Rigging a Balanced Lug Sail and Other Tips

A You Tube video by Gig Harbor Boat Works, detailing the rigging of a SCAMP, showed up on the John Welsford Small Craft Design FB page this week.



The FB discussion focused on the rigging of a balanced lug sail but there were other useful (to me) tips.

I’ve long understood the utility of lazy-jacks but never quite understood how they are rigged. The Gif Harbor video cleared up most of the mystery for me. Lazy-jacks have been added to Gardens’ to-do list.

Another tip concerned the rigging of the kick-up rudder up-haul and down-haul. Gardens’ rudder is currently rigged with two separate lines that tie off on cleats at the top of the rudder head. This involves leaning over the transom to raise and lower the rudder. In the video, the up/down haul is a single line - one end serves as the up-haul, the other end serves as the down-haul. The bight of the line passes through the transom and leads to cleats on the side of the tiller. This arrangement keeps the adjustment inside the cockpit. I’ll see if this modification can be incorporated on Gardens.

As to the rigging of the sail itself, a loop in the halyard fits over the end of the yard - rather than being fed through the yard and tied off - and is captured by a fitting on the yard. Tension on the halyard keeps it in place. I’ll check the yard to see if a small cleat would work to capture the looped halyard and, if so, will make that change as well.

The knees are healing well. If the weather were a bit more hospitable, work on Gardens might be possible. As it is, I’ll have to wait a couple of months for the weather to cooperate.