Reef a gaff sail

[georgeband]

A lot of the drawings for schooners and other vessels show a gaff sail with a boom below it. The sail is laced to the gaff and joined to the mast by hoops. To reef the sail I assume that the gaff is lowered and the reef pendants are pulled until a reef band reaches the boom, at which time the sailors reach up and tie the reef points together to shorten the sail. So far so easy, in principle, though I don't doubt the sailors' strength and courage when it was wet and windy and dark. 

 

The fore gaff sail on a schooner does not usually have a boom and appears to be laced to the gaff yard and to the fore mast. The gaff itself is often fixed and cannot be lowered or dipped. There are lots of example drawings in Marquardt's Global Schooner and one I have in front of me is HMS Berbice (pp 42-45). The sail has two reef bands so it can be reefed, but I cannot see how this would be done. The sail cannot be lowered because of the rigging of the gaff yard and the lacing on the mast. To raise the lower edge by reefing, the lower part of the sail would have to lifted and again the lacing makes this difficult. There is the added complication that the sailors would need step ladders to reach up to the reef bands. 

 

In Chapelle's Baltimore Clipper the line drawings do not show hoops or lacing. However, the copies of contemporary paintings often show the fore gaff to have hoops joining it to the mast in the same way as the main gaff. I cannot see whether the gaffs are fixed or moving; it is probably more likely that they can be lowered otherwise why have mast hoops? 

 

I suspect that Marquardt's drawings have adopted a convention, though they could describe a reality. It all depends on how the fore gaff sails were reefed. Does anyone know?

 

George

 

[Gregory]

2 hours ago, georgeband said:

The gaff itself is often fixed and cannot be lowered or dipped.

What is your reference for this?

Dr Pr shows throat halyards for the fore and main masts of schooners.

 

as does Petersson in " Rigging Fore and Aft .... ", with the caveat that Petersson is looking at a contemporary model..

 

[Bob Cleek]

There's a tremendous variety in gaff rigs, not only between different periods, but also during the same period.. That said, most gaff sails, be the foot lashed to a boom, loose-footed, or without a boom at all, will be reefed from the foot up and the gaff boom lowered to accommodate the shortened sail area. I would say that a fixed gaff boom is a rather rare bird. In such case, the sail would be brailed when not set. The reefing arrangements varied "according to the needs of the service." Vessels which carried high deck loads, such as scow and lumber schooners, would "reef up" when carrying a high deck load, so that the lower boom would be raised to clear the deck load while the gaff boom remains at the previous height. 

[Dr PR]

George,

 

I have come across references to fore-and-aft rigs with fixed gaffs. I think these were more commonly the large many-masted schooners that were built at the end of the 1800s and early 1900s. For smaller vessels it was common to have peak and throat halliards to raise and lower the gaffs. Where the gaff sail was reefed to the boom the gaff was lowered to bring the reef points down enough to fasten them around the boom. The fully reefed sail had the gaff lying on top of the boom with the sail in between. This photo of the Belle Poule shows this arrangement on the fore and main masts where the sails were laced to a boom.

 

 

A common method of reefing a loose-footed gaff sail (not laced to the boom) was to use brails attached to one or more points on the leech (free or aft side) of the sail. These hauled up the clew and foot (bottom) of the sail toward the jaws of the gaff. This photo of Le Recouvrance illustrates this perfectly.

 

 

The same method of reefing the fore sail is used on the Pride of Baltimore II.

 

 

The same method can be used on the main gaff sail, as shown on the brig Niagara:

 

 

If the gaff sail is laced to the boom (and the gaff) the gaff is lowered to reef the sail. But if the foot of the sail is loose and only the clew is attached to the end of the boom, brails are used to haul the sail up to reduce sail area and reef the sail. This has a great advantage in that only one or two crew are needed to take the wind out of the sail. It is a lot faster and easier than lowering the gaff. And just about everything about the Baltimore clippers or topsail schooners was designed to be fast!

