed from grease and first coated with primer for aluminum, and then painted. The fittings, gaffs, and other hinged components and parts are made of stainless steel and installed on screws and threaded rods, as well as polyurethane sealant.
The mustaches of the gaffs are covered with technical leather, the “stainless steel” is polished with a felt wheel with GOI paste, clamped in a drill. The topmast is installed in its place in ezelgoft through insulating bushings machined from caprolon to prevent electrochemical corrosion.
The bowsprit is made of larch. I managed to select and purchase for this purpose dried boards 20 mm thick of the “zero” grade. The bowsprit is glued together from these larch boards using epoxy resin with the addition of dry wood dust.
Larch has a high resin content in the wood, so before gluing, the surface must be thoroughly cleaned of it with acetone to ensure adhesion. In order to smear this amount of resin (more than 2 kg) on the surface of the boards and assemble the package, I needed to make five batches.
To prevent the resin from setting up prematurely, I worked in the shade in the morning. The next day, the bowsprit was already processed with an electric plane. Then, when the extra piece of the workpiece was sawed off, it became possible to test the tensile strength of the resulting adhesive seam. When the board was torn off, it tore to the quick, and did not burst anywhere along the adhesive seam.
Standing rigging.
The shrouds and stays are made of stainless steel cable and 619 galvanized steel cable, with thimbles and hand-made stops. The fires were sealed classic scheme– through one strand under two against the twist.
After manufacturing, each fire was painted for anti-corrosion protection and capped. Standing rigging turnbuckles and mounting brackets must be at least as strong as the cables attached to them.
The shrouds of the foresail and mainsail, installed on the bulwark gunwale, were strengthened during construction, and therefore are used not only for their intended purpose, but also for lifting the boat with standard 6-meter slings.
Galvanized wire rope for standing rigging is much less expensive than stainless steel wire rope, but requires periodic maintenance. According to classical technology, at the beginning and end of each season it must be removed from its regular place, boiled in drying oil and rubbed with paraffin.
Often they also use coatings based on varnish, paint, or coated with modern compounds designed specifically to protect the rigging. In addition to being cheap, there is another important advantage of galvanized cable - it always warns of corrosion with rust spots, which makes it easier to control the condition of the rigging.
Such a cable does not break unexpectedly, like a stainless steel cable. Therefore, the use of galvanized cable for standing rigging is quite justified.For the forestay and jib rail, as well as the waterstay and waterbackstays, it is advisable to use a stainless steel cable.
The bow sail carabiners quickly wear away the galvanizing, exposing the steel, and the waterstay and waterbackstays are constantly bathed in sea water.Marine galvanized lanyards and connecting brackets have a rather unsightly appearance, are huge in size and have questionable durability due to corrosion; those purchased from import catalogs cause justified mistrust due to poor quality and manufacturing technology.
In addition, their price is unreasonably high. Therefore, the turnbuckles and shackles for the standing rigging were made to order: the turnbuckle body and locknuts were made of bronze, and the tips and pins were made of stainless steel. Lanyards must be attached to the pins through hinges, giving the joints a second degree of freedom.
The traditional scheme for protecting sails and spars from abrasion on the rigging includes installing bear protectors on it in the right places. Such protectors can be made from scraps of worn-out gear using the technology of making printed mats.
Attaching sails to the spar, setting and steering.
Gaff sails are tied with the luff to the gaff, the luff to the mast and the luff to the boom. They are placed with a gaff-hardel tied to the heel of the gaff, and a dirik-halyard tied to its end. Gaff sails are controlled using gear tied to the boom and called a boom sheet.
There are many options for attaching the boom sheet to the hull, the simplest is a block attached to a butt (U-bolt) welded to the deck. This option is provided for by the project and was originally implemented on the Chava for the mainsail and foresail.
A slightly more complex option involves installing a boom-sheet shoulder strap and, thanks to the shift of the thrust point to the leeward side, allows you to increase the tension of the luff and reduce the “twist” - the twisting of the upper luff into the wind relative to the lower one.
This should increase the efficiency of the sail on sharp courses. This design combines well with the installation of a stern stop to support the main boom when the mainsail is in full swing. The foresail gaff on a schooner is equipped with additional tackle, called the foresail backstay, which goes to the top of the mainmast.
Each mast has cable strips installed on the shrouds, which also turned out to be convenient and safe supports for the back when working with sails near the mast. There are four dowels on each floor plank, three cleats on each mast, and four cleats are installed on the deck.
Nevertheless, this is the necessary minimum for such a weapon scheme. Efficiency of weapons during ocean cruising It is quite clear that in the conditions of the Olympic Triangle race, a yacht armed with a Bermuda tender will come first.
