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The What
is a dinghy? A
Farne Islands Pilot A Lindisfarne (Holy Island)
Pilot Dinghy Cruising Check list Which Dinghy? ....an elegant refinement to the slab reefing system, as applied by DCA president Roger 'Bailer' Barnes. Published by popular demand, here is a simple and cheap way of contolling the helm while you pour a drink, have pee, harpoon a whale.... South Coast Region
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The Crabclaw RigAfter a few seasons sailing in an ancient GP14 a few facts became apparent. Firstly I did not want to race particularly, secondly I did not want to spend all my time perched on the weather gunwale and thirdly I was stuck with the boat I had for reasons of finance. What I wanted was a reduced, simpler sailplan that was handy for solo operation. I looked at several rigs but the obvious low-aspect ratio ones such as the standing lug would have involved moving the mast position, and I still wanted the option of using the original rig. After reading a couple of books about Polynesian voyaging, I had a look at the crab-claw sail. It appeared to have the following virtues:
Potential difficulties seemed to be
ExecutionThe mast was made from a cut-down wooden one. A dumb hole in a block of hardwood saved the cost of a sheave, and I put on a plywood cap to keep out the weather. Here is a drawing.The spars were bamboos from a carpet warehouse. The ones I had were just over 9' so I decided to make this my spar length, even though it give a very small sail area. As this was an experiment the sail was cut from a cheap plastic tarpaulin. I allowed about 8' in the leech. To attach the sails to the spars I decided to use ancient Chinese practice, which is hem a thin rope (2mm) in the edges, seize that rope to a thicker rope (6mm) and then lace that bolt rope to the spar. The leech of the sail was hemmed only. I worked out a place that seemed right for the halliard, i.e. where the sail 'hung' cleanly, and attached it with a rolling hitch. The final rig is set 'flying', and unless taken aback the spars do not touch the mast.
ResultFirst run was in a force 2/3 and amazingly it all worked quite well. I tied the sheet mid way along the 'boom' and the tack line at the forward end. Tacking was no problem at all,at least in light winds; just put the helm down, let the sail slacken and dip it as the bows cross the wind. Running was a doddle with no fear of sailing by the lee as the tack line could be eased toallow the sail to swing across the mast more. The sail did not flog when the sheets were eased, but hung quietly with just the leach fluttering. Unlike the bermudian the drive can be taken off the sail with the wind astern, which makes 'stopping' a lot easier in confined situations. The pull of the mainsheet needs to be downwards so some attachment around the centre thwart would have been better.The next trip was in a nice firm force 3. The rig was still very controllable although the untackled sheet was hard on the hands. The general ha ndiness of the was very apparent at the crowded slip, I just lowered the sail, unstepped the mast, and bobbed about until the coast was clear. All in all I was quite pleased, having acheived my main aim of a handy, lower powered cruising rig involving no alteration to the hull of the boat.
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