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Paladin Paladin is offline
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First recorded activity by BoatBanter: Aug 2006
Posts: 188
Default problems with gaff rigs?


"Peter" wrote in message ups.com...
|
| Capt. JG wrote:
| Thanks Peter... I'll check it out... I have a friend who is really
| interested in this sort of setup.
|
| --
| "j" ganz @@
| www.sailnow.com
|
| "Peter" wrote in message
| oups.com...
|
| Thom Stewart wrote:
| Jon,
|
| My major objection, after weight aloft is maintenance. Jon, In all my
| years of sailing, I can't remember a Gaff rig without Gaff boom Jaws,
|
| .... which shows that, despite your years of sailing experience, it's
| relatively narrowly based. Otherwise you'd know about saddles -
| basically a leathered metal section that closely fits the mast off of
| which the gaff pivots. Quite a neat arrangement.
|
| which means a greased main and a absence of a sail track which means
| sail hoops on the Luff of the sail, which also increases the chance of
| jamming, which also increases the need for a slippery mast, which is a
| PITA.
|
| Also untrue. You can lace the sail to the mast. The absence of
| sailtrack also means the absence of track jams when trying to lower the
| sail.
|
| In its defence though, on a cruising
| rig the sail shape is closer to the shape of the Max. area of the effort
| of the sail.
|
| There's an excellent book on all things related to the gaff rig by John
| Leather IIRC. Called 'The Gaff Rig Handbook' I think.
|
| Jon, I think it's fair to say that the gaff rig isn't going to point as
| high as a marconi rig. Nobody really disputes that, tho the difference
| might depend on a lot of other factors than the rig itself. OTOH you
| get to set a lot of sail on relatively short sticks which makes staying
| a lot easier & stronger, reducing the cost of the rig itself.
|
| As a racing rig for round the buoys, its day has gone. As a cruising
| rig - got a lot going for it still.
|
| PDW
|

It is antiquated. It is too heavy aloft. It has too much weather helm when the wind gets up. It is
much harder to reef. It requires more running rigging. Only stupid people would go gaff instead
of Marconi.

Paladin
(Have Blue Water Yacht - Marconi Rigged - Will Travel)

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