This type of sail is by far the best on sharp courses, and when the wind moves to the stern corners, there is always the option of setting a spinnaker or gennaker. However, the specifics of a long-distance voyage impose slightly different requirements on a sailing vessel.
Two more important aspects that are worth considering are the increased stability of a gaff schooner and a lower tendency to broach due to the low center of sail.
Sturdy and securely braced steel masts provide confidence in stormy conditions, and the low center sail allows more sail to be carried in fresh weather, making the boat a true storm bird.
Distributed along the length of the sail with a long bowsprit and main boom to the transom allow you to accurately center the boat in different weather conditions, facilitating the helmsman's watch and simplifying the adjustment of the thrusters.
The schooner successfully maneuvers and gains altitude even in very fresh weather, but this cannot be considered decisive when deciding on the choice of armament for a cruising yacht.
Drive with a family crew or alone.
To work with the sails of a Bermuda tender with an area of about 100 m2 in such conditions, serious mechanization will be required. Bow sails are furled, the mainsail is mechanized (for example, retractable into the mast), powerful clew winches.
At the same time, the expenditure of muscular strength becomes minimal, the boat is perfectly controlled by two people and even alone thanks to the efficiency of the sailing armament.However, there are also problems here. In order for all this to work reliably, you will need to invest a lot of money in purchasing high-quality equipment with an appropriate margin of safety.
In addition, this modern equipment operating in marine conditions will require constant ongoing maintenance. Do-it-yourself repairs of high-tech components during a long voyage are excluded or very limited, so it is necessary to provide for the possibility of duplicating equipment or other options for restoring the functionality of weapons.
When rigged with a gaff schooner, the total sail area is divided into several fairly small sails, each of which can be set by a single person.
There is no mechanization, and in order to select the sheets of the bow sails, a pair of small winches on the cockpit coamings is sufficient. You only need one more small winch on the main boom for reefing.
The foresail and mainsail gaffs are lifted manually through pulley systems. The absence of lip openings on the masts eliminates many problems when setting up and cleaning the mainsail and foresail, which are typical for bermuda sails.
At the same time, the use of new materials - relatively light gaffs made of aluminum pipes, sails made of Dacron - gives this type of weapon new useful qualities. As a result of such innovations, a modern gaff schooner tacks much better than its traditional counterpart. As the weather cools, the fisherman is removed successively, then the topsail, leaving only the main sails. As the wind picks up, the mainsail begins to reef as the boat begins to “beg”, showing a tendency to drift.
The time to remove the jib usually comes when the mainsail is already reefed to a couple of shelves. By the way, the gaff schooner is drifting steadily. To do this, it is enough to leave the bow sails on the windward side during the tack and put the rudder slightly into the wind.
The problems with servicing gaff weapons are traditional and well known. There are much more different types of gear than on a Bermuda boat, and they require special wiring and fastening points, for example, cleats on the shrouds, so working with sails is generally more difficult and takes more time.
As a safety measure, a net is stretched between the water backstays and runs under the bowsprit, which also adds to the charm of the boat. Routine maintenance and repairs boil down to timely replacement of running rigging gear, leather on the gaffs and restoration of worn out protectors.
A traditional wooden spar also requires constant attention, but in our case we were able to get rid of this, since the masts and all other spar trees are metal. The most they need is periodic restoration of paintwork in areas of wear.
It’s clear - you can justify anything, and there is some subjectivity here. Nevertheless, the choice was made, the boat was built with a gaff version of the armament, it passed sea trials on the open sea with access to the ocean and so far fully justifies the design decisions laid down.
Andrey Popovich. Vladivostok.
The types of sailing rigs are quite varied and depend mainly on the conditions in which the ship will sail and on its size.
The armament of sailing ships differs mainly in the shape of the main sails. Large sailing ships wore (and still wear) the so-called straight sails. They are trapezoidal in shape and rise on horizontal yards, positioned symmetrically to the mast and in front of it. Under such sails the ship sails well only with a fair wind; it can only go to the wind at a large angle - about 60-70. On sports yachts, straight sails are not used as the main ones, but on large cruisers, sometimes on passing courses they set a straight additional sail, called
brief. Sports sailing yachts are armed exclusively,
slanting sails
which are located on one (rear) side of the mast and are attached to it with the leading edge. Oblique sails provide significantly better traction performance when sailing upwind than straight sails.
There are several types of oblique sails. Quadrangular(gaff sail rice. 12 13
, , in and A) It has gaff - an inclined spar tree, one end resting against the mast. The luff (edge) of the sail is attached to the gaff. The luff of the sail is attached to the mast, and the luff to the geek, horizontal spar, which with the help of a swivel (hinge). connected to the mast. A type of gaff sail is a sail guari
with a very long gaff (often longer than the boom and even the mast), standing almost vertically. On small yachts, mainly on open sailing dinghies, they are sometimes installed rack or sprint sail. They replace the gaff rake, gaff sail, to which the upper luff of the sail is tied, and its front end freely extends forward beyond the mast ( or A), sprint - a pole that stretches the sail, resting its lower end against the mast, and its upper end diagonally against the corner of the sail, as on the Optimist children's dinghy ( rice. 12,
b).
