I am new to sailing but not boats, I have saved a little gaff rigged day sailer from about to be burnt, Its an oldy and really sweet, Im doing up the hull at the moment its all complete mostly, I have the gaff sail, boom and spar and timber mast which is self supporting, it has chain plates on the transom and ontop of the mast the through bolt for the halyard pulley has a pulley either side of the mast, I assume these relate to the chain plates, the lower section of the mast has three cleats one on each side I assume relate to the chain plates, the one on the rear face of the mast I think is vang related, it only has a small plastic fairlead on the boom for vang, seems to be no tackle relating to the boom control, just 3 holes through the end of the boom about half a meter in from the end, the transom seat right on top of the keel just at your feet is a bronze ring fitted to the keel, relates to the boom tackle I think,

Does a boom have to be supported at the rear ie when not in use with sail the boom sits on the floor? if I fit extra pulleys to the top of the mast can I run two lines using cam cleats one either side of the end of the boom to keep the boom of the floor, I guess I can just let the windward line out so the other is supporting and vice versa,

The boat is just shy of 19 feet long, it was damaged and forgotten about and the weather took its toll, I believe it was made in NZ and it was built really well and built with sea use in mind, it ended up here with me, the rigging just bamboozles me, It ran a bow sprit which I have to make id like to run a jib on it, if theres a gaff pro who can help me simplify the set up id dearly love to hear from you.

The top pic shows the top of the mast with the two pulleys I mentioned

Hi Dropbear

No idea about Gaffers but is this of any use to you thecheappages.com/boat/cob/COB_sea-boat.html

Regards Don

Thanks Don, I just had a look at the page, its interesting the vang set up they mention on the drawing, I always thought boom vang was to prevent the boom from lifting up too much when sailing, on this pic they run it from the end of the spar down to the transom, vexing! I just want a simple rig and not have to worry about the boom lying on the floor when motoring about.

please consider that it may not in fact be a gaff rig, but rather it could be a gunter rig. In smaller boats the term is used interchangeably eg. the heron and Mirror dinghies are both gaff rigged although often they are referred to as gunter rigged.

How does a gunter differ to a gaff?

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dropbear68 said...
How does a gunter differ to a gaff?

In sailing, a gunter is used for two main configurations of rig:
The gunter is defined as a wire that leads from one point near the end of a gaff to a point near the other end. A block travels along this wire, and a halyard is attached to this block. This allows the gaff to be raised to the vertical by a single halyard, though another halyard is required at the gaff jaws to control height.The gunter is created by hoops or parrel beads which secure the gaff loosely to the mast in a vertical position. A halyard is bent to the gaff jaws to control height. A sail raised by either of these means is called a gunter rigged sail. A vessel with a gunter rigged mainsail is called a gunter rig.

Not always necessary for a support halyard at the aft end of the boom. I just have a cradle arrangement on top of my pilothouse which both the boom and the gaff lay in when unsupported. Your boat may have had a frame arrangement for support. Hard to say.

From your description I doubt that this would be a gunter gaff rig (like on a Heron dinghy). That would be inconsistent with the unstayed mast.

So, it is either a conventional gaff or a lugsail and the latter would be more typical of an unsupported mast. You can easily find out which it is by laying the mast, sail, boom and gaff out on the ground and finding the best fit.

Either way, the rig was probably never designed for a jib as the lack of stays would leave the luff of the sail too slack and the leading edge of the sail would just fall off to leeward in any sort of breeze. So maybe the bowsprit, if there ever was one, was just used to take a mooring line.

The tangs at the masthead are for the throat halyard, topping lift and main halyard. Google lugsail or gaff rigging to figure out how these are run and used. The cleats at the bottom of the mast are to tie them off.

It would be unusual for a rig like this to have a boom vang. That's a modern invention and generally used to increase racing performance. But you will need a main sheet to control the boom and that's what the 'chainplates' on the transom, holes in the boom and bronze ring on the keel are for.

I would forget about using a topping lift to support the boom. That's the sort of thing you find on a yacht. If you are not happy to let the boom rest on the stern or the gunwhale when the sail is down then make a folding scissors crutch to fit in the stern and support the boom that way.

I hope that is helpful. It looks like you have quite a project there.

The block on either side of the mast could be for some type of Lazy Jack (come topping lift) arrangement, there will need to be some kind of support for the boom, while sailing with a reefed main.
Are there any other fittings slightly further down from the top of the mast?
If so they could be for the Lazy Jacks, & the pulleys could be for a Jib halyard & gaff halyard??

Are there two block wheels(sheaves whatever you call them!) inside the top of the mast....Throat halyard & gaff halyard.
Or just one?