Hi al, I’m having a hard time with visibility forward of the main sail. The balanced lug design cuts off better than half of my view ahead. I have been thinking about installing a clear panel in the sail, but hate the idea of how that affects the over all look of the boat. Anyone have thoughts on this?
Hi Gene, I’m surprised nobody has commented yet. I’m considering the SW for my next boat project. I’ll be watching this thread with interest. I’ve wondered about just using a taller mainmast and raising the whole rig a couple of feet. Better visibility and less chance of getting beaned in the head with the boom.
I’m also surprised that no one has commented yet. I would run any plans of extending the height of the mast by CLC. I’m already plowing the leeward rail in the water with a good amount of wind in the sail. There is A LOT of timber overhead as it is.
This summer, I’m going to try and sail reefed in congested areas and not let the full sail out until I’m way in the open clear.
I’m not ignoring you, just have no experience with that boat so I didn’t want to provide empty words. My guess is that the others who aren’t talking are being quite for the same reason.
But, you’ve moved into raising the mast, which is something I do have experience with and thoughts on. Some of this comes from discussions with John Harris concerning the height of the sail on the Skerry.
Lengthening the mast and raising the sail has several good effects, namely better visibility under the sail, less chance of getting brained by the boom and moving the sail up into the smoother airflow that exists higher above the water.
It also has a couple of negative effects: more stress on the mast, the mast partner and the mast step and a longer moment arm for the wind to try and tip your over.
If you don’t get carried away with lengthening the mast, you can probably ignore the negatives. These are small boats and have decent margins engineered into them. You may need to be a bit more attentive to gusts and wind speed in general, but that should be it. Again, keep the increase to a minimum, just enough to accomplish what you need for increased visibility.
Definitely a good idea to run the ideas by CLC before acting on them.
Laszlo
Hi Laszlo, I didn’t mean to imply anyone in particular was ignoring the question, just that I was surprised more SW Dory sailors aren’t reporting the same problem.
The mast lengthening idea is interesting, because I need to replace/modify my main mast anyway.
A very knowledgeable and well meaning friend of mine decided to taper the mast when he helped me with the original build. It’s beautifully done, and I’ve had no issues with it, but during the last time out I noticed some wicked bending about 4/5th the way up the mast where it thins a bit. I’ve worried about this ever since I saw the “don’t taper the mast” note in the construction manual.
Maybe I rebuild the mast a little taller
I would put a clear panel in. The worry about the looks will be more than compensated by not worrying about running into something.
The Pocketship can have a blind area. I was sailing the Potomac about a month ago. Nobody out there, so I was just sailing and chilling. I finally moved my head a bit and saw I was directly on course to the only navigation bouy within a mile of me!
Rebuilding a bit taller sounds good. Alternatively, if you just want to stiffen the mast, a layer of glass and/or carbon fiber can do the trick. Soller Composites sells the stuff in sleeve form which gives the best results for masts. No tricky folds and the “Chinese finger trap” weave smoothly adjusts for a tapering diameter. If you do use CF, plan on a layer of glass to protect it from abrasion and to trap any splinters if it breaks. CF splinters are wicked sharp.
Laszlo
The mast of a balanced lug needs to be very stiff in order to keep from flexing and letting the sail go baggy as the wind increases, exactly the opposite of what you want to happen. You don’t want to build any sort of taper into it.
Yeah, that’s probably why they note explicitly in the manual NOT TO TAPER the mast. My guess is that glassing it will allow it to flex without breaking, which as Michael points out defeats the point of the balanced lug.
That’s why I suggested the layer of CF. It will stiffen up the mast to where it won’t flex, even if it is tapered. That only leaves the question of is it cheaper/easier than building a new untapered mast.
Laszlo
John says a foot taller in the mast won’t effect the stability of the boat. I went ahead and ordered a new mast at 13’ 9”. We’ll see what that does for visibility.