About 40-50 years ago, almost all yachts were armed with gaff sails. Now triangular Bermuda sails are used, which are easier to use and provide better traction qualities.
(- a pole that stretches the sail, resting its lower end against the mast, and its upper end diagonally against the corner of the sail, as on the Optimist children's dinghy ( Bermuda sail
Based on the number of masts, yachts are divided into single-masted and double-masted. Vessels with a single mast rig are the cat, sloop and tender; with two masts - iol, ketch and schooner. Sports yachts rarely have more than two masts. An exceptional feature in the practice of racing was the participation in the single-sailor race across the Atlantic in 1972 of the three-masted jib yacht-schooner “Vandredi 13” with a length of 39 m and a sail area of about 100 m 2.
Kat has one mast and one sail, called grotto. The cat's mast is placed relatively close to the bow. Cat is a very simple weapon, but it is used only on small yachts with a sail area of up to 8-10 m2. With a larger windage, it is inconvenient - the sail turns out to be high, therefore the force of wind pressure on the Sails is applied relatively high. The yacht has to be made wide, with increased stability.
In the USSR and in most European countries kat ( gaff sail) is the dominant armament of single-handed racing dinghies, operated by one person (for example, dinghies of the “OK”, “Optimist” and “Finn” classes).
To reduce sail height and increase stability, small and medium-sized yachts (windage up to 60m2) are most often equipped with a sloop ( rice. 13).
Sloop- this is an armament in which the yacht, in addition to the mainsail, carries another front sail, called jib. The sloop can be gaff or Bermuda.
The Bermuda sloop is now the most common rig for small and medium-sized yachts. Among the Bermuda sloops, two varieties can be distinguished: the normal Bermuda sloop (or, as it is often called, “three-quarter”, since the staysail usually reaches 75-80% of the height of the mast) and the Bermuda sloop with a top staysail (the staysail is raised along the forestay, which goes on the very top of the mast). The first type is typical for racing yachts, and the second - for cruising and racing yachts ( rice. 13, b And V). The space between the mast and the staysail is called the fore triangle.
Tenders, like sloops, can be gaff or Bermuda. Gaff tenders most often have a mast that is not solid, but consists of two parts: the mast and topmasts(extension to the mast from above, which can be lowered).
Two-masted rigs (Fig. 15) are used on large cruising yachts, where to reduce roll it is important to have an even lower windage than tenders. In addition, the distribution of the total windage over several sails makes it easier for the crew to work with them, which is especially important on yachts that make long voyages. The purely nautical advantages of two-masted yachts are very great: by removing certain sails you can immediately reduce windage, and by combining these sails you can adapt to a wide range of wind forces without taking reefs.
Not very large cruising yachts (50-100 m2) are in most cases armed with a boat or a catch. The Iol has a short rear mast (mizzen mast), which is mounted behind the rudder head.
The sail on this mast is called a mizzen. Iolas can be either gaff or Bermuda.
Note that for all two-masted yachts with oblique sails, the type of rig is determined by the shape of the mainsail. So, if the sail has a gaff mainsail, it is called a gaff, regardless of whether the mizzen on it is gaff or Bermuda. The area of the mizzen on the floor is usually 8-10% of the total sail area of the yacht.
Ketch differs from the iol in the larger mizzen, having an area of 15-25% of the total sail area, and in that the mizzen mast stands in front of the rudder head.
Like iol, ketch can be Bermuda or gaff. Sometimes a ketch has a mainsail without a boom, with a clew located at the top of the mizzen mast. The lower gap is then filled with a larger mizzen-sailsail. Such ketches are called jib
(rice. 15, b). A regular ketch or sail can also have a mizzen staysail, only in this case it must be removed when moving the mainsail from one side to the other.
On a mizzen, the mizzen is more of an air rudder than a sail; in addition, in some cases, the mizzen is more convenient from the point of view of the crew’s work on deck and visibility for the helmsman.
Schooner has a rear mast higher than or equal to the front. The front mast of a two-masted schooner is called foremast, and the back - mainmast. The sails are named accordingly foresail and mainsail. Schooners, like other yachts, can be gaff or Bermuda. Bermuda schooners are often armed with a gaff foresail (at the same height as the Bermuda foresail, it can have large area windage than the last one). (There is a type of Bermuda schooner, G- staysail schooner