 

Keep in mind that there is only one hard fast rule for sails and rigging on sailing vessels: there is no rule! If it can be done it probably has been done, and ship's crews often experimented with different configurations. So unless you are working from authentic period sail and rigging plans showing how a particular vessel was rigged at any time, it is just guesswork how it was actually rigged. And there were very few rigging plans because everyone just knew how to do it!

Edited March 9, 2022 by Dr PR

[Bob Cleek]

There may be some confusion here in the use of the terms "reef," "furl," and "brail."

[georgeband]

Phil, I am sorry that I have to disagree with some of your statements here. My knowledge comes from what I have read in Marquardt, Chapelle, Lever,  Petrejus and others and fundamentally I agree that schooner rigs were not consistent, though some arrangements were more common than others. 

 

A little on terminology. Furling or handing refers to securing a sail in a safe, unused state on the yard or mast. Brailing, according to Falconer, is a preliminary stage of furling when a sail is gathered up. Reefing is reducing the area of a sail in strong winds. For square sails the reef points are usually near the top and are tied over the yard. For gaff sails the reef points are usually near the bottom and the sail is gathered by them. 

 

Gaff sails are laced or otherwise tied to the gaff yard at the top. The leading edge is secured to the mast by hoops or more lacing. The clew at the lower, aft end is fixed to the boom if there is one. If there is no boom then the sheet is secured to a cleat via some arrangement of blocks. The lower edge of the gaff sail, as far as I know, was not laced to the boom but it might be different in current practice. Phil's photo of Pride of Baltimore II shows the main (aft) gaff sail straining at the clew where it is attached to the boom. The sails on the fore mast have been brailed, though technically the topsail might be 'clewed up'. 

 

To reef a gaff that also has a boom the sail was lowered until the reef points could be reached and tied together. To furl the sail it was lowered further until the gaff reached the boom and there are paintings that show this. Marquardt and others describe this well. Brailing was 'sometimes' used for a gaff when there is a boom, but apparently was not normal practice. 

 

To reef a gaff that does not have a boom, the sail was similarly lowered and the reef points tied together. Furling was a different action and Phil's photos show it well. 

 

My original questions still stand. If the gaff is laced to the mast does this prevent it from being lowered? If the gaff is fixed and cannot be lowered, how do the sailors reach the reefs? The answer might be that current drawings are mistaken, but I suspect it is that my knowledge of reefing is simply inadequate. 

 

The two pictures below are of Berbice from Marquardt's Global Schooner. They show 

• Reef bands on the sails
• Lacing around fore mast and hoops around main mast
• Standing rigging to hold the fore gaff - it did not have blocks to adjust the height
• Main gaff sail is not laced to the boom.

 

George

 

 

 

 

Edited March 9, 2022 by georgeband
add pictures

[bolin]

I cannot say that I'm an expert in this area in any way, but I might offer a clue. I checked the book Hand, Reef and Steer by Tom Cunliffe. On the topic of hard weather sailing, he mentions the unbending of the sail and even replacing the gaff with a shorter one for a specially made try sail. Maybe the sail was actually partly unbent from the mainmast to lower the gaff for reefing?

 

Just my thoughts...

[Bob Cleek]

A properly laced luff should not impede lowering the sail at all. As the gaff boom is lowered, the tension on the properly laced luff will be released.

 

A sail set on a fixed gaff boom would most likely be set "flying." (The sail is set by raising with halyards at the  throat and peak.) Such sails are often not reefed at all, being light air beating sails rendered redundant downwind by the square sails.

[Dr PR]

George,

 

Sorry, I did use the terms reef, brail, and furl interchangeably to mean reducing sail area.

 

It is interesting that Berbice apparently did have the fore gaff rigged with standing rigging and the main gaff rigged with running peak and throat halliards. Marquardt shows a similar standing fore gaff rig in the drawing of a Swedish yacht on page 35 and a Swedish privateer on page 38. These sails also have reef bands. These drawings were based upon Chapman's drawings from the 1760s. The drawings of the Halifax (1768) on page 68 and Conquest (1794) on page 86 also seem to show the gaff rigged with standing rigging. However, many of his drawings show typical running peak and throat halliards on the fore gaff booms on many ships of the same period.

