Modern Gaff Rig
If you scroll down the page a little there is a piece on John Wellsford's newest design. I was intrigued by his comments on an updated gaff rig and how he was impressed by its performance
Awols current speed record by the way is 15.4 knots ( GPS) and David feels that there is a lot more to come!
. So I asked him to explain:
I have long had ideas about making a gaff rig really work well by using some of the modern materials together with the sail shape controls we use on bremudian rigs, and watching the evolution of the "square head" rigs on multihulls and very high performance monos, plus speaking at length to some of my past colleagues at the Marine Design course at Massey Uni and people who've been involved with the wind tunnel that Team New Zealand uses, came to the conclusion that there were certain issues around proportion, luff length, control of sail shape and aerodynamic cleanliness ( low drag) that might surprise those wedded to the usual shaped sail.
AWOLs rig incorportates my current take on all of those, you'll see that there are no gaff jaws, no lacings on the main luff, ( all in an internal track on a conventional alloy mast section) and a combination of full battens and comparitively powerful controls on outhaul, luff tension, gaff peak halyard and throat halyard. There is also a very powerful vang and a full width traveller, neither of which are found on a conventional gaffer. The result is that the top end of the main is not far off the elliptical shape of the idealised birds wing, and even closer to the wing of the high performance hand launched glider model aircraft which is a very well researched foil and wing shape on a "vehicle" that has to cope with wide variation in wind speeds.
The rig has a lower center of effort than a conventional bermudian sail, so has less heeling moment for the sail area, important with this boat as when singlehanded in bad weather the skipper will want to sit "in" rather than stack out on the side decks, and as he is not a heavy guy the lower heeling effect is beneficial, I can use more area than otherwise which helps in light weather and when reaching or running.
The pros, short mast which makes it easy to rig singlehanded, can sneak under some bridges, ( remember this is primarily a cruiser) can be entered and raced in classic and trad boat regattas, and the rig is unusually powerful when reaching and running. Its a much better performer than people expect, and that makes her a bit of a Q Ship which is fun.
Practical considerations are cost, the spar is straight with no taper and a second hand mast section from a small trailer sailer or biggish dinghy would do the job, plus its relatively short so is easy to stow when on the trailer.
PLUS, it makes the boat very very distinctive, different, something that attracts a lot of attention, all good.
In this case the customer wanted to stay with a somewhat traditional style, and although the hull is somewhat reminiscent of about 1970s appearance, the rig changes that into a modern classic with its own appeal.
Skipper Dave tells of people running along the beach to come and have a look, not many boats pull that sort of attention.
Cons, a little more weight aloft, still not quite as clean aerodynamically as a high performance bermudian main, another halyard and a little more complication.
Mostly though, the boat, and rig, is designed with function first, style second. But bear in mind that some of the functions are not immediately apparent, the lightweight crew, the low "air draft" ease of rigging, and so on.
Performance is looking very promising, a friend of mine, out in his Townson 25 spotted AWOL on the water on Sunday last, turned to chase him and said that the little gaffer went away from him so fast he was sure that there was something wrong with his boat.
I'm very pleased so far, am keen to cadge a ride sometime soon so I can observe it in action, and am watching with interest so I can develop the theory further.
I've attached four pics if you can use them, the ones on the beach should be credited to AWOLS builder David Perillo, the one sailing at sea to John Bertenshaw.
John Welsford"
