Gaff halyard rigging: one line or two

[isali]

I am looking for some direction on rigging the gaff.

 

My build is the Jefferson Davis, a topsail schooner, revenue cutter. In rigging the gaff, throat and peak Halyards I've seen two ways, Both look fine on the ship but maybe one is preferable over the other,

 

Method 1). One line: The line comes up from the deck to a throat halyard triple block, reeves, thru then to a double block on the gaff, back up, back down, finally thru the third sheave of the triple and back to the deck.

Similar to the peak halyard, up from the deck, thru a mast block, gaff, mast, gaff, mast then down, One line

 

Method 2). Two lines. Throat halyard, mast has a double block not triple, the double block has 2 leaders, each goes to its side of a double block on the gaff, then reeves thru the double block on the mast and down to the deck.

The peak line starts on the gaf, reeves thru the mast block, gaff block, mast block and down.

 

 

All thoughts welcome,

 

Ira

[Jim Lad]

Ira,

 

There are almost as many ways of rigging gaff halliards as there are gaffs!  The most common arrangement is to have separate lines for the peak and throat halliards, but the detail of the rig depends very much on the individual ship.

 

John

[realworkingsailor]

I don't know if this is an accurate generalization or not, but it seems to me that single halyard gaffs are more prevalent on small boats, rather than full size ships, which tend to have both a throat and peak halyard.

 

Andy

[capnharv2]

Andy,

 

I have to respectfully disagree. Our 25' Friendship Sloop, 16' Herresshoff 12 1/2s and 12' Beetle cats all have separate peak and throat halyards. We had a 17' Concordia Sloop Boat that was gaff rigged and had one combined halyard for peak and throat.

 

I agree that the larger sail probably has separate halyards. I believe most of the current Maine coasting schooners have a gaff and peak halyard-and they take 8-10 people per halyard to raise sail (no winches).

 

I believe part of the answer (on a smaller boat) lies in how much adjustment you want to do with the sail. With a single halyard, I see it hard to scandalize the main or adjust the fullness of the sail-both of which can be done when you have separate halyards.

 

But then, this is only my opinion. That and a quarter might still get you a cup of coffee.

 

Thanks,

 

Harvey

Edited October 13, 2013 by capnharv2

[realworkingsailor]

Andy,

 

I have to respectfully disagree. Our 25' Friendship Sloop, 16' Herresshoff 12 1/2s and 12' Beetle cats all have separate peak and throat halyards. We had a 17' Concordia Sloop Boat that was gaff rigged and had one combined halyard for peak and throat.

 

I agree that the larger sail probably has separate halyards. I believe most of the current Maine coasting schooners have a gaff and peak halyard-and they take 8-10 people per halyard to raise sail (no winches).

 

I believe part of the answer (on a smaller boat) lies in how much adjustment you want to do with the sail. With a single halyard, I see it hard to scandalize the main or adjust the fullness of the sail-both of which can be done when you have separate halyards.

 

But then, this is only my opinion. That and a quarter might still get you a cup of coffee.

 

Thanks,

 

Harvey

 

Like I said, "more prevalent", not necessarily a golden rule.

 

And I don't drink coffee

 

Andy

[Stockholm tar]

Ira,

 

In my experience, a gaff has both throat and peak halliards on vessels of any size. I have heard of single halliards for both purposes on quite small boats but, as has been said, to get any fine adjustment you need both. Your vessel is a topsail schooner, thus pretty sizeable, so I would think she would have had both throat and peak halliards.

 

I know that when I used to sail on gaff-rigged vessels, the gaff was usually hoisted horizontally until the luff (the leading edge) was at full hoist, at which point the throat halliard was belayed. Then the peak halliard was sweated up until it was at the correct angle, when it too was made fast.

[isali]

Thanks for all the discussion. The question was not about using one line or two for the peak and the same for the throat. In visiting the talks ships in Philadelphia today, it seems the one line for the peak (vs two) is more prevalent

 

It looks like ships do it both ways but there seem to be more using a single line, revving through the blocks then back down to the deck ( through a whip or other block set up)

 

Ira

[gregs1234]

Hello Ira, It is nice to see that someone else is building the Jefferson Davis. Before the board crashed, I had my Jefferson Davis build log documented here and on another forum, with a lot of pictures. I have an older JD kit and I know that Bluejacket has made some upgrades. This is actually my first wooden sailing ship. (I am experienced with other models.) My build has gone along slowly but I am satisfied with the results. I have reached a standstill with the rigging. The Bluejacket instructions said "See the sailplan for rigging" or something similar. So my question to you is, does your model have any detailed rigging instructions? At this point, I do not really know what part of the rigging goes first, what details need to be on the masts etc. Are your instructions similar?

[isali]

I had the same issue, no instruction s.

 

IT took forever but I am winding down and thinking about a display case

 

I used a bunch of sources, initially I used my pride of Baltimore practicum but then really began to learn the ropes

and by the end I was using the drawing that can with the kit.

 

One of the best books it'd lennarth Petersen (I don't recall which one). It's just drawings, almost no text.

 

If you like I can walk coz through all I learned and how I would do it now, which may be helpful.

 

Ira

[themadchemist]

Petersson - 2000 - Rigging - Period Ship Models is a great source for square rigging

and

Petersson - 2007 - Rigging Period Fore and aft Craft is great for fore and aft rigging

 

Both books are primarily pictures with diagram labels, which make rigging much more understandable

 

2 great must have books IMHO.

[JerseyCity Frankie]

I'm not familiar with the vessel in question but here are my two cents. The reason for more than one peak halyard would be to make the job of setting the sail easier or faster. On paper, one line can be used to do the job of raising the peak on any fore and aft sail but in practice you have to factor in the impact on the crew. If the sail is large enough your single line has to be made of stouter rope and the physical effort in raising sail becomes problematic. I don't know at what point a double peak halyard would come in but I can tell you from my direct experience on a 102' and a 125' schooner that there was only one line on each peak and a group of four or five people could handle it on the smaller 102' schooner, all hands on the larger. The Throats too. Incidentally you need separate peak and throat lines. It would be possible to rig one line to do all the work but it would rob you of sail handling options. Underway, one person can take all the horsepower out of the sail by simply easing the peak a bit, this makes the peak of the sail droop down enough to ruin the sails aerodynamic effect and doing this can give the helmsman more options for maneuvering in certain situations. Its also useful to be able to change the gaff angle when you are furling the sail, when you lower the gaff to the deck the angle of the gaff as it comes down has a huge effect on how the sail is gathered and folded for stowing.

Edited November 13, 2013 by JerseyCity Frankie

[Captain Typhoon]

In a lug sail, by pulling the downhaul, the peak is lifted and thus, sensitive adjustments on sail camber become easy. On a gaff sail, no peak halyard means no fine adjustments on the sail along the crease from tack to peak.