 

The Berbice's fore gaff sail does have two brails, so I suspect that the sail was hauled up with the brails to reduce sail area quickly - something important for quick maneuvering. But the drawings do show reef points/bands on the gaff sails, and your question about how you would reef the sail if the gaff could not be lowered is appropriate. I wonder if these "reef points" were just used to "furl" the sail against the fore mast, similar to what you can see in some of the photos I posted? The clew of the loose-footed sail could be hauled up to the mast easily. Marquardt shows this type of "furling" in a drawing of a Dutch schooner (1841) on page 112. So it isn't a new practice.

 

Also, the main  gaff sail is attached to the mast with hoops and the gaff does have peak and throat halliards for lowering, so it could be reefed in a normal way. But the fore gaff sail is laced to the mast with what appears to be a simple spiral lacing, indicating that it was not raised and lowered as often as the main gaff sail.

 

I think the loose footed gaff sail was common in the 1700s and early to mid 1800s. But by the late 1800s and early 1900s the main gaff sail laced to the boom was very common on US east coat fishing schooners and racing yachts. I have no idea when this practice first came into use.

[Bob Cleek]

47 minutes ago, Dr PR said:

But the drawings do show reef points/bands on the gaff sails, and your question about how you would reef the sail if the gaff could not be lowered is appropriate.

It would appear to be a simple enough process to tie in the reef before setting the fixed-gaff boom sail flying. 

[georgeband]

Thanks everyone for your practical insights which show how this issue can be solved on some craft in some periods. However, the Berbice problem still haunts me and I cannot see how that fore gaff sail would be reefed without step ladders or extreme acrobatics to reach the reef points. This is when I change from scientist to engineer and devise a practical solution for Whiting for which we do not have good information and can make our own choices. The fore gaff sail on my Whiting will 

• Have a gaff yard that can be lowered
• Lacing on the mast which can be unrove (if that is the right term) from the lower end if the sail is reefed and lowered
• Some way to hook a tack to the fore edge of the sail when it is reefed. The illustrations of gaff sails that I have seen have a reef cringle at the ends of each reef band and this might be the way to do it
• Some way to hook the sheet to the aft edge of the sail when it is reefed, probably though a reef cringle again
• Brails for brailing
• Some ropes to tie the furled sail to the mast, equivalent to the gaskets on a square sail. These could also attach to the reef cringles on either the fore or aft edge or both. 

Can you point out the flaws in this plan and put forward improvements?

 

George

[wefalck]

A 'standing' gaff does not mean that it cannot be lowered. It means it is not normally lowered to make fast the sail. Standing gaff sails were typically fitted with three brails that allows it to be gathered up towards the gaff and the mast. Of course, when reefing, you would lower the gaff.

 

Towards the end of commercial sail and on some steamers there were real 'standing' gaffs and the sails were attached to them with a rail and runners, very much like our curtains, so that they could be gathered up to the mast.

 

It seems that on the British Islands the luff was mostly hooped to the mast, while on the continent and on the other side of the Big Pond lacing was more common, particularly also for smaller boats.

 

Similarly, in Britain gaff sails were only fixed with their clew to the boom, while in the USA they were mostly laced. In the last decades of sail, lacing became more common everywhere. When reefing a loose-footed gaff sail it is not tied down onto the boom, but to itself, in the same way as you would reef a stay-sail or a boom-less gaff fore-sail.

 

If you want to read-up on handling gaff-sails, I would recommend John Leather's 'Gaff Rig', though he is a bit biased towards yachting practice.

 

[Dr PR]

George,

 

I can see no fault in your plan, and because of the great variety in schooner rigs I suspect that some ship, somewhere, at some time, actually worked that way! Your thoughts about how to deal with the clew and tack on a reefed gaff sail are interesting. I don't recall reading anything about how this was done.

