Powderpark,

My tiller has a folding extension. However, even with the balanced lug sail rig I'll be replacing it with a push-pull tiller. My other sailboat has one of those and I find it much more comfortable for sailing. When I'm rowing with my wife as coxswain she also keeps getting hung up on dodging the tiller so it'll work better for her, too.

I'm shorter than you are but have no problem rowing. I just put my bare feet on the floorboards and that's enough traction for me. Small Boats magazine has a nice article about options for adding rowing braces if you need more support.

I think you mean yard, not halyard. The yard is the spar near the top of the mast that the head (top)of the sail attaches to. The halyard is the line that is used to haul the yard up to the top of the mast (haul yard = halyard).

You can definitely put a sheave (pulley wheel) into the top of the mast to reduce the friction. That would require you to enlarge the hole into a rectangle and drill through it to put in an axle for the sheave. You'll also need some way to secure the axle. Cotter pins are one good way.

An alternative I've used on some boats I've built is to just lash a block (pulley) to the top of the mast and run the halyard through that. The block can be lashed to the mast through the existing hole for the halyard. This allows a high quality low friction block of the correct size for your halyard.

When reefing, the yard comes down and the boom stays where it normally is for exactly the reason that you mention - stability. I've marked my halyard so I can quickly lower the yard to the correct reefing position. The yard is kept in place with a parrel which can be as simple as the halyard passing through the yard, going around the mast and being tied to the front of the yard at the sail's throat or something like a line with wooden beads on it to reduce the friction.

When lowering the yard, either for reefing or just dropping the sail, keeping the boom under control and in the correct position is done with lazyjacks.

I recently posted a 4-part series here on how I modified the standard rigging on my Lighthouse Tender Peapod. It explains how to add parrels, lazyjacks, a 2:1 purchase on the downhaul with a clam cleat, how to use all that to rig and reef the sail and how to furl and stow the sail for rowing. As a bonus it has a tip for stowing the oars while sailing. There are many good articles for rigging balanced lug sails and it'd be a good idea to look at them, too. However, my posts are specific to the CLC Lighthouse Tender Peapod with the balanced lug rig and have been tested out on the water so they're guaranteed to work with your boat. The series is:

Illustrated Guide to Better Boating through Lazyjacks and Parrels Part 1 of 4

Illustrated Guide to Better Boating through Lazyjacks and Parrels Part 2 of 4

Illustrated Guide to Better Boating through Lazyjacks and Parrels Part 3 of 4

Illustrated Guide to Better Boating through Lazyjacks and Parrels Part 4 of 4

Good luck,

Laszlo

Hi Laszlo,

Thanks a lot for your quick reply & clarifications.

I’m going to review and follow the links you have supplied.

All the best,

Powderpark

   I'm adding this suggestion with the best possible intent...

It sounds like you might be quite new to sailing.  Finding a friendly someone local that could spend some time in your boat with you, or really in any other boat, might be of great benefit.  A knowledgable person could also provide some hands-on suggestions with your rigging questions. Any sailing club member would likely volunteer.  And even in the absence of in-person assistance, you can look at some how-to books or You Tube videos.  And of course we're always here ready to answer questions in the forum.

I carry a manual pump in my NE Dory to assist with de-watering. After a test-capsize near the dock when the boat was new I decided both a pump and a bailer were a good idea. I've never capsized accidentally, but have shipped a few gallons of water over the side several times. 

Hi Bubblehead,,

Thanks for your reply, you are correct my sailing experience is very limited to a sailing canoe (Sailing RowCruiser) and capsizing is not very likely with this craft. We had no waves but quite strong winds with gusts that day and we made several mistakes. Fortunately, the sea temperature was high to swim and we managed to pull the boat to the shore.

