furling sprit rig (correction, sorry)

Sorry guys but my previous post is showing my lack of knowledge about rigging and terminology. The Skerry has a sprit rig not  lug. The sail is lashed to the mast and boom and the sail is held "out" by the sprit's snotter (love that term). So I cannot drop the sail, can only loosen the snotter and lift the boom. Thinking on it, I could use what would be a topping lift on a sloop, but pull the boom tight to the mast, and then control the chaos of the sprit by carefully backing off the snottor some and trying to pull the sprit to the boom, maybe with a second line from sprit to boom. The sail would still look a mess but assuming the winds are light and I'm doing this to row or trailer my boat, maybe it would work. Any thoughts?


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RE: furling sprit rig (correction, sorry)

Bob,

What you want, and almost described, is a brailing line. It starts at the throat (top of the mast), goes through an eye 1/2 to 2/3 up the leech (back of sail) back up to a block at the throat and down the mast where it is loosely cleated. When it's loose, the brailing line does not interfere with the sail.

To brail up the sail, loosen the snotter and sheet and pull on the end of the brailing line. The sail will be pulled into the mast, quickly reducing sail area.

It will still look like an explosion on a clothesline. My dinghy doesn't have a boom, so I just wrap the sail around the mast and sprit, which I can do without standing up. That gets most of the sail out of the way and controls the sprit, too.

Another alternative is to scandalize the sail instead of brailing it. To do this, loosen the snotter and pull the sprit out of the peak (topmost point of the sail). The unsupported peak now falls down and you can secure it to the boom. This gets rid of approx 1/2 your sail area in a hurry. Still looks more like laundry than a shipshape sail, but that's the price we pay for the advantages of a sprit.

Good luck,

Laszlo

 

RE: furling sprit rig (correction, sorry)

   Thanks Laszio,

 

I'm going to play with those ideas today, as the skerry sits safely on its trailer. Love these terms, brailing and scandalizing my sail. Appreciate your expertise.

 

Bob

RE: furling sprit rig (correction, sorry)

   After much standing and staring, then playing with the boom and sprit, I'm thinking I'll try the topping lift idea-  line one, connected at the right spot to the sprit, that runs to the top of the mast and down, and line two  from the end of the boom to the mast and down. I can loosen the snotter some, or maybe just leave it fully extended if I can get enough purchase on the line with it that way, then pull line one to bring the sprit tight to the mast, then repeat with line two for the boom. The issue with the brail line is that I don't have a grommet in the sail, and I would still need to deal with the boom. This may be less then ideal and I may end up adding a grommet and changing to the brail line, as that appears to capture the sail vs the sprit which may be an advantage, but this is worth a try. I'm also concerned about pulling on the sail at an unreinforced place.  Thoughts or advice?

 

thanks,  Bob

RE: furling sprit rig (correction, sorry)

I didn't have a brail eye either, but it was pretty easy to sew on 2 layers of reinforcement on each side and put in a grommet - a lot easier than closing the bow on my dinghy, in fact.

Yeah, that boom is a problem. You could try running the brailing line from the throat to the clew (end of the boom) and back up to the throat. Then you could wrap the excess around the sail, boom, sprit and mast to secure everything.

 

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