spritsail for Swampscott Dory

[bart]

I need a sail for the dory I've almost completed. I'd rather stay away from polysails just because of the looks. I live in Seattle but I guess it could be made and shipped. If I had a list of sailmakers you like I could shop around and maybe find the price I like.

[Steven R]

Would you consider sewing your own? I am very happy with the spritsail I sewed from a Sailrite (http://www.sailrite.com/) kit. Even if they don't list the particular sail you are looking for, they will make a kit for you, if you know the dimensions. I had never used a sewing machine previously, but sewed a 60sq ft sail over a weekend. The total cost was a little over half of what it would have cost to purchase a finished sail.

Steven Roberts
www.get-outside.com (http://www.get-outside.com)

[Ian McColgin]

SailRite is a great way to go. Or shop a local small loft.

But as an aside, why a spritsail?

If you've experience with them and like them, that's the answer. To my mind, a sprit sail is hard to shape on the wind and has way too much twist off the wind, so it's never a really happy setting sail.

What I put on Leeward . . I happen to think that the swampscott style leg'o'mutton is a great way to go, especially if you lift the boom, setting it on a snotter as you would a sprit, so it rides horizontal out to the clew, thus saving your head a bit.

Were I to make a new sail for Leeward, I'd go with a fully battened balanced lug to get lots of controlable sail area on a short mast.

De gustibus and all that.

G'luck

[L.W. Baxter]

Bart, when I shopped around for sails for my dory, the local sailmakers I inquired with were not interested in doing my little sails. I ended up getting mine from Dabbler, a fellow in Virginia, I believe, who specializes in small boat sails. I am satisfied with the sails and the price. You can google Dabbler to find the website.

You might contact Todd Bradshaw, who posts to this forum. I found out too late that he's a sailmaker. He's also published a neat book, Canoe Rig. He's given me and many others tons of free advice, all nicely illustrated by his own drawings.

--Lee

[Bill Perkins]

I have a small boomed spritsail made by Dabbler that's very nice . I've used it for years and have always felt it set well . A boom of some type really helps the set .Dabbler specializes in small boat rigs and has a good reputation in small boat circles . I was told by Huge Horton that the Gougeon Bros.use them for small boat rigs .I think Dabbler made Rob White a sail he's written about. In any case all those folks like the Chinese lugsail ,a type of the fully battened balanced lugsail that Ian mentioned .

There seems to be some consensus among the cognoscenti that the fully battened balanced lugsail is near the ideal for driving small unballasted center boarders .The canoe sailors were on to this some time ago . The man at Dabbler (Stewart? ) could fill you in on the details if you asked him .I hope to have him make me one some day.

One note about my sprit rig :I can pull one line(the 2 part topping lift )and top the boom and sprit up parallel with the mast in about 5 seconds . This brails the rig up completely out of the way for rowing. Setting the sail again takes about the same amount of time .I often have to make the change from sailing to rowing when traveling through the marsh. Sometimes the wind dies or is channeled straight in my face along a narrow stretch .In those conditions it's most important to me to have a rig that allows an effortless transition from being under sail , to rowing, and back again .I don't think I can improve on my current rig for gunking around in the vast coastal marshes of Georgia . I'd still like to try a bigger ( Chinese lug ) sail on the boat in open water . Hmm . Thanks for posting (all) , maybe it's time .

[ 11-29-2004, 09:12 AM: Message edited by: Bill Perkins ]

[Ken Buck]

Just to counter Ian, I'll put my $.02 in favor of spritsails. Historically, it's probably the most common dory rig, along with the leg-o-mutton rig. It's simple to use and the reasonably short spars are easy to step and stow. Dories aren't ideal sailboats by a long shot, so it's a reasonable compromise for a boat that will probably spend time being both rowed and sailed. It's true that a sprit rig with boom sails better (I had a boom on my 13' sailing dinghy and it worked pretty well) but skipping the boom makes it easier to brail and furl. My sailing dory uses a leg-o-mutton rig with jib, mainly because I already had a boat with sprit rig and wanted to try something different, but I'd be happy with a sprit rig, too.