Did you do a search on this site for "lug rig".  John has a good article on his lug rigs:

http://www.clcboats.com/life-of-boats-blog/lug-nuts-lug-rigs.html

Also, there's a drawing of the Skerry lug rig if you go to the skerry page and click on the link to the lug rig kit contents.

There can be more than one right answer to how to rig it, and you will likely change it some with experience, as happens with every sailboat.  If you haven't sailed at all, start with one of the beginning sailing books for general info and concepts.  Steve Colgate has a good beginning one, as does Annapolis Sailing School's book, and Seidman's "The Complete Sailor".  None are specific to the lug sail.  Also search Wooden Boat's forum for input on lug rigs.  They're a rather fanatical bunch of craftsmen, but there will be good info in between the flame wars over varnish and designers.

   The Skerry, Northeaster Dory and Passagemaker all use the same lug sail. If you look at the lug sail option under the Northeaster Dory you will see a link which gives measurements. It seems the mast shown for the Dory is 133 inches and the skerry mast is 144 inches. I'm not sure if the 144 inch mast is for the sprit sail and the shorter one for the lug sail but I'm using the lug sail and I made mine 144 inches.  I used Sitka Spruce to save weight aloft and until I get the sail laced on I don't know what it will look like but of course it's better to have too much than too little. Also I don't know if the weight of the extra 11 inches will have a negative effect. 

   I've just completed a Skerry with a balanced lug, which I started at WoodenBoat School last September (at CLC in Annapolis).  At the time, CLC had not yet created any documentation for the lug rig on a Skerry, so they included an entire Northeaster Dory manual in my kit, along with the Skerry manual.  It's been really useful to have both manuals to refer to.  The CLC manuals are excellent, but there are some details that are better illustrated in one than in the other. 

I didn't realize until wing15601 pointed it out that the mast length for the two boats is different.  However, setting up in my driveway, I realized right away that the rig just didn't look quite right with the yard raised all the way to the masthead.  I think the boom is higher than it needs to be, and it just looks odd to me.  Photo #12 in the photo gallery on the CLC website's Skerry page illustrates my point.  On the other hand, the boom on a lug-rigged Dory looks like you'd always have to duck when coming about.  (There are lots of lug-rigged photos in the Dory picture gallery.)  I've only been out three times under sail to date, but I don't haul the yard quite all the way up.  In the end, I expect I will split the difference, lop 5" off the top, and drop the masthead hole another 1/2" to give me room to rig some lazyjacks.

I'm thinking the yard doesn't have to be raised to the top of the mast. As long as the parel on the yard around the mast is fairly snug you can raise the sail to where ever you are comfortable with the height of the boom overhead. The tension on the luff of the sail is provided then by the down haul. It seems to me you could conceivably have  as much as a foot of mast above the yard. Now I don't have my sail yet so this is what I've come up with turning the thought over in my tiny little mind.  I'm thinking there must be a way to attach the halyard to the yard so it acts as a parel around the mast at whatever height the yard is raised. When you reef your sail you have several feet of mast above the yard. 

   P.S. Post a link to the photos of your lazy Jacks when you get it done. I may want to steal your idea. 

   Did you guys use a traveler as in the rigging shown for the dory? and if so, how far back did you attach it? There is an addendum somewhere for the mast and boom for the lug rig on the skerry. I found it once but am not not sure where it is

John

   Short answer:  No...

I had e-mailed CLC about this very thing and was instructed to rig the mainsheet as per the Skerry scheme, i.e., clip a block with a becket and bow to a snap shackle on a short 1/4" line knotted through holes in the center seat.  I  received this instruction in the form of an eight page attachment entitled "Appendix: Skerry Lug Rig", which also instructed me to lash the block to the boom 36 1/2" from the clew (the aft corner of the sail).  This appendix also suggested where to locate the halyard and the downhaul, but I chose to start by locating them same as on the Dory, as per my instructor from the boatbuilding class.  He said to then fine tune the downhaul location so as to end up with just a little bit of weather helm.  So far this has all worked out well, but I haven't really had much wind yet.

I'm guessing that this photo of Chris Harlan's Passagemaker Dinghy that's recently been listed for sale on the forum's "for sale" page is a good example of what's mentioned just above, where a line is passed through holes in the center seat to serve as fixation for the main sheet. Someone please correct me if I've got it wrong. 

I'm blocked at work from the photo hosting site, but taken collectively, photos #59, 60, 79, & 92 in the photo gallery on the CLC Skerry page (go to Boat Kits & Plans/Sailboats/Skerry) show the arrangement pretty clearly.  The 1/4" line that's knotted through the seat passes through the eye of a swivel snaphook like this one: (http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/userportal/show_product.do?pid=11839&familyName=Bronze+Round+Eye+Swivel+Trigger+Snaps incorporates a swivel ring)   When sailing, the becket block is clipped to the trigger hook.  When rowing, the snaphook just hangs over the edge of the seat. 

   That photo posted by Sullivan is exactly how I'm going to rig my Skerry balanced lug, however, I'm not going to use a cam cleat for the main sheet. I've read somewhere that you have to be prepared to release the line in an instant. On the other hand, I've also read that holding on to the line for extended periods is tiring. 