As we arrived, a reporter approached, began recording us with his smartphone, and asked what happened. We told him that we had no problems since we safely returned to the shore after a capsize. We emptied the water in the boat and returned to our launch spot by oars. He asked other things but we did not provide much information so he wrote whatever seemed logical to him, declaring us as fishermen, with a leaked boat rescued by a coast guard, etc., and added other footage from another incident, where an ambulance appeared. Below is his work (in the Turkish language)

https://www.instagram.com/p/DBqMhXMoaGS/

All the best,

Powderpark

Well, there are journalists, and then there are writers of fiction posing as journalists looking for a story to make up.  Sometimes the best thing to do - with both sort, actually - is to tell them to mind their own business so you can get on with yours.  Glad you aren't letting any embarasement spoil your journey down the learning curve.

My last capsize was something I wouldn't want to see on Instagram, for sure.  Mishandled a gybe (bring the stern across the wind so that the sail is brought over to the other side - sort of the opposite of tacking) in a good bit of wind, and I didn't get ducked down under the boom (I call it a "lower yard" on a balanced lug sail) before the wind caught it the other way, pressing it against my shoulder and sort of pinning me to what suddenly became the wrong side of the boat.  (This was in a lug rigged Passagemaker Dinghy.)

Over she went, spitting me out into the drink with my head underwater long enough to ingest and aspirate a good bit of water.  Came up sputtering and coughing (wearing my life jacket, of course), called myself a damnfool landlubber, and proceded to swim around the boat to bring her upright by pressing down on the daggerboard as soon as I stopped coughing enough to breath halfway regular like.  The Passagemaker floats very high on her side thanks to the ample watertight compartments in the ends.

Having learned the hard way from previous capsize experience to keep all gear secured inside the boat at all times, I didn't need to spend any time rounding up loose stuff, so I was preparing to swim in over the rail when....

Well, I don't know what happened, but I apparently passed out, because the next thing I knew the boat was drifting downwind from me at a fair clip, and, being half full of water, soon capsized again.  (Discovered later that I was having some serious heart trouble at the time and didn't know it.)

I figured there was no point in wearing myself out trying to chase the boat, as we were fairly close to shore and drifting in that direction, so I started gently sidestroking along, figuring to catch up to the boat in the shallows where I could put things right and make my way back to the launch ramp well before dark.

That became unnecessary when an alert, nimble, intellegent young man with a pontoon boat came along to get me out of the drink, help me get the boat upright with the sail down (should have done that right at the first - won't make that mistake again!) and the daggerboard drawn out so we could tow her back to the dock where I'd launched.  By that time I was feeling pretty tired, so I bailed the boat out from the dock, got her back on the trailer, and was home before dark.

My point here is that we all make mistakes.  Heck, I've been sailing for four decades now, and I still make mistakes!  It's part of the learning process.  The trick is to try to avoid making the mistakes all at once trying to get down your learning curve too quickly.  Out on the water, it's surprising how quickly miscalculation and mischance and miscalculation will combine to create Misfortune.

And, hopefully, most of your mistakes will not be observed by pseudo journalists trying to make up a story for Instagram, Facebook, Youtube, or other such places where people you don't know can have a laugh at your expense.  <;-)

.....Michael

That was me.  I guess the forum logged me off before I finished my long winded reply.  I must have been hurrying a little to avoid that, and didn't review my respose as closely as I ought to have done.  I meant to say, "it's surprising how quickly miscalculation and mischance and mistake will combine to create Misfortune.

I wish you all joy of leaning how to manage your miscalculations and mischances without making too many mistakes.  <;-)

.....Michael

Michael, 

Thank you very much for your encouraging & kind remarks.

Journalism in my country is unfortunately not about providing correct and objective information to the public but trying to sell the most provocative story so that the audience will be amazed & entertained and more importantly become wrongly biased on a given subject most of the time.

Sailing is a leisure class hobby here and trying to build & sail a dinghy of this size is a lunatic effort at best. So What only acceptable means of being at sea is fishing. That's what the reporter concluded about us.

Anyway, being part of this adventure makes us proud. We are still full of joy and it is a pleasant feeling to how others like you share our enthusiasm and encourage us is a wonderful feeling.

