AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
That's more how I remember it.
Just pictures
- Thread starter Kukri
- Start date
Frayed Knot
Well-known member
Seen today on the Deben - possibly a Lowestoft sailing drifter. Not a great photo, just a snatched phone pic through the wheelhouse window but quite interesting, I thought.
Frayed Knot
Well-known member
Dammit, something’s wrong - definitely not image size this time…
LONG_KEELER
Well-known member
Frayed Knot
Well-known member
Plum
Well-known member
She was racing in the Lowestoft Centenary Smack Race last Saturday on July 30. She flew! The 1878 Lowestoft drifter GLEANER. It was a great race with a selection of the old Lowestoft smacks and a fleet of Old Gaffers Association boats too. 'A massive success': Thousands turn out for historic festival in town
www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
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Blueboatman
Well-known member
Ooh that’s pretty..nice
tillergirl
Well-known member
ReminderAquaboy
Well-known member
Blackwater barge match
Aquaboy
Well-known member
I had a night in Maldon and came home via the old light house on the Gunfleet
philiphurst
Active member
Niagara approaching the finish of Saturday's Blackwater Match.
Edited: unable to attach resized image. Will try later.
Here you go!
Edited: unable to attach resized image. Will try later.
Here you go!
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tillergirl
Well-known member
How to tack a SB in light winds:
Back the jib
Tack1 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
Mizzen still driving, topsail starts to fill
Tack 2 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
Main and topsail now driving, mizzen eased and not yet driving while jib is still backed.
Tack 3 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
Jib let free and set on the new tack. All now then driving. All rather fun and calm.
Tack 4 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
Back the jib
Tack1 by Roger Gaspar, on FlickrMizzen still driving, topsail starts to fill
Tack 2 by Roger Gaspar, on FlickrMain and topsail now driving, mizzen eased and not yet driving while jib is still backed.
Tack 3 by Roger Gaspar, on FlickrJib let free and set on the new tack. All now then driving. All rather fun and calm.
Tack 4 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
AntarcticPilot
Well-known member
That works on a converted wooden lifeboat, too! Same problem - long (as in full length of the boat) straight keel.How to tack a SB in light winds:
Back the jib
Mizzen still driving, topsail starts to fill
Main and topsail now driving, mizzen eased and not yet driving while jib is still backed.
Jib let free and set on the new tack. All now then driving. All rather fun and calm.
tillergirl
Well-known member
Actually before I learnt how to set up the preTiller Girl right (i.e. the previous boat), I HAD to back the jib to get through the wind. T'was all about balance!
Sorry I have just had a bout of nostalgia!
Clinker 2 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
I had to save up for the sails to be sorted - mailsail boltrope had shrunk, the staysail was replaced and a nice jib downhaul was fitted which could tighten the luff. Nobody would believe me but she had the most comfortable bunk ever fitted on a boat. Don't know why peeps what plastic boats. All there in 25ft with a separate engine room, separate heads, galley and four bunks; plenty of running water
Sorry I have just had a bout of nostalgia!
Clinker 2 by Roger Gaspar, on FlickrI had to save up for the sails to be sorted - mailsail boltrope had shrunk, the staysail was replaced and a nice jib downhaul was fitted which could tighten the luff. Nobody would believe me but she had the most comfortable bunk ever fitted on a boat. Don't know why peeps what plastic boats. All there in 25ft with a separate engine room, separate heads, galley and four bunks; plenty of running water
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michael_w
Well-known member
You missed cranking the leeboards up and down ?
tillergirl
Well-known member
Yeap, good point!
PeterWright
Well-known member
Indeed, step 1 is to lower the weather leeboard - if you wait until the barge has tacked, the load on the new lee leeboard will be too high to persuade it to move, so the old man will have to luff up to relieve the load, risking getting stuck in irons.
The secret of Roger's first photo is that the mizzen is sheeted to the rudder so, as you put the helm down to tack. the sail is pushed up into the wind and starts the barge turning. Then, the foresail (not jib, only bowsprit barges carry a jib, set from the main mast cap to the bowsprit head), held to the lee shrouds by the bowline starts to fill aback generating the other half of the couple that rotates the barge through the wind, as shown in the second photo. No need to tend the topsail or the mainsail, both are self tacking, the main being sheeted to the main horse and the topsail to the sprit head. As the main starts to tack it will flog a bit, causing the massive block at the horse to thrash about so it's not wise to try to cross the horse until the sail has filled properly on the new tack. Once the barge starts to settle on the new tack, the skipper will yell "Let draw" - the order for the mate to uncleat the bowline from the now weather shrouds, allowing the foresail to slam across its horse, after which he goes down to leeward to pass the other bowline through its cringle on the sail and cleat it to the lee shroud in preparation for the next tack then nips aft to wind up the weather leeboard.
