boomless sailboat

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By Ross Lillistone - Esk, Queensland - Australia

Boomed Vs Boomless

I have not come across anybody who claims that boomless rigs are more efficient than the equivalent boomed rig on all points of sail (assuming that Michael’s definition of efficiency relates to aerodynamic efficiency alone – there are many other ways of defining efficiency).

The use of a boomless rig is dictated by matters other than aerodynamic efficiency, with the most important one being safety when operating in open water. When an un-ballasted boat is over pressed the best course of action is to head up into the wind slightly, and as a last resort, ease the sheets. The problem with a boomed sail is that the aft end of the boom can drag in the water when the boat is heeling excessively, making it impossible for the boom to swing to leeward, and even making it difficult to head up into the wind by use of the rudder. The inevitable result is a capsise. If you are just messing around on an inshore race course that may not be a problem, but for those of us who go out into the big water, it could have very serious consequences.

If you look at working boats which used sail on a daily basis, there are numerous examples of boomless rigs. I don’t want to generalise too much, but a quick glance at the history books will show just how prevalent boomless rigs were when people relied on sail for their living. These people were not fools, and their definition of “efficiency” covered some important territory, including safety and lack of clutter. I do not agree with Michael’s assertion that “boomless sucks” and I think that it is neither prudent, nor polite, of him to say, “Any designer who says that they are "efficient" doesn't have enough sailing experience to make the call or is getting carried away with the promotional spirit of things.”

A few of my friends and I have recently had an excellent opportunity to compare a boomless rig with a boomed rig on my Phoenix III design. Phoenix III is a relatively narrow boat, being 4ft 9in over the gunwales (less to the outside of the planking) on an overall length of 15ft 1-1/2in, so her ability to stay on her feet was something to which I gave a lot of thought. The primary rig was deliberately laid out to allow the mainsail to be set correctly without a boom.

The term “correctly” refers to when the boat is being sailed hard on the wind. On other points-of-sail the boomless rig does not set in an optimum fashion, but nobody ever has trouble making a boat go when reaching or running – regardless of sail set.

In fact, the spritsail as used on Phoenix III is very good in this regard anyway, due to the way the head of the sail is controlled by the sprit.

What has been discovered about sailing this boat, with and without a boom, is not surprising to any of us: -

• Without the boom, the mainsail can be eased instantly and safely regardless of the angle of heel;
• Without the boom there is less clutter in the boat;
• Without the boom, sheeting tension is high (as is the case with a jib or staysail which is set boomless);
• Without a boom, the mainsail can be brailed-up, clearing the interior of the boat instantly, and providing a short-term furling arrangement;
• Without the boom, selection of the geometrically-correct sheeting point is critical and inflexible, but fine control of sail camber on-the-wind is simple and seamless.

On the other hand,

• With the boom, sheeting point is not critical, and sheeting loads are reduced;
• With the boom, short tacking can take place with the sheet cleated, much reducing workload when short-handed;
• With the boom it is far easier to maintain sail shape when the sheets are eased – particularly if a boom-vang, wishbone, or sprit-boom is fitted.

Now, having said all that, I have to admit that it is more convenient to use the rig with the boom attached, especially in benign conditions, and I recommend a boom on Phoenix III for general use. But when in the big stuff, the boomless mainsail set-up is safer. It is great to have a rig which can be used with or without a boom, and the change over is almost instant.

In his article, Michael Storer points out that one of the great advantages of using some sort of vanging device (boom-vang, sprit-boom, balanced lug with downhaul etc) is that it reduces sail twist. This is a very good point, but there are certain conditions under which 20 or 30 degrees of twist in the sail is beneficial to windward performance. This is normally in very light winds, which is also the time when it is most easy to keep things under control without resorting to expensive and highly-stressed rigging components!

In the case of the spritsail, we have been using a very simple and cheap piece of gear which has allowed us to keep sail twist under good control – even when using the rig in a boomless configuration. The device is a vang leading to the peak of the sprit, and it cost around fifty cents. The sprit vang is not highly loaded, and we made ours from a piece of 3mm (1/8in) Venetian blind cord. Normally we run it through a small fairlead on the rudder head and cleat it in a V-jamber on the tiller. It does not need to be handled from tack to tack.

Congratulations to Michael Storer for bringing up the subject of sensible sailing rigs for the sort of boat which is easy to own and use.

Click here for more columns by Ross Lillistone

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What is a Sailboat Boom?

Last Updated by

Daniel Wade

June 15, 2022

A sailboat boom is a prominent horizontal spar extending from the base of the mast. The base of the sail attaches to the boom.

The boom is an essential sailboat part. It supports the base of the sail and swings from side to side. Sailors use the boom to control the trim of the mainsail. Among other things, the boom can be used to increase or decrease the speed of the boat.

