Calling Gaff Experts

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I have a 24 footer grp sloop, that has all the bits & pieces for a junk rig. Amongst this is a tabernackled mast of the free standing variety. If possible, I would like to convert this to a gaff rig. Is anybody out there clued up on the subject. Cheers.
 
This is one of those situations where you need to take the problem to a professional, either a yacht designer such as Paul Fisher or Andrew Wolstenholme, or a sailmaker like Mark Butler. Get the balance right and you 'll have a sweet boat, but get it wrong and you'll be fighting the boat constantly. Getting it right is as much an art, based on experience, as anything else. Getting it wrong is dead easy.
Peter.
 
Well, on a cheerier note, I'm certain that it can be done.

Any mast that handles a junk rig, unstayed, will handle a gaff rig with stays added (and maybe even without - many Dutch boats are innocent of stays!) and any hull form that handles under a junk rig will handle under a gaff rig.

You should plan on adding a bowsprit.

Draw a sail plan so that the CE has a lead of 5-8% on the CLR.

Many years ago I converted a small boat from Bermudian sloop to gaff cutter; taking Peter Duck's advice I took my sketches along to a friendly sailmaker (the late Gerald Dennis at Taylors, Maldon) and he tidied them up and added area) the usual fault of the amateur is under-canvassing a boat).

Still working fine today, long after I sold the boat..
 
Well, it's not that difficult. You presumably know the approximate sail area you are aiming at - the same as the junk rig?
Then you need to work out at CLR by drawing an accurate card cut-out of the underwater profile. Then draw a scale diagram of a rig that looks nice, positioning the mast about 1/3 of the distance from the stem if you are going for a cutter rig, and work out the CE by simply trigonometry.
See whether those two look remotely similarly placed, and do some reading up on the theory of their relationship.
Then go to expert and get him to run his eye over your efforts. It will be much more rewarding being able to have a discussion with him based on a little knowledge and some ideas, rather just leaving it up to him.
 
You could try:
www.boatdesign.net/forums/login.php
They have fascinating discussions there on all sorts of quite ambitious projects, and there is a nice mix of carpenters who don't know much about boat design but will have a go, through to experts who can design ocean racers.
I have often read in admiration the way all these will work together to help someone with his particular project.
Just try posting a query explaining what you are trying to do, and I am sure there will be lots of tips and adevice.
Basically it is a have-a-go site rather than a best-leave-it-to-the experts forum.
 
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