Gaff Cutter short hand setup

[tomdmx]

Hi Everyone,
I'm a recent owner of a 29' loa (24' lod) traditional gaff cutter which I will be restoring to be ready before the season...I love her looks and feels and whilst not a big yacht by any means, she's got 'style'

Anyhows as part of the work I'd like to make it as short/single hand able as possible, but coming off sloops (I have never sailed a gaff cutter which is part of the reason I purchased her) I wanted to find out if anyone has information on how I could set her up being a gaff cutter...(she does have a topsail also but I probably wouldnt use that short handed)...

The other question I have is if anyone has taken a similar yacht offshore (I mean lost land for days/weeks) and their experiences...

 

[prv]

Anyhows as part of the work I'd like to make it as short/single hand able as possible, but coming off sloops (I have never sailed a gaff cutter which is part of the reason I purchased her) I wanted to find out if anyone has information on how I could set her up being a gaff cutter...(she does have a topsail also but I probably wouldnt use that short handed)...

Not sure there's much that's specific to a gaffer as opposed to a bermudan rig, for short-handedness purposes. Let's have a think...

• Clutches are a boon, for example letting one person haul both peak and throat halyards at the same time easily. May be out of place on your classic boat though.
• With the above in mind, it's easiest if throat and peak have the same degree of purchase (double/triple/etc) so that they go up at the same rate. But if you need a big tackle on the throat for the weight, don't put so much on the peak that it won't come down easily, just to match it.
• Make sure you have a topping lift both sides of the sail (even if the two parts are spliced into one at the mast, though I prefer to control them separately), to control both the half-lowered sail and the gaff.
• Make sure your halyards and reef pendants are worked from the same place - this applies to any boat though, not just gaffers.
• If you don't already have a Wykeham-Martin roller furler on the jib, I'd recommend it. Perfectly acceptable to traditionalists, they were invented in the 1880s.
• Less need for rolling on the staysail, as it can come down on deck, but consider a downhaul fed up through the hanks so that you can dowse it from the cockpit. (I'm assuming you're planning to lead most working lines aft, as you asked on another thread.)
• Learn to scandalise the main for control in close quarters - as well as dropping the peak, on this size boat you can also hoick up on the topping lift to lift the boom into the air and completely kill all drive in the sail. I do this for example to stop as I reach a mooring, or while lowering the anchor. Once the anchor is down I drop the boom back into place to get half a sail (peak still dropped) and then manhandle the boom out to a running position to sail backwards and set the pick.
• Do make sure that your halyards etc are free enough to let the sail fall down under its own weight. It's a pain to drop the sail in the mouth of a harbour and then need to stand on the cabin top pulling it down, just as you ought to be steering to your berth. Taking an unnecessary degree of purchase out of my peak halyard has made a big difference here.

As for topsails - I don't have one, but if I did I wouldn't let being alone (as I often am) stop me from setting it. If your boat was designed for a topsail, you'll be losing a lot of performance in gentle wind by ignoring it.

Pete

 

[SimonD]

I can heartily recommend Tom Cunliffe's "Hand, Reef and Steer" available from Amazon here: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Hand-Reef-S...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1326998266&sr=1-1

Written in Tom's inimitable style and largely relevant to larger gaffers. However, it has a lot of useful pointers for any gaff rigged boat.

Simon

 

[carannah]

Have you thought of joining the Old Gaffers Association. You could gain quite alot of info from people sailing gaff rig of all sizes

 

[tomdmx]

Hi, thanks all for the words of advice, got myself the book and joined the old gaffers association also but most of all thank you Pete for your words on the setup I am working on her over the next couple of months so with any luck will be ready to start sailing by April.

 

[prv]

Just make sure the main goes down on it's own weight, also on a reach - it can and that is something a bermudian main won't do

Yep - instead of lolloping about head-to-wind (or more likely blowing off to one side or the other as you lose way) on a bermudan boat, I can keep sailing on my jib, staysail, and mizzen while I let the main swing out and then reef it. With just me and a tillerpilot it takes seconds to take in the first reef - probably more than ten, but less than twenty.

(Second reef is fractionally slower, because the peak halyard needs to be eased away. For the first reef my peak can be left untouched until the sail is drawing again, then slightly tweaked.)

I can also stow the main with the wind aft. Looks a bit messy on the way down and might not work if very windy (never tried), but I only bother to sail upriver to my berth if the wind is behind me and then of course I need to get sail down to motor the last few yards (sailing onto my inside marina berth still a step too far )

Self-tacking staysail might be nice if you can arrange it, but it's certainly not essential. In my 24-footer I can short-tack down the river (for some reason I'm more keen to sail out than home ) handling both headsails on my own. At this size you can use dinghy-type jamming cleats and work the sheets by hand way quicker than the 36-footer-owner with his winches.

Pete

 

[William_H]

Singlehanding

The best advice would be to get lots of experience sailing with a crew and then single handed in short trips with benign weather. Of course a well found boat that size can go anywhere but is the skipper up to it? That would be the limiting factor. good luck olewill

 

[Rum_Pirate]

So what do you want to know?

 

[FWB]

Double topping lifts will help a lot.
Take 4 or 5 lengths of line from one around the boom and back to the other to make lazyjacks. There will be little danger of being injured by a swinging gaff with this set up.
I have 9 ton 29ft gaff cutter with 13ft bowsprit.

 

[tomdmx]

Plenty of great ideas thanks all, I'm working on the interior to make her cosy for the upcoming weekends or weekdays of hard labour

Oh and I've started a blog..just a couple of entires and time will probably prevent me from updated more than once per week but if you are interested to follow the progress
jollyripple.wordpress.com