Table of contents

How does a Sailboat Boom Work?

On a sailboat, the boom is attached to the lower part of the mast. It's connected using a set of links, a swivel, or a gooseneck allowing it to move freely in all directions. While under sail, the boom is rigged to move side to side.

The bottom portion of the mainsail, which is called the foot, mounts lengthwise to the boom. This allows the boom to control the lateral position of the mainsail.

What are Sailboat Booms Made Of?

Most modern fiberglass sailboat booms are made of aluminum. Hollow aluminum booms are strong, affordable, and relatively lightweight. Early sailing vessels used spruce and other strong woods. Traditional wooden booms require frequent maintenance, but they're strong and proven.

High-end vessels and racing sailboats sometimes use carbon fiber booms. Carbon fiber is strong and extremely light, and it makes an excellent boom material. Fiberglass booms are common on smaller sailboats, though aluminum is the most prevalent boom material.

Why is it called the "Boom?"

The origins of the term "boom" in the sailing world are unclear. Some people speculate that the word came from the early use of Lateen rigs in the middle east, while others attribute the term to colloquial sailor-talk.

Nonetheless, "boom" is a fitting name. An easy way to remember the boom is to picture what happens when you quickly shift heading and forget to move your head out of the way. The boom swings to the other side with the full force of the wind and gives you a nice tap on the head.

Does Every Sailboat have a Boom?

Not all sailboats use a boom. In fact, the simplest sailing craft does away with the boom entirely. One modern example of a boomless sailboat rig is the Ljungström rig, which was designed by Fredrik Ljungström around 1945.

This simple rig uses two triangular mainsails tied together at the luff and trimmed by a single piece of rope in each corner. Many ancient rigs did without the boom and relied on a single top-mounted spar instead.

Why do Most Sailboats Have Booms?

The boom greatly increases the precision with which you can trim the sail. It provides support and 'draws in' the power of the sail and makes tight windward sailing much easier. If the boom wasn't a significantly useful development, it wouldn't be so common.

Sailboat Boom Parts

The boom on a typical sailboat is a straightforward component. That said, the boom is made up of a few important parts that you'll need to know. Here are a few of the parts found on and connected to the boom.

The foremost part of the boom is the gooseneck, which connects the boom to the mast. The gooseneck allows the boom to move up, down, and side to side.

Beneath the boom is the vang, which facilitates the downward force necessary to keep the sail from pulling the boom up the mast. It's a counterforce. Most sailboat boom vang systems use lines and pulleys. However, some vessels use a solid bar vang.

The mainsheet and its accompanying rigging attach to the bottom of the boom forward of the vang. The mainsheet controls the lateral movement and the trim of the sail.

The boom sometimes has reef lines attached to it, which allow you to tie up excess sail material after reefing. Reefing lines on older and simpler sailboats must be tied up individually after reefing.

Topping Lift

A topping lift keeps the boom level when the main halyard and the sail are loosened. Topping lifts are not found on all sailboats, but they're becoming more common each year.

Attaching the Mainsail to the Boom

A sailboat boom has hardware for attaching the foot of the mainsail. The type of hardware depends on the boat, and systems range from simple and manual to complex and automated.

Generally speaking, there are two ways to attach the mainsail to the boom. The 'loose-footed' boom design is the simplest and only ties down the sail at the corner tack and clew. The second method attaches the entire foot of the sail to the boom.

Controlling the Boom

There are two primary boom control lines on most sailboats. The first is the mainsheet, which controls how far the boom moves from side to side. The other is the outhaul, which connects to the clew, controlling the tension of the foot.

Furling Booms

Furling booms are yet another wonderful invention of the sailing community. These booms utilize an internal spindle for winding (or furling) the sail on-command.

Furling booms are useful for reefing the sail , as they eliminate the need for tying down excess material. Additionally, in-boom reefing systems offer a convenient way to stow the sail when necessary.

Electric furling booms are a new arrival to the high-end sailboat scene, but they're also available for retrofitting onto older vessels. When combined with electric winches, an electric furling boom can eliminate the need to go on deck when sailing.

These upgrades are common on large cruising vessels, as they allow you to control almost every aspect of your rigging without leaving the cockpit or interacting with any tack, cleats, winches, or lines.

Boom Maintenance

The boom is an essential part of sailboat rigging that must be properly maintained. The same goes for all the blocks, lines, winches, and cleats that work with the boom.

Aluminum Boom Maintenance

Aluminum booms require inspection and hardware maintenance. Galvanic corrosion can compromise the strength of the boom, and it's especially common in areas where hardware mounts to the metal. Aluminum booms can dent, deform, and bend under stress, so it's important to keep an eye out for kinks.

