NE Dory Saga- Repair, Rudder, Gaff Rig

Maybe you'll be able to tell I'm retired as of June 2024...More time to play with boats.

While in Michigan this summer, with my boat stored in the back yard in Georgia, a big gum tree in the backyard was hit by lightning. A large limb came down on the boat and took a big 2 ft long by 1 ft deep "shark bite" out of the side. I made some repair planks out of leftover okume (save all those scraps!) and shaped a new gunwale section out of a walnut board I had lying around. (Gunwale cut to shape, not bent.) Hopefully you can see pictures of the damage and repairs. I've posted links in a separate post, and at the bottom of this post. The interior stain mismatch isn't really as significant as it tends to show in the picture.

Before this post starts to sound like criticism, let me say I love my boat - but...

I've never been wholly satifsied with my lug rigged steerage or upwind performance, especially in light air and that's even with using a custom (bigger) rudder blade that I built initially with the boat. Even with the bigger blade I think the hinge angle on the transom just causes too much drag when you try to use any large rudder angle - as much "down" force (=drag) as turning force. Thus I recently installed "fin" on my transom that halved the rudder hinge angle, and shaped yet another new rudder blade. Again, I hope the pictures come through. By itself, this new rudder arrangement didn't solve all problems, but seemed a slight improvement. I only had about 2 test sails with it while still lug rigged. Again, light winds have been a challenge.

So, I had the wild idea of turning the lug rig into a gaff-rigged sloop (having a jib). An entering argument was to maintain the ability to shift right back to a lug rig at all times, with no real re-rigging. A shift can even be done on the water, thought that would be a bit annoying. Thus the mast and spars remain the same, with only some added hardware and lines. I added shrouds, fitted as they are in the CLC sloop rig. I added a gooseneck for the boom at the base of the mast - some Flying Scot random old parts to create that - and remember everything must remain above the lug-rig mast partner. With trial and error I figured the best attachment points for peak and throat halyards. I found the need for both a throat and peak halyard to shape the sail properly. No fancy set up with a one-line, multi-block/multi attachment points, single-line gaff halyard seemed to work. Having the two halyards does make raising and lowering the main a little wonky - part up/part up on each halyard, then full up on each, and the same - half down/half down, then full down on each while lowering the main seems to work best. (Not like there's a full crew onboard running both halyards at once!) I opted not to use a throat crutch on the front end of the gaff. I have it set beside the mast like the lug rig, but at the very front of the spar. Going to the gaff rig required a good downhaul on the boom, so added that. I had a jib made from a cut-down old Flying Scot jib. Lots of effort was required in the driveway throughout all this to select rigging points/set-up to prevent interference, properly shape and handle sails, and retain the ability to instantly shift back to the lug configuration.

I just did a test sail yesterday. The result/improved sailing characteristics were truly WONDERFUL in low wind. I'm looking forward to a high wind sail to see if I discover any lee/weather helm problems that weren't evident in low wind. Also to see how much wind the rig (and skipper) can handle with the increased sail area. I did a driveway test and found the mainsail can still be reefed in the gaff configuration. Looks a little odd, but still might end up the preferred higher wind rig as compared to dropping back to the lug rig in really high winds.

The only issue I have so far from the test sail is that I think the jib sheeting angle is a little too horizontal - the jib blocks might be better further forward, but I think this is minor and maybe only a concern in the low wind, and think they'll be staying where they are. The other thing I didn't think about was the fact that adding a cleat for the throat halyard on the front of the mast was going to create a place for jib sheets to hang up. Luckily I had a line already installed that I use to hold the mast down into the mast partner in case of capsize. I found I could loop that over the cleat on the front of the mast to create a "guard" preventing the sheets from catching on the cleat. Again, I hope the pictures are accessible, and even if not, I'm willing to communicate with anyone truly interested in the modification(s) via e-mail.

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Got out to sail again yesterday, this time in 6 kts instead of the 2 I had the first time out. So yesterday was a very pleasant light breeze for sailing. The test confirmed that the new rig/rudder performance improvement is even better than I had hoped. The dory now sails like a "real" sailboat and tacks without any trepidation. The speed is greatly increased, too - I'd guess by as much a .5 to 1 kt in the 6 kt breeze. The helm was well balanced, better than the lug rig. We'll see what happens when I get out in some truly brisk winds, but based on yesterday's sail I can already tell the only concern will be figuring out how much wind can be handled with full sails up. I'm not expecting issues with lee/weather helm or any other sailing characteristics.

A couple of minor notes:

1) In my original post I mis-typed "downhaul" when I meant to say I'd added a vang.

2) I didn't clearly state that rig doesn't have a forestay. The Flying Scot jib already had a load-bearing wire rope in the luff, and that remains in its shortened form. The absence of a forestay does helps make for easy and more simple rigging and isn't necessary due to the mast partner. However, with the stubby, unraked mast and limited amount of aft-pull provided by the shrouds, I don't feel that it is advisable to pull for all I'm worth when tensioning the jib halyard. When hoisting the jib I just make it tensioned, but not really taught. Thus, there is a very minor bit of sag when the jib is loaded under sail. What this causes is a more pronounced "break" when the jib starts to luff. As you approach luffing, the sail will start to go soft, but just a tad bit beyond that critical angle of incidence and there's a point where the whole luff of the jib quite quickly will become fully backwinded, catching the wind on its leward side and losing its draw. None of this is really an issue, just a fact of sailing with a lightly tensioned jib luff, which is a fact of life with this rig set-up. And the whole rig, main included, seems much happier when not pinching, anyway.