All the best,

Powderpark

.

   At 184 cm, you are just a bit shorter than me, and I row my skerry from the middle seat fine even though I also can't reach the stern seat as a brace.  However, I installed the SeaDek adhesive padding which gives a lot of grip for your feet.  I don't know about the peapod, but my skerry kit came with wood cleats to be installed on the bottom as foot braces, which I opted to not use.  I'd expect you could use some leftover bits of wood if you wanted to make foot cleats and install them after the fact.  Mask the area around where you want to put them and sand all the paint/varnish off those spots, glue on the cleats and then fillet around them before refinishing the spots.

As for hoisting the sail, the skerry has the same basic design, a hole thru the top of the mast.  I took a fair bit of time sanding the hole smooth and putting a gentle taper on the edges before coating w/ several coats of epoxy and varnish, sanding each coat lightly and got a pretty smooth finish.  That, with smooth finish double braid line for a halyard makes hoisting pretty easy.  Or you can use what's called a "cheek block" screwed to the forward side of the mast to make it even smoother. 

Greetings,

I've modified the top of the mast and made a slot using a chisel then mounted a locally manufactured pulley using a lathe to raise the yard easily with less friction. I also fabricated two 'cheek plates' using readily available pulleys and laser-cut & bent 2.5 mm thick stainless steel sheet.

So far the only problem I see is the potential entanglement between halyard and lazy-jack lines. I can change the placement of the cheek plates by mounting them to a lower point to prevent this possibility.

To complete the rigging as Lasjlo's suggestions, I have to purchase Brummel clips which are quite hard to find locally or very expensive to import.

As I counted from the photos, I need 4 of them for lazy jacks, 2 for parrels, and maybe more for other connectors. Is there an alternative for these clips? Maybe I can buy some of them if they will provide practicality & speed but if I buy around 10, it will cost roughly $150 locally.

Can any workarounds be found for Brummel clips?

Powderpark

Powderpark,

That looks like really nice work. I haven't had any problems with the halyard getting tangled with the lazy jacks either with my Peapod or the Faering Cruiser that was rigged the same way. The angles are too different for them to get tangled in use.

Is that price for the Brummel clips because of the shipping? Amazon sells the clips in sets of 10 for $30. But a much cheaper option is using toggles. The toggles themselves are just hardwood dowels. You can tie the toggles to one line with the knot of yiour choice and make loops in the other line with a bowline knot. To join the lines just slip the toggle into the loop. To disconnect, slip it out. Here's a Youtube video demonstrating the cheapest and easiest way to do it.

If you want to be more nautical about it, use eye splices instead of knots. The pictures show how this works. Put the loop on one line and the toggle on the other. Keep the ends of the toggles rounded, maybe even covered with some padding so they won't chafe the sails. The pictures are from The Self-Made Sailor and they sell a DVD telling you how to do this if the pictures aren't enough for you.

As long as there's tension on the line the toggle will never pull out. If you make the knot small enough so that it just fits over the toggle, then the toggle will stay put even if there's no tension.

Hope this helps,

Laszlo

I was about to suggest using toggles instead of the Brummel hooks if cost is a consideration, but Laszlo beat me to it...and provided photos as well!  <;-)

Anyway, "Amen!" to the toggles idea.  Sometimes, Low Tech is Go Tech, and looks "salty" as well.

.....Michael

Lasjlo & Gramps,

Thanks for your suggestions and feedback. I will go with the toggles. Buying Brummel hooks from Amazon adds enormous shipping costs and import taxes.

For the tiller which I've mistakenly fabricated 87 cm instead of 127 cm, I have made another one:

Here is the design  of the new tiller:

Here is the lamination using two strips of mahogany and two strips of ayous:

Here is the comparison  of old and new tillers:

For the sail rigging, now I will try to make a sketch and a material list to make sure that I buy the correct hardware and do not forget anything critical. I will share it here for your review.

Powderpark