Wooden Boom Maintenance

Wooden spars require much more maintenance than aluminum, as wood is organic and sensitive to the sun, saltwater, and general weathering. Rotted spars are no good and must be replaced. Regular refinishing and coats of spar varnish can help prevent decay and keep the boom looking fantastic for decades.

Fiberglass and Carbon Fiber Boom Maintenance

Fiberglass and carbon fiber booms are low maintenance but still require inspection. Cracks, UV damage, and warping are common concerns with fiberglass booms in particular. Fiberglass is relatively easy to repair and may require gel coat touch-ups from time to time. Carbon fiber is tricky and costly, though initially stronger.

Boom Safety

Booms are one of the most common causes of injury aboard sailboats. All jokes aside, the boom can be pretty hazardous. The primary risk comes from head injuries, as the force of the wind can swing the boom with tremendous force. The boom can also shift on a dime, so it's essential to be cautious when moving around the cockpit.

In some cases, people standing on or around the boom have been knocked right off the boat by a sudden swing. The same force that causes a head injury can launch a fully grown adult right off the side and cause a perilous man overboard situation.

Keeping Passengers Safe around the Boom

Many sailing accidents occur because inexperienced passengers simply aren't aware of the boom, how it moves, and where it goes. The majority of these boom-related accidents can be avoided if everyone aboard follows a few simple rules.

First of all, ensure everyone wears a certified life jacket. Instruct passengers to always keep their heads clear of the boom and not to stand in an area where they could easily fall (or be flung) overboard. Use care when entering or exiting the cabin and when moving around the boom. Also, make sure everyone is seated and out of range of the boom when turning.

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I've personally had thousands of questions about sailing and sailboats over the years. As I learn and experience sailing, and the community, I share the answers that work and make sense to me, here on Life of Sailing.

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Going boomless? Magnum 21 Trimaran

Discussion in ' Multihulls ' started by nacrajon , Jan 27, 2014 .

nacrajon Junior Member

Having just got a new boat (Virus Magnum 21) the boom is a pain and right at eye level when on the tramp. How easy is it to convert the main to boomless? The mainsheet attaches about a foot forward of the clew. I'm uncertain if a good shape could be set. Ideally I would like to be able to buy a boomlet from NACRA and get a sailmaker to attach it. Is going boomless that simple? Obviously I would have to work out a reefing system, but that has been done before.  

Richard Woods Woods Designs

So instead of the boom hitting you in the face you'll now have a free flying mainsheet block that can hit you, but is probably less obvious to keep an eye on (literally). The boomless rig doesn't work well unless you are going to windward or never ease the mainsheet past the traveller There are reasons why my Strike 18 trimaran has a windscreen and a high boom. Keeps the cockpit and crew nice and dry as well as safe Richard Woods of Woods Designs www.sailingcatamarans.com  

Moggy Senior Member

A wishbone boom may be an option.  

I don't see why boomless is not an option on a family boat. I raced boom less NACRAs in the past and they were competitive against similar cats. I have an asymmetric kite with the wind so the main would be tight anyway to support the mast. So back to sail shape, is it as easy as riveting on a boomlet?  

TeddyDiver Gollywobbler

Just IMHO but comparing to big genoas there's no reason not to have similar sheet arrangement for boomless main aswell...  

The Clissold TC10 is boomless with a radial traveler. http://www.tcdesign.co.nz/TC_Design/Sailing_Designs/Pages/TC_10.html It works for him.  

warwick Senior Member

The Ian farrier F 22 is also boomless in the production version http://www.f-boat.com/pages/News4/FM-Factory2014.html  

I have sailed boomless beach cats. I've also sailed most of the newer Farrier designs, but not the F22. They are performance boats, as is the Weta, so pretty much always sail with the apparent wind forward of the beam. I've also sailed a Virus Magnum (there is one by my office). It isn't a performance boat. Furthermore, unlike a beach cat it has a very short mainsheet track Another problem with boomless rigs is that you tend to have to have the mainsheet track aft of the clew, otherwise you cannot flatten the sail. I suspect the clew on the Magnum is aft of the track (sorry I cannot remember it was a long time ago that I sailed one) Richard Woods  

teamvmg Senior Member

On a boomless mainsail, the main sheet has to angle forward so that aswell as pulling the leech down, it also pulls along the foot to flatten the sail. [It sounds like yours is angling the opposite way] They are tricky sails to get right, even when specifically designed for the boat. You would also need to upgrade your mainsheet as it will be working harder.  

