Shrouds and stays

Shrouds and Stays – Yes/No

Here is the new interior arrangement in plan,

and profile

The bury, the distance from the deck mast hole to the mast step, is 20” and the foredeck is 32” wide in way of the mast. The mast is well supported by the foredeck and the mast support beam that I plan not to have a forestay or shrouds (stays go fore and aft, shrouds athwartships) which simplifies rigging.

In place of the rowing bench in the original I have gone with a fixed thwart and with the removal of the engine well we have enough room for sternsheets.

There is enough room between the sternsheets and the rowing thwart to sit in the bottom of the boat when sailing.

The pad eyes for the sheets are shown in the profile and plan but the location of the oarlock is not as that location depends very much on the rower, although generally speaking 12 to 14 inches forward of the thwart is usually right.

The standing lug employs two sheets which are led to the quarters, this allows for sail adjustment absent a boom. The biggest problem with this sail is the twist that develops at the head. That can be corrected with a yard vang, a line from the end of the yard to the quarters to adjust for twist, but that is overly complicated for this size of boat.

So there you have it, Row, Motor, Sail (RMS).

Next time we'll talk briefly about construction and would this be better as a round bottom boat.

Changes yet again

The Look Astern and Other Changes

The stern on the original design was also quite complicated. It had a motor well for the outboard which could be sealed off when the motor was not fitted by a plate which was held in place by a bungee cord attached top a removable curved piece that fit into two slots in the side of the well. The space on either side of the well was for storage and flotation.

So in the new version the transom is flat across and the well is eliminated. And an electric trolling motor is fitted through a PVC tube right aft of the dead wood. The original also had a leeboard which in the new version I've traded for a centreboard.

Because all the spars had to fit into the hull for rowing they were quite short which constricted the sail area. It was about 49 sqft, a boomless standing lug sail, with sheets led to each quarter. There were no permanent stays or shrouds.

This is the new design with the old rig.

The previous design was more row, motor, sail. In the new design I wanted more emphasis on the sail and less on the motor so I increased the sail area to 80 sqft keeping the the same foot and yard as in the old sail which means that the mast is now some 17 ft tall which might require stays and shrouds. So here we have the new rig. You'll notice that the centreboard is located in exactly the same place as with the old rig. But, because of the shifted centre of effort of the sail, it is deeper.

The sheets also had to be beefed up a bit given the increase in sail area.

We'll look at the interior arrangement next time and that will determine how we can lay out the shrouds and stays or even if we need to use them.