Dutch Boeier - what holds up the mast?

[richardabeattie]

A Boeier is a fat dutch barge with leeboards and a huge gaff mainsail mounted well forward. The mast is in a tabernacle and can be lowered. All the illustrations I've seen show a forestay to the bowsprit but no other stays at all. So how can the mast carry the lateral load from the sails? I ask because apart from sailing my Sabre I am restoring a model Boeier.

 

[prv]

In this picture (click to zoom in) I can see a long narrow hatch in front of the tabernacle. So I expect the foot of the mast swings down through that as the mast is raised, and slots into a substantial piece of woodwork on the keel. The tabernacle is also fairly chunky. Those two points are apparently enough to secure it to the hull in the same way as a small lugger, a junk, or a Freedom rig.

Pete

 

[Lon nan Gruagach]

mebby easier picture of what prv is showing us..

 

[richardabeattie]

I like the idea of the mast swinging down to the keel but the photo - which is very similar to what I have - above does not look like that. But it does seem to show the same absence of side stays.

 

[thalassa]

A Boeier is a fat dutch barge with leeboards and a huge gaff mainsail mounted well forward. The mast is in a tabernacle and can be lowered. All the illustrations I've seen show a forestay to the bowsprit but no other stays at all. So how can the mast carry the lateral load from the sails? I ask because apart from sailing my Sabre I am restoring a model Boeier.

Most boeiers converted from working vessels to yachts have a lateral stay, usually a single line each side. The chainplates often hide behind the forward part of the leeboards.


This is boeier 'Friso', built 1894. On pre-WW II photos she has no sidestays. As said, the tabernacle is substantial, and its foot indeed falls underdeck. After the mast is raised, it often sinks a little ine in a small well.

 

[prv]

I like the idea of the mast swinging down to the keel but the photo - which is very similar to what I have - above does not look like that. But it does seem to show the same absence of side stays.

Which photo are you talking about, and what do you mean by “doesn’t look like that”? All three photos in this thread (one linked, two included directly) show the hatch for the mast foot.

Pete

 

[westhinder]

Not only boeiers, also tjalken and other traditional Dutch boats have a substantial counterweight to the mast that swings underdeck and fits into a stout lateral support. The giveaway is the narrow longitudinal hatch in front of the mast which allows the counterweight to swing up when the mast is lowered. Lowering is often aided by what are called bokkenpoten, a sort of A-frame just above deck that swings up when the mast is lowered.

 

[richardabeattie]

Yes the hatch is there in the photos. And a closer look suggests that the mast continues on down but behind the decorated piece on its front face. So thanks. That's what I'll do to the model.