upchurchmr Senior Member

Interesting to call the F-22 boomless. That is a really big bottom "batten" Perhaps there needs to be a new term - they could probably turn it into a salesmanship gimmick. I didn't read the whole thing to understand the "variable stiffeness" batten. The boat and web site is really impressive, wish I would win the lottery. It was somewhat amusing to see the wide cabin at the gunwale which did not appear usable due to the narrow settee opening. Possibly just an impression since I have never sailed any of the Farrier boats.  

ianfarrier Junior Member

The bottom batten is just that, a batten, but with more torsional stiffness so that it can roll the mainsail. http://www.f-boat.com/Media4/F-22Photos7/ReefedandFurled.jpg But it still bends enough to allow the best possible shape to the reefed sail. Still very light, and easy on one's head if you get in the way. It is also of variable stiffness so that it can be stiffened up downwind, but so far it does not look like this will be necessary. The wide cabin at the gunwale is very usable, for storage behind setbacks, or for the old style wing berths, but which I never found very practical, and have preferred to use settee berths since the F-27 in 1984. The wide cabin also avoids that claustrophobic feel of a narrow cabin. I had tried such a cabin on the original prototype, with side decks: http://www.f-boat.com/Media4/News6/TT18prototype.jpg The idea of having a flat side deck around the cabin appealed at the time, but it was a big mistake and never did it again. Ian Farrier Farrier Marine.  

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Thanks for all the replies, it seems boom less is not as easy as I was hoping it may be. A F22 was on the top of the list, however I couldn't make the stretch financially and I thought the Magnum met my needs better than a Hunter Tramp.  

A Cat on fire!(going very fast) / M2 on foils

What is going with Hydrofoiler SCAT (experimental boat) ?

Is there going a local 30 ft. trimaran circuit in sweden .

Bazooka Trimaran going back into production

Ormas going to Hobart

Seawind Catamarans going into voluntary administration

Boomless double masted catamaran....

Re-cutting beach cat sail to go boomless

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Living with Sprit Sails

Brailing, Reefing, and Furling

From Issue   May 2016

I have been using sprit rigs for decades and currently have one for my Good Little Skiff and two of them for my Delaware ducker. Of late, sprit rigs seem to have become less popular for small boats than the lug, which is more easily reefed. But there is a lot to be said for a sprit rig, whether boomed or boomless. If set up the way fishermen and hunters once had them, they are ideal for trailerable boats. The sail is laced to the mast and can be dropped into the step, a sheet reeved, and off you go. My sprit rigs live in long, loose, and slippery bags of light fabric. To unpack a bag, I untie it, flick the rig vertical, and pull the bag down; I’m ready to step the mast with everything attached to it. To put the rig away, I lift up the foot and pull the bag on over it, then work it along the bundled sail and spars.

For transport, a bag sewn of light, slippery cloth keeps the bundled sprit rig compact and not prone to getting snagged.

The key to working with a sail, sprit, and mast—and boom if you have one—is to have it all in a bundle. To create this you need a brail line. As Pete Culler showed us in his book Skiffs and Schooners , a light, slippery line is fixed to the throat grommet, then run to a small brass thimble sewn to the leech and run back to another thimble on the opposite side of the throat, and then down the mast. I use a clove hitch to tie the brail in, a grommet punched to the leech, and a small block or ring at throat. The distance from the peak to the grommet is the same as that from the peak to the throat. If you have a boom, you need a little block of wood on the bottom with a bee hole in it, set at a distance from the boom jaws that’s equal to the length of the sail luff. For a boomed spritsail the brail is run through the bee hole on the boom, not a grommet on the leech, and gathers up both boom and sprit.

A small block tied to the throat sends the brail down along the mast. The sail here is reefed and brailed. Note the throat pennant takes a hitch around the mast before it heads up to be tied to the masthead.

I tie the tail end of the brail to the tack grommet, leaving enough slack in it to let the sail set properly. To furl the rig, haul on the part of the brail that lies alongside the mast, leaving its end tied to the tack. When it has bundled the rig, I clove-hitch the brail onto the tack thumb cleat, which has a thumb just long enough to drop the hitch onto it. I then have enough slack brail to run up the mast and to make a lashing around the bundled sail and spars to keep everything together.

The other key to managing the sprit rig I learned from Joe Liener, and was done by the Delaware ducker and sneakbox sailors: using a peak pennant. This is a light line tied on to the grommet at the peak of the sail and run down the sprit to a rolling hitch or to a small wooden cleat. It keeps the grommet in place on the sprit even when there is no tension on the snotter or indeed if the sprit is out of the snotter completely when doing a nice, tight roll of the sail around the sprit. When you next raise the sail, the peak is ready to go. The peak pennant is long enough so that if you have to scandalize the sail (remove the sprit and fold the sail from throat to clew), you can pop the sprit out of the snotter and pull the sprit down far enough to grab the pennant and not have the peak slip off the sprit and flap out of reach.

