Hi Val, I hope it will give you an idea of the concept of the design John Newell and I developed over several years experimentations. There are no changes to the mast. The cockpit is free of boom and main sheet. Weather helm is also reduced.
Jorgen Moller
Pondus NS26C
Toronto.
A couple of questions:
How much did it affect your performance in lighter winds?
What did it cost you to change the rig?
Howard Wright
26C Merrythought
Friday Harbor WA
Howard, I would say a nice improvement in light air do to the light boom and more sail above.
Including the sail,I paid about $10K to $11K. Some of the cost was offset by selling the original rig.
Jorgen Moller
Pondus NS26C #33
Toronto
It’d be interesting to see the polar charts of 26’s with wishbone and gaff rigs.
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
The polar charts for the wishbone and gaff rigs will be significantly different. The wishbone rig prevents the boom from going much past 90 degrees so one has in effect a barn door when running dead before the wind. The gaff rig allows us to take the boom up to 30 degrees past 90 permitting air to flow faster over the forward side of the sail than the aft side lowering the pressure in front of the sail propelling the boat forward faster than can be achieved with a spinnaker or 90 degree set wishboom. (See Bernoulli effect). In practical terms, it gives us far greater freedom to steer a course downwind and by the lee without the risk of gybing unintentionally.
John Newell
Mascouche 26C 1
Toronto
It’d be interesting to see where they pick up and drop off relative to each other.
– Bob
Solar Wind
Nonsuch 26C #143
Does the gaff use a separate halyard?
I notice that your sail has full length battens, extending the roach significantly. What would the difference be between a gaff-rig and a square-top mainsail?
Howard Wright
NS 26 Merrythought
Friday Harbor, WA
John,
On a day when Stupid showed up, I got caught with full sail up in 22 knots of wind as I was trying to execute a controlled gybe. When I eased the sheet it jumped the winch. The stopper knot held at the corner turning block. As a result the boom was well past 90 degrees. IN order to take tension off of the sheet so I could pull it back in I headed up to windward. The next thing I knew La Reina was heeling to windward and felt like she was going to sail right on to her side. Heading further into the wind only made the heeling worse. I eventually got her to come off the wind some more and got things back under control. I am wondering if you will experience heeling to windward if you have the boom out past 90 degrees in strong winds. I understand that is a phenomena that junk rigged boats experience on occasions.
Mark Powers
Jorgan,
if the main sheet is out of the cockpit how do you trim the main? Many times I sail solo so having the main right by my side comes in handy.
Randy Gadikian
Paisley Moon
NS26C #37
Buffalo, New York
Mark, I too got caught out when the breeze did not perform normally. Usually on a TGIF with the prep gun going off at 6:30 with the under 30s starting 5 minutes after the over 30s the breeze dies with the sun going down. This time it piped up from 15 knots to over 30. I had Brenda and Jorgen on board to observe the new rig, but had not got around to rigging the single line reefing pennant. (Brenda never came out when it was blowing over 12 knots on a TGIF when we had the wishbone). Before the start it was obvious that the standard head ventilator had to go as it interfered with the main sheet. It was replaced with a small solar vent subsequently. The first leg was a run down the harbour to T15 and a sharp turn down the Eastern gap. We caught up with the laggards of the over 30s prior to rounding T15. We had to thread ourselves through a traffic jam. I was grateful that we had great lines of sight to keep track of the rest of the fleet and the short boom helped as we were gunwale to gunwale with other boats. What impressed me the most was how well she handled in the squalls. She tracked beautifully. Mark, on this occasion I only recalled her heeling to windward slightly. Perhaps at the most 5 degrees. Jorgen might be able to confirm this as I was busy concentrating on keeping out of the way of other yachts. Even though she proved she could handle 30+ knots without a reef, I would not recommend it as she would go just as fast with a reef in without as much stress on all components. I suppose it was an excellent unintended stress test on all components including the original 1981 mast. Having Brenda on board was a bonus. She never mentioned having any anxious moments. That made the whole project worthwhile as it augured at least another five years of sailing together through our 80’s with any luck.