 

Why there would be reef points on a sail that could not be reefed is certainly a mystery. I wonder if they were only used when the sail was taken down - to bundle the sail for storage?

 

Or is it possible that the sail was reefed to the gaff boom, like ordinary square sails were reefed to the yards?

 

John Leather's "The Gaff Rig Handbook" is a good read about the history and development of the fore-and-aft rig. But the book is an abominable reference! The index lists vessel names and people's names. But there is no way to find any specific information about features of different rigs - except to reread the entire book!

[georgeband]

Gaskets and furling

The discussions earlier in this thread touched on furling as well as reefing and I would ask for assistance about gaskets. 

 

For a square sail the first stage of furling (brailing, clewing) gathers the sail loosely below the yard. It is then pulled up 'accordion style' and the final layer of canvas wraps around the bulk of the sail. Gaskets are looped around the sail and yard to hold everything tightly in place. Drawings rarely show the gaskets but sources such as Falconer describe how they are made and used. 

 

For gaff sails the furling is similar. Falconer says that furling can be to a stay or mast and I would expect the guiding principle to be the same as for square sails - create a tight bundle that the wind cannot tear open. 

 

Lots of paintings and photos show a brailed gaff which is the first, loose gathering of the sail. Sources such as Lever agree that there were typically two or three brails for a sail and this is supported in the pictures. The final, tight furl is less commonly seen and the example below is from Chapelle's Baltimore Clipper (opposite page 142). 

 

 

The main (aft) gaff sail is sandwiched between the boom and the gaff which has been lowered to meet it. There look to be some features on the furled sail but I cannot discern what they are. (That shore line complicates the interpretation.)

 

The fore gaff sail does not have a boom and has been furled to the gaff yard and the mast. We can see the hoops around the mast but again the details of the final furling are poorly resolved. There may be something wound around the mast and sail to hold it together but I am not sure from this picture. 

 

My assumption for modelling is that there would be gaskets to tie the sail to its yard or mast. If the sail is open then I presume the gaskets would either hang loose or hang in a coil. The questions then are how many gaskets and where do they attach to the sails? 

Sail with gaff and boom. The gaskets are probably tied to the top of the sail by the gaff and are accessible from deck when furling. I guess that there might be two or three of them. 

Sail with no boom. Two or three gaskets would hold the sail to the mast. I have not seen horses below the gaff yard so I expect that there are no gaskets along the gaff and we rely on the brails to pull the top part of the sail taut. 

 

Does anyone have information to add to this?

 

George

 

 

[wefalck]

A 'gasket' would be a braided, flat rope, either three or four braids, like little girl's braids. On square sails these are attached to the jackstay and drop down the front of the sail and have a kind of eye the hangs down on the back. The gasket has a toggle in the end that is tugged through the eye. It can also be the other way around, that the toggle is close to the jack-stay and the eye is in the end of the gasket. Arrangement can also vary, depending on whether the sail is furled in front of the yard or above it - different navies and different ship owners/masters had different preferences.

 

For main gaff-sails there may be different configurations depending on the time and the geographical area. However, gaskets or ropes were not used with loose-footed sails, but rather the lowest reef-points would be used to tie the sail to itself and to the gaff. It would/could not be tied to the boom. If the foot of the sail was laced to the boom, the reef-points would need to go around the gaff and the boom, unless a wooden jack-stay was used (as seems to have been more common in the USA), then the reef-points would be tied around it and the gaff. If the boom is rested on a crutch, when the sail is furled, one can also use the main sheet to lace together boom, gaff and sail, which is something commonly done on small boats.

 

I am not sure about the procedure for the loose-footed fore-sail. The gaff would be certainly lowered (remember 'standing' doesn't mean, that it cannot be lowered!)  to furl the sail towards the gaff, but the reef-points could not be tied to gaff probably. However, the reef-points can be used to tie the sail to the hoops. For the hoops above the highest reef, ropes or gaskets could be attached to the hoops for this purpose. On would presumably first furl the sail to the gaff and then proceed top-down along the hoops, while the gaff is being hoisted again.