The major objection that many have to the sprit rig is that it is hard to reef and that when it is reefed, it doesn’t set right. This can be fixed. Some people use multiple thumb cleats or relatively sticky line to lower the snotter on the mast so that the sprit can continue to bisect the peak, as it must for the sail to set right, when the sail is lowered. Sliding the snotter down the mast probably worked well in the days of manila, but today’s synthetic lines are slipperier. Since I don’t want to have an extra thumb cleat on my mast, I use a snotter pennant, a light line that has a loop to slip over the snotter’s lone thumb cleat, and a tail end that is tied to the snotter’s wrap around the mast.

A pennant for the throat takes the place of a halyard and requires the rig to be lowered to reef the sail.

Lowering the sprit can create a problem on some boats if the butt of the sprit hits the deck or gunwales. This is easily solved by using the peak pennant. The grommet normally rests on the shoulders of the sprit, but if the grommet is large enough, it can be turned to a right angle to the sprit and can be slid past the shoulder. The peak grommet needs to be big enough so it can be slid a foot or two down the sprit. Then you can run the sprit up past the peak far enough so that its butt doesn’t hit the deck. The peak pennant runs up to the sprit shoulder and is clove-hitched there. If the grommet is too small to slip past the sprit’s shoulder, you can loop the pennant around the sprit, thread it through the peak grommet, and then tie it off on the sprit’s shoulder.

I only reef the spritsail on my skiff about 10% of the time or less, so to keep the rig simple, I don’t use a halyard. A throat pennant ties the sail to the masthead. It’s another bit of light line, this one somewhat longer than the depth of the reef.

If I need to reef, I’ll brail the sail, unstep the mast, and drop the whole rig in the boat. This has lots of advantages. Instead of standing up and bouncing around, I am nice and stable, just lying a-hull; I may even have a cup of coffee from my Thermos. I untie the throat pennant, pull slack in the luff, and tie the luff tack cringle to the sail’s tack. To reduce the number of lines, my tack lashing is an extension of my luff lace line that is clove-hitched to the throat, then spiraled down the mast through the luff grommets. It is clove-hitched to the tack, then looped around the mast under the tack thumb cleat, then clove-hitched again to the tack. The tail end has enough extra so I can use it to lash the throat reef cringle to the throat so I don’t need an extra line. I then pull on the throat pennant to tension the luff and clove-hitch it to the masthead.

Having dealt with the luff, I shift the snotter down but don’t hook the sprit back in yet. I hook the snotter pennant over the snotter thumb cleat and half-hitch it to the snotter loop on the mast. If you frequently reef, the snotter pennant can be permanently lashed to the snotter, measured to the correct length, and a loop tied in to hook over the thumb cleat. (If you leave this in place, you have an extra line where you need it when you lash the bundle together for transport.) Then, after you’ve lowered the snotter, if needed, slide the peak grommet down the sprit and tie the peak pennant to the sprit shoulder. Hook the sprit’s bottom on to the snotter and set the snotter just tight enough so the sprit doesn’t come loose. Tie in the reefpoints. Restep the mast. I set up my rig so that I just relead the sheet into the reefing clew, leaving a bit of slack at the end of the gathered foot of the sail which hangs down a little, but you can use a clew line or pennant to lash the reefing clew to the sail’s clew so you don’t need to shift the sheet. Tighten the snotter, cast off the brail, and go sailing.

Pennants for the peak, throat and snotter allow the spritsail to be reefed and hold a good shape.

My skiff’s sprit sail is about 75 sq ft, as is one of my ducker rigs. I don’t race these boats, so I don’t need lots of parts to the mainsheet; I can give the boat a bit of luff if I can’t pull hard enough to haul the sheet in. For the skiff, I make the mainsheet off on one quarter knee, then just run it through the clew grommet, and back to a turning block on the other quarter knee. I have a half pin protruding down from a hole in the sternsheets set up so I can take a turn around it and use a slippery hitch to make it fast (something I learned as the doryman’s hitch). Having the sheet run through a grommet rather than a clew block creates a bit of friction that makes it easier to hold. For the ducker, there is a block lashed to the boom with a sheet that comes up from a becket block (I use a modern ratchet block) that is snap-shackled to a pad-eye fastened to the plank keel.

Ben Fuller , curator of the Penobscot Marine Museum in Searsport, Maine, has been messing about in small boats for a very long time. He is owned by a dozen or more boats ranging from an International Canoe to a faering.

Brailing Spritsails

A boomless spritsail is brailed with a grommet or ring on the leech.

With the spritsail brailed, the sheet is half-hitched around the lower end of the bundle to keep it snug against the mast.

