Sailing Rigs

Actually, come to think of it, I do have something else boat-related on my mind.

NOTE: This is going to be a fairly lingo-heavy post about the specifics of various types of sailing rigs, so those of you of a less nautical bent might want to go ahead and look the other way on this one. I will try to add pictures to help to clarify.

As you may recall, I have been thinking much about making this at least a part-time sailing vessel. My original thought was to add a lateen sail, based upon an old black-and-white photo I had found, but Fred advised otherwise:

You might consider that your boat, and I say this with all respect, will probably never be much more than a before-the-wind sailer. Without entering into a detailed conversation about the dynamics of foils and pressure differentials, your boat seems suited for a simple square rig--mast and yard, sheeted from the clews--trimmed and steered with your paddle at the stern. The structure of the boat would support, in my opinion, an adequate mast--stepped at the bottom deck, with a simple brace from the gunwales, and perhaps a backstay.

I found this to be not only a very sensible idea, but it also appealed to me because of the prominence of the square rig in maritime history.

A quick example of the various sail rigs:This illustration is from the book Hand, Reef and Steer; A Practical Handbook on Sailing which I picked up at the library today, simply because of the title.

You may notice that for the "square rig" illustration (top), it depicts a Viking boat, complete with dragon figurehead. About it, the author (Richard Henderson) says:

The square rig is undoubtedly the oldest rig, having in all probability been used on the first sailboat. It reached its highest degree of development in the days of the clippership. This rig is most efficient when the wind is abaft the beam, or when a squarerigger has the wind behind her. The top of a squaresail is secured to a yard, which is a horizontal pole running athwartships that may be swung for and aft to a limited extent by lines called braces. Except for an occasional squaresail or a deep-sea boat expected to sail before the trade winds, or on a training ship, one seldom sees this kind of sail today. Squareriggers have been outmoded by the fore and aft rigged boat, which can sail much closer to the wind. Before they began to fade from existence, squareriggers reached a high degree of rig variation and complexity, but since they are almost a thing of the past, we will deal only with rig variations in the fore and aft class.

So . . . no help to me.

So, I did some more research, and found that there is very little information about single-mast, single-sail square rigs. I did find the Open Canoe Sailing Group, which has a small section on the rigging of a canoe for sailing, and since my pirogue will have much the same sailing properties as a canoe, I can use that as a reference.

But if I am going to add a sail to this boat, it will need a mast. And if it has a mast, it will need a mast step (a place to hold the mast) during construction, and if it's going to have a mast step during construction, I'll need to decide where to place it before construction.

And I don't know where to start. I was thinking of stepping the mast in the front third of the boat, but from the little I've been able to find on square rigs, the mainmast (or only mast) would be in the dead center of the boat. (A couple of the canoes on the OCSG have mid-hull masts.) What would happen if the mast moves forward? I'll be seated in in the stern of the boat, so that could offset the weight in front, and might keep the sail from pressing down the prow of the boat.

I also don't know how to actually rig the sail. I have found a simple line drawings of square sails, but no details about how the yard is affixed to the mast, or exactly how the braces are rigged . . .

I don't know that Fred will already know The Answer on this one, unless he has square-rigged a pirogue and loaded it with two boys. But I need to start somewhere, and all of my research has gotten me nowhere.

And his knowledge of the sailing properties of all of the various sail rigs, fluid mechanics, my pirogue, my building skills and the overall aesthetic of this project gives me complete confidence that he will come through.