This experience confirmed in my mind that we had made the right decision to change our rigs as Mascouche was a joy to sail in heavy weather even without a reef. The only other time I experienced having total control with the wishbone rig was when we went for a sail when a club race was cancelled due to winds in the 30 to 40 knot rage. Jorgen took Pondus out single handed and I Mascouche. We both went out with double reefs and found our boats behaved impeccably. This experienced prompted me to devise a sail plan that brought it close to the centre of effort and remove the last 5’ of the foot. The result is the standing gaff rig on Mascouche as photographed by Terence Cutts on Friday August 6th 2021. (Thanks Terence, it is hard to get a photo of ones own boat.) We were extremely lucky to have Durk Steigenga design the sail for us as he nailed it on his first attempt. He is a volunteer in running the East Coast Schooner races. After canvassing Toronto lofts for a couple of years, I found that there was little interest in making a gaff sail even though it is a logical extension of the fat head sail now favoured by serious racers. (Battened fat heads do not work well with free standing masts. They tend to lock to windward in any breeze)
The second time I was out in heavy weather was last year when we ran through the Western Gap with a single reef. I am not proud of the photos taken by a fellow Nonsucher at the National Yacht Club who was alerted of the strange rig flying through the Gap. He knew the boat and its rig so could inform the inquisitive NYC member. The ragged reef was due to the clew becoming detached during sail raising. Due to the strength of the wind we did not bother to secure the clew and carried on under a single reef. I had not anticipated being photographed that day at the end of the season. You will note the bow at the head of the sail when reefed. We intend to stiffen the top batten to rectify this. We were hitting 9 knots for sustained periods as recorded by Jorgen’s GPS
John Newell
Mascouche 26C 1
Toronto
Randy, The main sheet is ahead of the dodger with the bitter end leading back to a winch on the starboard side like the standard Nonsuch. The bulk of the main sheet is ahead of the dodger and well away from the cockpit. The gaff sheet runs through the cockpit combing under the cockpit to the binnacle where I have a jam cleat. I may revise this to a small winch due to the forces the gaff develops making it hard to release the jam cleat in a blow. Terence’s photos may explain the layout for you.
J. Newell
Mascouche 26C 1
Howard, Yes I use a separate halyard for the peak. It is the old mainsheet halyard that runs to the top of the mast and follows the usual route. I moved the big winch to close to the hatch so it will rotate fully with the handle and switched the small winch outboard which is more than adequate for the peak which has hardly any load. The main lifting is by the main halyard. In practice, I grab both halliards and pull them together until the sail is up about half way then crank up the main on high speed and take up the slack on the gaff halyard from time to time. I finish off on low speed to tension the luff and adjust the gaff halyard to the strength of the wind.
The gaff is a solid spar separate from the sail. In our case it is standing, meaning it remains aloft so is not a hazard when the sail is dropped. The fat head main is supported by battens often at 45 degrees. In our experience they do not work well with a free standing mast and during a tack tend to lock to windward in any breeze.
J. Newell
Mark, That could not have been a pleasant experience for you. I had the opportunity to follow a 26 in a race. I had started late with Jorgen crewing. We were catching up slowly on the first reaches out of the harbour to T1. There was a three day easterly blow producing steep short seas that can only be found on the fresh water Great Lakes. Our run down to the Gibraltar Point buoy was revealing. The 26 ahead of us was rolling and yawing while we were tracking well without dipping our boom. Our rolls were at least half the amplitude of the other 26. We overtook her half way down the leg. My explanation at the time was that our 5’ shorter boom considerably reduced the yaw and the 30 lb. boom 4’ above the deck did not act like a pendulum as did the 80 to 100 lb. wishboom 10’ above the deck. We completed that leg well ahead of the other 26 and headed out to sea on the beat back. The other 26 had the edge going to windward selecting to head for shore. It was making better progress than us until it tried to tack and missed the tack three times. It opted to start the engine and retire rather than risk running aground. In spite of the high short seas Mascouche tacked smartly every time and was relatively dry. Since then I have been thinning the front three feet of my full battens to achieve a better genoa profile. So far only the bottom one is sufficiently flexible.
I can only speculate that you found yourself on your beams end with mast nearly horizontal that the weight of the wishboom on a roll plus the forces generated by the sail were pulling you down. The low pressure ahead of the sail when the mast was vertical translated into a downward force as the mast approached horizontal. Your rudder would have been useless when you were on your beams end. This is only arm chair speculation on my part assuming I interpreted the chain of events correctly. In this case your 10.6 beam saved the day. I take it that you have a full keel. Junks have a large foot like a Nonsuch so theirs will behave like yours. So far the gaff rig has proved to be stiffer with less heel and better control. I will let you know if I have the same experience as you, but I doubt if I could replicate it with my rig. I don’t recommend you try to duplicate it.
Cheers,
John
John,
my explanation was a bit weak.
We were not on our been ends. We were DDW with the mainsheet stopper knot jammed in the turning block on the starboard stern quarter. The sail would have been about 20 degrees ( at a guess) forward of the mast. I started to head up into the wind to take pressure off of the sheet so I could pull it in and put it around the winch. As I headed up she started to heel to windward. It was not sudden but continued to get worse as I head up into the wind. The starboard rail was just about in the water, boom to port, when I pushed her back downwind. She came back up. At that time I managed a massive pull on the sheet between the standing block and turning block and was able to pull the sheet back to the winch. We then took off downwind hitting a max of 8.9 knots thought the water. The waves were not too bib but were were rolling. A large Grand Banks gradually over took us and passed about 30 feet to windward throwing up about 3 foot waves that really rolled us when we hit them. At that point we had about 3 feet of boom in the water. Neither Nesta nor I were impressed. But the eyes f the passengers on the Grand Banks stood out like organ stops when they saw us roll. We are trying very hard not to repeat the experience.
Mark Powers