For a spritsail with a boom, the brail is threaded under the boom.

A plastic fairlead keeps the brail in place.

The brail gathers up the boom, sprit, and sail without having to adjust either the sprit or boom.

A sprit boom is self-vanging so it can’t be pulled up by a brail unless the forward end is lowered and secured near the tack.

A line though the tack and around the mast with a loop tied in it holds the boom in position for brailing.

The brail for the sprit boom runs through a wooden block with a beehole.

With the boom brought down even with the foot of the sail, it is ready for brailing. The sprit’s snotter has been eased to lower the peak to make the sail easier to brail.

After the boom and sprit are repositioned they can be brought up tight against the mast.

Harbor Furl

A harbor furl makes a bundle tighter and neater than that of a brailed sail. Slip the sprit from the snotter and hold it parallel to the mast keeping the peak held high. Fold the clew over the sprit and roll the sail up until it is snug against the mast. You can use the snotter to tie it there.

You can share your tricks of the trade with other Small Boats Monthly readers by sending us an email .

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Comments (7)

I’d sure like to see more about that nice “barge boat,” for lack of a better name. In a power format it could serve the needs of my future “home on wheels,” that is, something I can tow behind a regular car, and sleep and eat in while on the way both on the road and on the water. That’s a nice boat. Maybe you would consider a follow-on article about that. I’m not much interested in sail power—I had some bad and dangerous experiences. Thanks for sharing.

You can get a glimpse of the boat in my article “ San Juan Island Solo .” The hull is a garvey form that was inspired by a pedal-powered boat designed by the late Phil Theil and the rest of the boat I made up as I went along, making sketches and mocking up interior arrangements.

Jim –

The Cunningham cruising boat is a very nice, practical cruising solution. For kit-boat alternatives, check out Fred Shell’s schooners or schooner cat .

I have a sprit sail on my 60 year old “launch” and know a fair bit of the language of boats but most of this went over my head (as the boom should).

This all is a lot easier if you lay the rig down on the ground and walk around looking at the corners. When I do this is a workshop, comprehension ensues. Have fun.

Ah heck, if it is that windy that you are considering reefing, do what the old timers did. Just pop out the sprit, chuck it in the boat and keep sailing. It’s simple, easy and you’ll make it home safely. I learned to sail on the spritsail-rigged Seaford Skiff RORO now in Mystic Seaport. I currently volunteer as captain on SPIRIT OF ROANOKE ISLAND, a spritsail-rigged shadboat at the Roanoke Island Maritime Museum in Manteo, North Carolina.

I agree. My ducker has no reef points at all. The peak pennant is still real handy. Once the peak is unshipped you have a handy bit of line to tie the peak down to the tack to keep everything from flapping around.

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• Sailboat Reviews

Practical Sailor Reviews Seven Performance-Sailing Dinghies

Agile, fun boats like the classic sunfish and new hobie bravo keep the smile in summer sailing..

Photos by Ralph Naranjo

Messing around in small boats is a global theme-one thats embraced by pond-bound pram sailors, river riders, lake voyagers, and all of us who call salt water home. The purpose of this sailing dinghy profile is to highlight seven very interesting little sailboats. Some are new designs, and others have stood the test of time, but all are currently being manufactured, and each drives home just how much fun sailing close to the water can be.

This isn’t a shootout among anorexic speedsters or a report on the best tender that doubles as a sailing dinghy. Its a look at perennials like the Optimist, Sunfish, and Laser-legendary competitors that have helped spawn some of the best sailors in the world. But its also a look at three of the newest entries in the dinghy-sailing circle: Bics Open, Hobies Bravo, and Laser Performances Bug. These agile, new sailing dinghies are chock full of fun and boat-handling features to inspire kids of all ages to go sailing.

Well also take a look at Chesapeake Light Crafts kit approach to getting started-one that offers meaningful lessons and tangible rewards well before the boat ever hits the water.

Scale down an Open 60, add sail technology long favored by windsurfers, and put it into play in a tough thermo-formed hull, and you have the makings for a new kind of watercraft. The result is a very interesting blend of performance and reliability that targets adolescent interest. When all is said and done, Bics boat is more akin to a sit-down windsurfer than a traditional Blue Jay. And like all good boats, its vying for attention not just based on performance, construction quality, and style, but just as importantly, on the price tag stuck to the hull.

The Open Bics light weight and wide, flat stern section means that even small chop can be surfed; and bursts of planing on a reach add a zing factor to dinghy sailing. The Open Bic is already an International Sailing Federation (ISAF)-sanctioned class, and fleets are developing around the US. Another bonus: Its an easily portable boat that can be carried like a windsurfer, adding excitement to a Sunday picnic at the beach.

