Page 336 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

leech and the peak halyard. This won’t give you the just about can’t help but perform better than it did
profound tension you get from a Bermudian back- in the days of cotton. But it helps to have a sailmaker
stay, but it’s plenty for the light- to medium-air sails who knows the peculiarities of cutting gaff sails if
you’d hang from a gaffer’s jibstay. If the spreaders you want to make the most of the improvement.
don’t sweep aft, then opposing tension must be pro- Sail design has also evolved. Note, for instance,
vided by running backstays. Some gaffers feature the high “peak angle” of our example boat: The
both aft-swept spreaders and runners, the idea higher this angle, the smaller the arc the gaff can
being that the latter can be activated when the loads swing through, and thus the less leech twist you’ll get.
are too high for the topmast backstays. Combine this with an extra-wide mainsheet traveler,
The forestaysail can be set in combination with and twist can be minimized to near Bermudian levels
the jib or by itself, the latter in storm conditions or (see accompanying sidebar, “Leech Twist”).
for shorthanded short tacking. Slightly aft-leading For even more efficiency, you can give the gaff
intermediate shrouds can oppose its pull, but not its own gooseneck and run it up a heavy-duty sail
very well, so it almost always makes sense to have
runners opposing this stay. Finally, some gaffers fea-
ture forked runners, with the upper leg going to the Leech Twist (The Mother of
All Winds Is Apparent)
jibstay, the lower one to the forestay, and both con-
verging on a single pendant that is tended on deck. The direction of apparent wind is determined
This configuration must be “tuned,” usually with a by vessel velocity and direction relative to wind
lashing on the upper fork, so that an appropriate velocity and direction; but apparent wind always
moves forward as vessel speed increases, and aft as
share of the load goes to each location. wind speed increases. Wind at deck level is slowed
Gaff running rigging traditionally relies on by friction with the surface of the water, hence,
block and tackle instead of winches for mechani- windspeed is higher at the masthead. Therefore,
apparent wind is farther aft at the masthead than
cal advantage. This makes sense for the big, heavy at deck level.
mainsail at least; an advantage of two or three is Sail efficiency requires that the sail “attack”
enough for a fit, medium-sized person to raise a the wind at a specific angle relative to the boat’s
yacht-size gaff hand-over-hand. Final tension can fore-and-aft centerline; since apparent wind moves
aft as you go up, the sail angle should also change,
be obtained either with a jigger (see the “Jiggers” becoming wider with height. This progressive angle
sidebar in Chapter 2) or with a small winch. It’s change calls for some degree of “leech twist,” in
worth noting here that fully battened Bermudian which the sail assumes a shallow spiral shape as
the leech gradually twists to leeward. A little twist
sails can be as heavy as a gaff sail of comparable is a good thing, but too much will leave the sail too
area; with no block and tackle they can be slower tight at the bottom and too loose at the top.
There are a host of ways to control leech twist
and harder to hoist than their archaic cousin. That’s on Bermudian rigs, including the mainsheet, trav-
why you now see so many contemporary boats with eler, mast bend, halyard tension, Cunningham,
2:1 purchase on their mainsail halyards. outhaul, and vang. Advice in sailing books, and
As for staysail sheets, you have a choice: either telltales on the sail, will let you know what works.
Leech twist is a particularly vexing problem
lead the sheets to conventional winches, or hang with gaffers, because the gaff sticks out so far, and
blocks on short “lizards” attached to the clew for a thus can “fall” so far to leeward. This action can
2:1 advantage (see Figure 2-21). The latter is suited be controlled with vangs on the gaff, but practi-
to small staysails, but watch out for flogging blocks. cally speaking only on schooner foresails, with the
vang leading from the mainmast. Leech twist can
If you go with winches, you’ll find they needn’t be also be minimized, as noted in the accompanying
huge, since the staysails are relatively small. text, by raising the angle of the gaff, and widening
So many advantages. And wait, there’s more! the mainsheet traveler, to allow the boom to go to
leeward and thus keep under the gaff even when
Modern sailcloth is far more stable, lightweight, and reaching.
strong than the canvas of yesteryear, so the gaff rig

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