So instead, use the sprit-boomed 'sharpie sail'
in his Fig. 34, above. The sprit can be wood, bamboo or
part of a castoff windsurfer carbon mast (or wishbone).
It is usually somewhat longer than the foot of the sail,
but the exact length will depend on the angle you give
it. It should angle down at least a little bit. The
straight foot and boom will keep the foot of the sail
down and a single sheet is realistic with a sprit boom.
The mizzen is normally sheeted to suit the course you are
steering, and then the sheet is cleated off. The
mainsheet is held in the hand.
Attach the tack to the mast with a loop of line
through a plastic bullseye located on the front of the
mast. Use hoops, rope loops, or a lacing to attach the
sail to the mast.
The snotter controls the sprit and thus the
sail tension. With a sharpie sail we need a snotter.
Paddlefast describes the old style small-boat snotter,
which isn't worth fooling with and won't work well with
synthetic rope anyway.
The mizzen is so small its snotter can attach to the
boom at the end, run through a bullseye on the side of
the mast a little bit above the end of the sprit (same
side as the sprit), and down to a cleat on the mast. In
fact, the mizzen is so small that you don't really need a
halyard at all - just a snotter. Tie the head of the sail
to a hole at the top of the mast and lace it on.
In
this drawing, a and b can be either small
blocks or bullseyes (a.k.a. fairleads). One is on the
front of the mast and the other is attached to the deck
for the sheet.
c is a bullseye on the front of the mast to tie
the tack of the sail to.
d represents cleats. Clam cleats work fine but
you can use horn cleats or Butler cleats or
something.
The green represents your lines. The lower line runs
from the end of the boom, through the block or fairlead,
and up to a cleat the skipper can reach.
The upper green line runs from a hole in the fore end
of the snotter, into the block or bullseye on the mast,
and down whatever convenient distance to a cleat. The
sail is tied to the mast with loops.
The main is a little more complicated. Sharpie
spritsails are difficult to hoist with a halyard because
there's something on the mast which might catch the sail:
your snotter and its associated hardware. In the olden
days this wasn't much of an issue, because the snotter
was all rope which would shrink when wet. So you'd haul
up the sail, push up the snotter, tighten, and keep it
there by keeping it wet.
But wait! There's a solution. Actually, several.
One is to accept the fact that the sail will
only drop as far as the snotter stuff and bundle it in
place on the boom. With a small sail on a shortish
mast, this won't be too obnoxious to cope with. When
removing and stowing the sail, you just work it over
the glob of tackle by hand after removing the boom and
snotter rope.
Another is to have a simple, tapered wooden
bullseye for the snotter to pass through on the mast
so that lacings or ties or hoops (if big enough) will
slide right over it once the snotter rope is slack and
the front of the boom has been let down to the
deck.
Another is to use jaws on the boom, and put the
snotter at the clew end of the sail. This is the
Commodore Munroe approach which he used on his
sharpies, and it must have worked because they came in
large sizes.
Finally, there's one I prefer which is one of the more
obscure ways: you attach your snotter tackle to a mast
hoop, and hoist it with the sail... you can see this on
some of the large sharpies in Chapelle's American
Small Sailing Craft.
On the right is the mainsail.
Blue dots are blocks.
One block lashed at the top of the mast for the
halyard, though this can also be a simple tapered hole or
"dumb sheave".
One block well forward to lead the halyard away from
the end of the sprit boom and then back to a cleat near
the skipper. Can be lashed to the stemhead.
One block at the base of the mast, on the side away
from the sprit boom, which leads the snotter rope back
within reach of the skipper. A jam cleat is best
here.
The reddish dot is a bullseye for the tack.
The sheet attaches to the end of the boom as with the
mizzen.
Now, the snotter setup. You can use sail ties or hoops
or an upper and lower lacing to attach the sail to the
mast, except a X, which must be a mast hoop.
Believe it or not, PVC pipe is a good material for a mast
hoop.
The idea is for the snotter line to be tied to the
front of this hoop, or to a becket on the block on this
hoop; pass in a slot, hole, or through a block lashed to
the sprit boom, come back through the upper block from
the sprit side, and then run down alongside the mast on
the opposite side to a block at deck level which sends
this line back to the skipper. The mast-hoop-block is
nominally mounted across rather than fore-and-aft. Since
it's on a hoop, it will turn as the sail turns.
Here are a couple more ways to lead the snotter tackle
and get a 2:1 purchase. A 1:1 purchase simply isn't
enough except on something like a mizzen sail.
The one on the left comes from a New Jersey garvey
builder. Your rope acts something like a bowstring. There
is either a hole, well rounded (B1) or a chock (B1) to
engage the snotter line, or a V-shaped, smoothed notch in
the end of the sprit (B2) with a reinforcing band to
prevent splitting. Or any other way you can think of to
let the rope create force on the boom without
binding.
A is a bullseye; tie the line here, run through B,
through a block C attached to the mast, through a block D
and aft to a cleat E.
The system on the right uses the English "tye and
whip" system. Knot the rope to the boom somehow at A.
Pass through a block or bullseye at B. Tie to the shackle
of a block at C. A second rope runs from the deck (D: can
be a becket block but I show the separation to make it
clear) through the block C and back to a block, E,
leading to a cleat F.
Both use the same amount of good ol' Harken stuff
though the "tye and whip" uses a little more line. I've
used the New Jersey system quite happily. I've used the
second system as well, but on a gunter-rigged yard rather
than a snotter.
Rigging Stuff
You might as well buy tiny Harken blocks, or else use
the Holt-Allen stuff made for rigging Lasers. Use
prestretch dacron, or Spectra line, for everything but
the mainsheet. Splurge a little. The sail will set
better.
Steering
I'm not sure how the guy in the drawing is supposed to
sail while holding two sheets and an endless-loop yoke
rope to the rudder. No matter. Use a push-pull tiller,
which I'll describe when I next update these pages.
..
Here
is a view showing the rowing seat and outriggers for oars.
The mainmast partner is 22 inches back from the bow and the
mizzen partner is 36 inches aft of the center frame in the
13ft boat.