The thermo-formed polyethylene hull is a modified hard-chine design with lots of beam aft. Sailed flat, the boat is agile enough to surf wavelets, and with a shape thats ergonomically friendly to hiking, the ensuing heel on the upwind leg puts just the right amount of chine into the water. In light air, careful control of heel can significantly reduce wetted surface.

The design team that developed the Open Bic saw it as a transition bridge from Optimist sailing to a more performance-oriented dinghy. An interesting innovation is that the Open Bic can be sailed with an Optimists rig and blades. This buy the hull only approach can be a significant incentive for parents with children outgrowing their Opti as fast as their boat shoes. However it wont be long before the kids want the fully turbo-charged feel delivered with the Open Bics well-shaped 4.5-square-meters rig, sail, and nicely foiled blades.

Bottom line: The Open Bic is fast, agile, and buckets of fun for kids uninspired by sailing in the slow lane.

Just when you think that Hobie Cat Co. has covered whats possible in beach-cat innovation, their design/engineering crew comes up with a new twist that reinvents the wheel. The Hobie Bravo is a good case in point.

In a recent visit to Backyard Boats ( www.backyardboats.com ) in Annapolis, Md., we got a good look at the Bravo. Nearly as narrow as a monohull but still quite stable, this quick-to-launch beach cat packs plenty of get-up-and-go. Its a simple to sail, entry-level boat that fast tracks learning the steer, sheet, and hike trilogy. The boat features a single, midline rudder and roto-molded hulls. The shape of the hulls provides enough lateral plane to allow a crew to make headway to windward.

The narrow (4 feet), 12-foot Bravo uses crew weight and hiking straps to add to the righting moment once the breeze is up. Whats done with webbing on larger cats has been converted to a shallow, rigid deck well on the Bravo. It does raise the weight of the boat to 195 pounds, but it offers comfortable seating plus room for cushions and a cooler. Kids or grown ups can have a Tom Sawyer-Huck Finn type of adventure aboard this fun little sailing machine. Or the family on a beach picnic can set it up and take turns speed reaching along a sandy shoreline.

The furling mast supports a roachy sail with slightly slanted vertical battens, helping to shape the boomless mainsail. The result is convenient sail handling, decent performance, and superior safety. Theres no boom to clobber the crew, and the roller-furled sail and mast are easily stepped in the tripod-like receiver. This interesting set of struts raises the top bearing point of the mast step and spreads rig loads out to the hulls. The furling mainsail offers the ability to reef, a big plus in a building breeze or when teaching children to sail.

Like all of the boats in the Hobie lineup, theres a wide range of specialty parts and fittings that make the boats fast to rig and easy to handle. The kick-up rudder is hung on gudgeons mounted in the center of stern, and just as rig loads have been effectively spread via the tripod step, the energy radiating from the large rudder is spread athwartships via a contoured deck element.

Bottom line: The boat is quick to rig, easy to launch, and responsive to beginners-more experienced sailors will have just as much fun power reaching when the breeze is up.

A pocket-sized club trainer, the Bug is an evolution of the kids trainer/club racer that leverages lessons learned in Optis, Dyers, and Sabots. It pulls together the logic of a stable hull shape and simple-to-sail rig, and puts it all in a cost-effective package.

Lending to its success is designer Jo Richardss ergonomic, roto-molded hull, a fabrication that is as close to zero maintenance as a boat can get. The straight out-of-the-mold polyethylene skin gets a few decals, and theres no wood to refinish or gelcoat to wax. These tough, abrasion-resistant hulls have a bumper boat tolerance thats a big plus when it comes to kids learning to sail. Best of all, owners can start with a learn-to-sail rig and upgrade to a more performance-oriented mast and sail package (41 or 56 square feet) that kicks performance into the fast lane.

Oars and an outboard motor bracket can be added to turn the little sailboat into a dual-purpose dinghy. Even the bow painters means of attachment makes sense-no projecting hardware ready to knick the topsides of unintended contacts. Instead, theres a recessed hole in the stem allowing a line to be lead through and a knot used to keep the painter in place.

Bottom line: Aimed at club programs and families look for boats that can be transported on the car top, the Bug is easy to rig and definitely kid friendly. The fact that its manufacturer, Laser Performance, is an international interest and a major player in the performance dinghy industry means that this boat and its parts will be around for a while.

Photo courtesy of Hobie Cat Co.

Eastport Pram

Chesapeake Light Craft expedites boatbuilding for do-it-yourselfers looking to take their garage-built boats for a sail. The company pre-cuts parts, packs kits with all the materials, epoxy, and paint youll need, and leads homebuilders through a thoroughly detailed stitch-and-glue approach to assembly. Kits are available in various stages of completeness, ranging from plans only to the full package, including sail, hardware, running rigging, and paint.