This is the easy version with no staysail (headsail from topmast head to stemhead ) set. When carrying a staysail, sheeting that is a priority for the mate - no sheet winches so you must get what you can on the sheet as she goes through the wind. On a bowsprit barge, you also have the jib to contend with and the staysail is set from the topmast cap to the bowsprit head. This was more normal for coasting barges than river barges so they often carried a third hand and mostly rigged the bowsprit when off shore so you could make longer boards. Of course, when racing, you could carry many more crew, allowing a more equitable sharing of the workload.
Peter.
The secret of Roger's first photo is that the mizzen is sheeted to the rudder so, as you put the helm down to tack. the sail is pushed up into the wind and starts the barge turning. Then, the foresail (not jib, only bowsprit barges carry a jib, set from the main mast cap to the bowsprit head), held to the lee shrouds by the bowline starts to fill aback generating the other half of the couple that rotates the barge through the wind, as shown in the second photo. No need to tend the topsail or the mainsail, both are self tacking, the main being sheeted to the main horse and the topsail to the sprit head. As the main starts to tack it will flog a bit, causing the massive block at the horse to thrash about so it's not wise to try to cross the horse until the sail has filled properly on the new tack. Once the barge starts to settle on the new tack, the skipper will yell "Let draw" - the order for the mate to uncleat the bowline from the now weather shrouds, allowing the foresail to slam across its horse, after which he goes down to leeward to pass the other bowline through its cringle on the sail and cleat it to the lee shroud in preparation for the next tack then nips aft to wind up the weather leeboard.
This is the easy version with no staysail (headsail from topmast head to stemhead ) set. When carrying a staysail, sheeting that is a priority for the mate - no sheet winches so you must get what you can on the sheet as she goes through the wind. On a bowsprit barge, you also have the jib to contend with and the staysail is set from the topmast cap to the bowsprit head. This was more normal for coasting barges than river barges so they often carried a third hand and mostly rigged the bowsprit when off shore so you could make longer boards. Of course, when racing, you could carry many more crew, allowing a more equitable sharing of the workload.
Peter.
tillergirl
Well-known member
This photo will show the mizzen/rudder 'sheeting'. Also somebody standing by waiting to wind up the port leeboard.
P1080565 by Roger Gaspar, on Flickr
All rather calm. Sorry about the 'jib'. I was being casual. #809 shows Remainder with the addiitonal foresail aloft: top staysail?
P1080565 by Roger Gaspar, on FlickrAll rather calm. Sorry about the 'jib'. I was being casual. #809 shows Remainder with the addiitonal foresail aloft: top staysail?
PeterWright
Well-known member
Hi Roger,
Just staysail describes that extra headsail in barge man's language, whether it is set as on Reminder or above the jib out to the bowsprit head on a bowsprit barge. On a bowsprit barge, when sailing in confined waters, the bowsprit may well be hauled up and the same staysail flown on the top mast stem stay, just like a staysail barge. Most trading barges carried two sizes of staysail, selected to suit the wind strength. In the case of match racing, they sometimes carried a much larger, lighter version, often called a spinnaker, for downwind legs - setting these sometimes involved creative work with setting booms and tacking the top mast stem stay down in odd places, although I've not witnessed so much of that since the 1970's. Getting the staysail wrong and particularly carrying aone too big or for too long, used to be a common cause of broken topmasts, tumbling on to the foredeck.
Off wind work for the crew could be as much work as going to windward as both the top mast and main mast have running back stays to tend - all this seen to by the boy in the time honoured "man and a boy" crew.
Peter.
Just staysail describes that extra headsail in barge man's language, whether it is set as on Reminder or above the jib out to the bowsprit head on a bowsprit barge. On a bowsprit barge, when sailing in confined waters, the bowsprit may well be hauled up and the same staysail flown on the top mast stem stay, just like a staysail barge. Most trading barges carried two sizes of staysail, selected to suit the wind strength. In the case of match racing, they sometimes carried a much larger, lighter version, often called a spinnaker, for downwind legs - setting these sometimes involved creative work with setting booms and tacking the top mast stem stay down in odd places, although I've not witnessed so much of that since the 1970's. Getting the staysail wrong and particularly carrying aone too big or for too long, used to be a common cause of broken topmasts, tumbling on to the foredeck.
Off wind work for the crew could be as much work as going to windward as both the top mast and main mast have running back stays to tend - all this seen to by the boy in the time honoured "man and a boy" crew.
Peter.
Aquaboy
Well-known member
Sailed a bawley for a while, always put the bowline in on that to help her round