   I get more tired holding on to the push-pull tiller than to the mainsheet (and of course you can always sit on it for a while if the wind is steady).  Don't forget to knot the end of the mainsheet so it can't go flying (one sheet to the wind??)

   " I'm not going to use a cam cleat for the main sheet. I've read somewhere that you have to be prepared to release the line in an instant."

Agreed!  but the solution to the tired hands and not wanting a cam cleat on a mainsheet is to use a ratchet block.  I added one on my dory to the and love it...easier on the hands yet if you let go the sheet it is free wheeling, nice in an accidental jybe!   Some ratchet blocks have a lever to turn off, or on, the ratchet feature but even though I have that feature on my ratchet block,  I never turn the ratchet off.

Curt

The Skerry is very popular in France, apparently;  I've heard there are as many as 50 there.  Anyway, they seem to prefer the lug rig almost overwhelmingly.  Some pics of lug-rigged Skerries from our French agent, Emmanuel Conrath here.  Lots of nice rigging tweaks visible.

   Thank you, John.  These photos answers some questions for me. I notice the French seem to prefer their sails loose footed and also they opt for a traditional tiller.  One thing that surprised me was that one boat had double down hauls spaced apart on the boom at least a foot. I guess that is to, well, I don't know but it seems overly complicated. Seems it would be easier to just move the downhaul forward or aft on the boom. 

   Is it my imagination or are those French lug rigs rather larger than the CLC stock rig?  One of them has the boom cranked down to the point I'd start worrying about snapping it.  Those French sailors can be a crazy bunch!

>>>One thing that surprised me was that one boat had double down hauls spaced apart on the boom at least a foot.>>>

That does seem tweakier than necessary.  But those French sail their boats really hard so I'm sure that particular builder had a reason for it.  

>>>
Is it my imagination or are those French lug rigs rather larger than the CLC stock rig? >>>

No, I agree, some of those look larger than stock.  I can tell the 5th picture in the sequence above is the stock-standard Skerry lug sail, but the others look a little bigger.  They must reef a lot!  With the 62-square foot CLC sail, the Skerry has an SA/D like a racing dinghy.

In order to have a loose-footed sail, they have to build their booms much more heavily than we specify.  There are some advantages to a loose-footed main but I think they're offset by the need for a heavier boom.

I launched my Skerry this summer in Devon UK, using a balanced lug rig designed by a third party desiger (also in the US) so that I could get it made up locally here in UK.

My rig is roughly the same sail area as the CLC lug rig (57sq feet) and I have one reef point - which has already been useful. My rig has been raked back about 7 degrees which meant an alteration to the mast partner.

The sprit rig is nice, but the blanaced lug is more flexible to my mind, very easy to dowse when the wind gets up and looks jaunty to boot! Easy to rig too.

The Skerry is a very light boat, so reefing when the wind gets up to a Force 3-4 (13 knots) is pretty crucail if you are single handing - though that could just be my lack of experience! Some human ballast is handy to trim the boat, if you can wrench them away from their blooming iPads. Will take a keg of rum next time.

Here are some pics of my boat from this last wekend. Note the untidy ropework and the fact that I had managed to put the dagger board in back to front! #stilllearning

Happy sailing!

Andy

   If you are still undecided the French distributor Arwen Marine, as well as having some good shots of Skerries with Balanced Lugs on their site, has some great films of the boats in action on YouTube.

See:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kawf3GlDvg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCLlcN_WT_I

One of the cunning mods I have noticed that the Frecnh use is a gaff jaw on the lug boom which keeps the boom snug to the mast all the time. Most of the French Skerry builders seem to have adopted the balanced lug and one chap had modified his boat to have removable side benches and a traditional tiller.

Having only sailed my boat for a few days this season, I can say that the push/pull tiller is great. It allows me to sit very conforatbly on the aft seat and there's no ducking and diving for the skipper when going about.

Andy

   This is a fascinating discussion. I've seen those video's from Arwen Marine, but haven't seen the still photos.

That does it. I'm changing out my mainsheet. I made a rope bridle in the back of the boat, and have a block on that. The mainsheet goes from the end of the boom, through the block on the bridle and then back to the end of the boom. Then it's parallel to the boom to a point where it 's over the front of the centerboard case/seat.  I have an eye there, and a block on the centerboard case/seat. The mainsheet goes from a block halfway along the boom to that block and thence to my hand.  --No more. I'm changing it over to the "back of the seat" configuration.

I find that if I sit on the back seat of the skerry, it totally messes up the balance of the boat. The bow is hoisted out of the water,  the waterline is massively shortened, and the hull shape in the water goes all asymmetrical.  MUCH better is to get my weight as close to the center thwart as possible. The boat is perfectly settled in when rowing, so I try to get my 280 pounds as close to the rowing position as possible.  Even with that, it's good to have the anchor and cooler and everything else up by the mast or on the front seat, to level the boat out.

I'm using the push-pull rudder and I hate it. I HATE it. the tiller extension winds up in the water at least 3-4 times every time I sail the boat.  it is the single most annoying feature on the entire boat, IMHO.    I'm going to make a simple non-kick-up rudder and outfit it with a standard tiller like the French do it and see how I like that.