Rigging
Goldberry is a gunther gaff sloop. Last fall I had the good fortune to meet Brion Toss (of Ship Rigger's Apprentice fame, etc.). He suggested that, instead of wire rope, that we used modern high modulus rope for the standing rigging. Vectran is stronger than steel and stretches no more than steel. Rope will allow us to use deadeyes and generally give the boat a more traditional appearance without sacrificing strength. After he swung a wooden sword at my head for an hour (we both practice the Japanese martial art aikido) I had to agree!. These first shots are from the first set-up of the rig. Everything is half finished...
Sorry about the big red truck! In this shot the spars are all in their correct orientation for the sails, according to the measurements my sailmaker and I made. The vectran stays all have eye splices at the masthead. The side stays will have deadeyes while the forestay will sport a turnbuckle (deadeyes there would interfere with the jib). I rigged a line from the peak of the gaff to the end of the boom to simulate the leech of the mainsail and to lift the boom into the correct orientation.
The gaff yard and masthead. The yard is raised with two haliyards that run through sheaves in the mast. The haliyards are Sta-Set-X, another recommendation of Brion's. It's not quite as tough as vectran, but it doesn't stretch much and it takes knots much better than vectran. In the final version of the rig we will have a length of vectran stretched along the gaff for the peak haliyard and parrel beads in place.
Here's Tara at the helm. She won't have to duck much when we tack, which is a nice improvement over the plastic boat we sailed last season (tacking procedure - throw helm over, plant face on knees...). This shot also shows the finished rudder and tiller bar. The two lines on the rudder are uphaul and downhaul lines for the rudder blade. Tara's hand is on a bit of fancywork I tied - about ten inches of ringbolt hitching capped off with turksheads (yes, more of Brion's influence).
Now we jump ahead to May 11, 2006. I got my sails earlier in the week. They were made by Tom Bell, a sailmaker who lived and worked for many years in Florida, but is now back in his native western Pennsylvania. I was very lucky to find somebody so good locally.
I'm really happy I picked the tanbark - what a great color. The sails sport bronze grommets and other hardware, hand stitching, leather at the corners, etc. etc. The real proof will be performance under way, but so far, they're great. I still have some tweaking to do in the peak of the yard and the attachment of the main to the mast. After I took this shot, I experimented all of that eliminated the hard spot between the end of the boom and the gaff throat evident here. It's definitely me and not the sail!
Don took this picture of me contemplating my new sails (and what to do about that fold). The pair of deadeyes on the port stay are somewhat visible here. They are easy to adjust and much boatier than turnbuckles (although I do have a turnbuckle on the forestay). All the rest of the rigging details have been finished (boom vang, mainsheet, topping lift, etc.). I'm still playing around with more elegant ways of tying several items, but I think I could have gone sailing today! Everything is done and works.