has anyone sailed with a lug,sprit or lateen rig???On a small boat

trouville

trouville

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Im working on a fishing boat that is fixing one! It dosent have a sail i dont think it ever did,but ive seen quite a few fishers with a lateen rig.

Ive never seen one sailing as the mostly put the sail up when in port just to show how well it looks,thats when theres an old boat meeting.

For "daily" use would a lug be a good idea??Or a sprit sail?? Which sail would be the easiest to make and which sets sails the best???

The lug "looks" the best but is it???
 
Something like this

Image007.jpg


Reputed to sail very well, but looks hard work to me.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Something like this

Image007.jpg


Reputed to sail very well, but looks hard work to me.



[/ QUOTE ]

The reaper, shown in that photo is a dipping lug, which is hard work. On each tack a dipping lug sail has to be lowered and the yard dipped onto the other side of the mast, before being hoisted again. Not something you want to be doing short handed in small spaces.

The fifie and zulu fishing boats that carried dipping lugs had a crew of six or so to do the fishing, so manpower on board to handle the rig was never a problem.

However you are probably looking for a standing lug, which is not hard work, and when set up properly is really very easy to handle.

R
 
Some years ago I built a 13' epoxy ply clinker sailing boat which I rigged with a spritsail, and a jib set on a small bowsprit. The sprit means that the sail sets well, and no boom means that your head is safe from an unexpected gybe. I rigged a brail from the masthead just like the Thames barges. The lower end of the sprit was supported by a rope snotter. The mast itself was unstayed, keel-stepped and supported by a fitting on the forward thwart. The actual rig design was straight out of John Leathers book. (Optimist sailing dinghies are also sprit rigged).
 
Yes that sounds good,loose footed is best.Im trying to keep it all simple and compact as i have an idea that this might be a good boat for the canals,then when i get to the sea i can sail takeing the spars with me.

Thats not the main intention just an idea! Now i want a sail that will be practical to sail a this fishing boat and look as if it belongs hence the lateen sail.

And a small inboard engin! Though on this it would need to be about 10hp to be useful and perhaps 20hp not to be over stressed.
 
We used to have a Drascombe Scaffie

Very simple standing lug rig with loose footed sail. That was a very enjoyable boat. Not much cop to windward and you did need to get used to it - nothing like a marconi or even a gaff rig to sail - but quite a powerful sailing boat, all the same, and quite fast off the wind.

We now have an 8 foot barrow boat as a tender. Also rigged with a standing lug, but it does have a boom (sail is fixed at tack and clew) Once you get used to it, a surprisingly good little sailer.

I would go for loose footed standing lug.
 
Re: We used to have a Drascombe Scaffie

I've sailed on a few boats with dipping lugs, and one boat with a lateen rig. I was much more impressed with the upwind performance of the lateen rig to be honest.

You don't always need to lower the yard to tack a dipping lug. Often you can just use a downhaul on the fore part of the yard (this is going to depend on how much yard projects forward of the mast).

Of course, it's very hard to 'dip' a lateen rig as the yard is so long, but if you stick to gybing, you can pass the clew round the front of the mast (along with the yard) and keep the sail on the correct side that way (which you'll probably want to do to make any upwind progress).

Here's a photo of some 'working' lateen rigs; a fishing fleet of Zanzibar.
19%20Fishing%20Fleet.jpg
 
Re: We used to have a Drascombe Scaffie

Thats an amazing image.In France all the fishing boats with that rig ive seen have it far more angeled and smaller

It struck me as a good rigg looking at its,simple practical and useful?(more than can be said for an IBM keyboard.Made to last and be used by those that dident buy it,so the springs are really strong,to get each letter you have to pound away,i will have to buy a new key board)

Im going to try that then on a 5m Olyimpia dingy first then on a Toulon fishing boat.
 
Re: We used to have a Drascombe Scaffie

Have a look at the seemingly everlasting Sunfish dinghies. When sailing them you do not bother to swap the rig all the time and it functions perfectly well whichever tack you are on. For avery old design they are very good fun and perform well enough. It is a very forgiving setup and tends to just dump the wind if hit by a gust on it's own.

There's some stuff here if it's of any interest.

I used to have one and had a lot of fun.

Howard
 
I have a 6m fishing boat with a standing lug rig originally costructed in 1945. Here in Bretagne these "misaniers" are quite common and also quite popular. The lug rig was practical to the fishermen as it was simple to handle and didn't take a lot of complicated rigging to work. Obviously it didn't perform very well against the wind, but that was more a consequence of the hull (and lack of keel) than the rig. My boat is 6m long and nearly 2.50 wide with a 1m draught. Not a racing boat, but it was never intended to be. The fishermen on this type of boat relied on the termal effect of the wind - a broad reach in the morning going out and a broad reach going back. That doesn't really work for a pleaure boat, and I find tacking a bit of a hassle. However, you may experiment with shifting the point of the attachment of the sail to the deck close to the mast and then you would not have to shift the yardarm over the mast. I have also a jib on a very long bow spit, and I am currently experimenting with the best combination of the jib and the mainsail. It will never be able to compete with a bermuda rig, though.
I have some experience in sailing a racing dinghy (The Aven), which is a very fast 4,5 m boat with a lug rig and a deep keel. In the races nobody bothers to shift the yardarm to the other side of the mast when tacking, as the airflow is not significantly disturbed. You have to choose the corret side of the mast for the yardarm before the start, though, to get the most out of the wind.
In conclusion I would say that there are several rigs more effcient than the lug rig, but the hull and keel is more a determinating factor when it comes to fast uncomplicated sailing than the rig. I have considered to change my lug rig into a junk rig, but the traditionalists here forbid it. I am still tempted, though. Good luck.

Sofus
 
Re: Lugsails a lateens

C a Marchaj in his book on the hydro & aerodynamics of sailing proved that the Lugsail & spritsail were two of the most efficient rigs going, also the lateen was one of the worst!
I have sailed several small standing lug rigged dinghies and they all went well.
For good windward performance it is vital to have a powerful tack downhaul and use it!
As far as loose footed goes, on a small boat a boomless sail tends to encourage rolling downwind due to exessive twist in the sail and sheet leads are critical if she is to go to windward well, probably why oppies have a boom
 
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