Little question about Gaff Rigs Topsail

[DangerousPirate]

What is the purpose of having the extra sail on top of it instead of just one big sail?

 

[MADRIGAL]

What is the purpose of having the extra sail on top of it instead of just one big sail?

The ability to reduce sail? Or, to set extra sail in light winds?

 

[ianc1200]

Also a higher sail - eg on the Broads to catch the wind above the trees lining the banks.

 

[MisterBaxter]

Before sailing boats had engines, they needed to be able to spread a huge sail area in light winds, then reduce safely down to a snug rig in heavy winds. Sailcloth was heavier but also less strong, so several smaller sails worked better than a couple of massive ones.
With gaff rig, the gaff lets you set a lot of sail without a very tall mast. Once you've got a gaff mainsail, it's an obvious move to add a topsail.
The topmast itself could also be housed to reduce windage in a gale, and if it snapped off altogether the rest of the rig would still work, so it added a failsafe into the system.

 

[Wansworth]

Increases leading edge in light winds

 

[Plum]

What is the purpose of having the extra sail on top of it instead of just one big sail?

You could have one big equivalent size sail but you would then sail most of the time with a reef in. My topsail provides much flexibility to change sail area and, unlike a bermudan main, allows you to add area high up yet on a relatively short mast.

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[DanTribe]

It gives the crew more work and more string to tweak. Stops them getting lazy.

 

[scottie]

Before there were AWB we had gentlemens yachts but even before we had working craft not fancy toys so you had variable sized bits of canvas that could be added or removed as required
your average working boat had a man and a boy plus dog

 

[srm]

Interestingly, I have come across references to the big gaff ketch rigged sailing trawlers (towing a beam trawl with the tide) using reefed main and topsail as the wind freshened.

 

[ianc1200]

One of the East Coasts Gaffers former leading lights had his racing rig of a reefed main plus a topsail on his converted Morecombe Bay Prawner.

 

[Plum]

Interestingly, I have come across references to the big gaff ketch rigged sailing trawlers (towing a beam trawl with the tide) using reefed main and topsail as the wind freshened.

Yes, that is occasionally done but not all topsail rigging methods allows that.

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[Wansworth]

Sailing barges used to just set their topsails to maneuver in the docks where the wind was fickle

 

[Geoff A]

No thread drift intended what came first. Gaff Rig or Gunter Rig as they are both simula.

 

[Plum]

Sailing barges used to just set their topsails to maneuver in the docks where the wind was fickle

and the Thames sailing barges still do, but they have sprit rigged mainsails which allows that,

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

 

[PeterWright]

On a sailing barge, the topsail is the first sail set and the last one dropped when bringing up or coming alongside. It is well positioned over the entre of lateral resistance so the barge is well balanced under tops'l alone. It is high up and will catch some breeze when near to wharfside buildings It's out of the line of sight so you can see where you're going in busy areas. it's an easy sail to set / stow, after casting off the clewline you just haul on the sheet until the clew reaches the sprit head then pull it up the topmast by its halyard., then haul down on the tack tackle at the mast foot. Sail control is by the vangs (control lines from the quarter deck to the sprit head each side). They're fairly near the wheel so, with luck, the old man will venture far enough from his wheel to tend them, leaving the mate to get on with other sails.

Conversely it's an easy sail to reduce when the wind pipes up unexpectedly, just cast off the halyard and the weight of the headstick will bling it clattering down to the main cap, more than halving its area. make up the clewline to keep things tidy - that operation is called rucking the tops'l.

All these sails are not designed to make work - in fact they evolved to reduce work and make it possible to sail a 180 ton burden barge in all weathers with a man and a boy. London didn't stop needing hay and coal just because it was winter and all the hay the horse traffic eat didn't disappear. The resultant product from the other end of the draught animals had to be removed to serve as fertiliser in the fields of Kent, Essex and Suffolk to grow the next year's hay.

Seems to me a better question would be: What is the purpose of having just one big sail instead of breaking the sail plan up into bits that are easier to handle and serve specific purposes in working the boat?

 

[Chiara’s slave]

The gaffer I hope to be sailing on this summer used to have a jackyard topsail, which could be flown independently, but it got ditched, in a major re rig. The new topsail flies from the mast and gaff only. That may limit the size, but it does extend the life of the crew. Launching the jackyard sail in anything but a drift was problematic. Recovering it as the breeze got up was the stuff of nightmares.

 

[Wansworth]

The gaffer I hope to be sailing on this summer used to have a jackyard topsail, which could be flown independently, but it got ditched, in a major re rig. The new topsail flies from the mast and gaff only. That may limit the size, but it does extend the life of the crew. Launching the jackyard sail in anything but a drift was problematic. Recovering it as the breeze got up was the stuff of nightmares.

More weetabix

 

[Chiara’s slave]

More weetabix

Bloody right! Though it’s not the effort that kills you, it’s the hundredweight of timber being flogged about the deck by the expanse of topsail canvas.

 

[Wansworth]

Myfather on his gaff rigged Fisher 30 had a top yard fixed to the aft side of the mast it had an arrangement with a continuous line so he could send up the topsail and it automatically fed itsef into the spar.

 

[westernman]

Yes, that is occasionally done but not all topsail rigging methods allows that.

www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk

I can't do that nicely/effectively on mine.
The topsail is sheeted to the end of the gaff.