The Eastport Pram is just shy of 8 feet, and the marine plywood and epoxy construction delivers a boat that weighs in, sans sailing rig, at just 62 pounds. Lighter than the comparatively sized Bug, this stiff, durable dinghy, rows like a real boat and sails comfortably with one or two aboard. In keeping with other good tender attributes, the Pram behaves under tow and is equally amicable when propelled by a small outboard or tacked up an estuary under sail.

Kit boatbuilding continues to have a niche following. Theres also an added-value feature worth noting: On one hand, the builder receives a box of pieces and the result of his or her endeavor leads to an aesthetic and utilitarian dinghy. In addition, the DIY skills the builder develops will be useful in other epoxy bonding, brightwork, or mono-urethane application projects. Such talents will benefit many other boat maintenance endeavors.

Whats hard to quantify is the sense of accomplishment derived from sailing a boat that you have built yourself. When the project is tackled in tandem with a child, spouse, or friend, the memories and the boat will last.

Bottom line: With neither sidedecks or a sealed hull, this is not a boat thats easy to recover from a capsize. So once the kids favor on-the-edge sailing in a building breeze, a non swamping, easier-righting boat is probably a better option. The Pram can then be put to use by their appreciative parents or grandparents.

Never in their wildest dreams did Bruce Kirby and Ian Bruce imagine that the Weekender (the Lasers original name) was destined to become an Olympic class sailboat and one of the most popular springboards for top-tier sailors in the world today. Originally envisioned as a car-topper for weekend campers, the cat-rigged, low freeboard sailing dinghy morphed from its original roots into a boat favored by college competitors and revered by generations of agile sailors of all ages. Even frostbiting winter sailors have locked onto the Laser.

Designed in 1969, the Lasers first few years were anything but smooth sailing. Popularity grew quickly, but along with the limelight came plenty of consternation. Dubbed a surfboard not a sailboat by a growing cross-section of the yachting elite-many parents warned junior sailors to steer as clear of Lasers as they did sex, drugs and rock-n-roll. The campaign failed, and junior sailors in yacht club programs around the country fell into the grip of the new one-design dinghy-discovering the sailboats proclivity to plane.

Dyer Dhows languished in boat sheds across the country as a new theme in sailing took hold. Dubbed fast is fun by sailor/engineer Bill Lee, the young Merlin of Santa Cruz, Calif., took the theme to big-boat sailing, merging California culture with the Laser logic of light displacement and planing hull shapes.

Best of all, the Laser embraced the ideal of a tightly controlled one-design class that put people on the water in identical boats and left winning and losing races up to sailing skill and tactics rather than a boats performance edge. For decades, the boat has been the single-handed sailors choice among junior sailing programs, and with the addition of the Radial, 4.7 and M rigs, smaller competitors have also found the boat to be a great sailing platform. Today, theres some lawyer saber-rattling over the sale of the design rights, but the boat remains more popular than ever.

The sleeved sail, two-part spar, daggerboard, and kick-up rudder make the boat a quick-to-rig and fast-to-get underway dinghy. Light-air efficiency is good for a one-design sailboat, but this means that as the breeze builds, the non-reefable sail can become a handful in a hurry. In fact, the boats Dr. Jekyll-and-Mr. Hyde demeanor is what builds talent among Laser practitioners. The big boys block the mainsail and blast off for the layline, while lighter sailors heavy-weather tactics include more nuanced de-powering and feathering. In light air, the tables turn, and the winner is often the sailor who planes quickest on the reaches. The old guards surfboard slam may have held some credence after all.

Bottom line: The Laser is a timeless classic thats easily transported and is built for performance. Its well suited to adrenaline-seeking teens as well as the more fit adult crowd.

Designed in 1947 by Floridian Clark Mills, the utilitarian Optimist could be made out of two sheets of plywood-and from its inception, the Optimist was meant to link kids with the water. Slipping into obscurity in the U.S., the little pram found fertile ground to grow in northern Europe. With just a few tweaks, the Scandinavians took Millss lines and parlayed them into whats become the favored junior sailing trainer for kids from Detroit to Timbuktu. Statistics show that there are about 30 builders worldwide putting out approximately 4,000 boats each year. With about 130,000 boats class registered and an estimated 300,000 total hulls built (amateur and pro), theres plenty of reasons to get excited about an Opti.

The example weve chosen is the USA-built McLaughlin boat, both a demonstration of high-quality FRP construction and modern manufacturing techniques. Its also a boat that can be purchased in a range of performance-inducing iterations-upgrades designated as club, intermediate, advanced, and professional versions. Like all performance sailboats, stiffness and strength-to-weight ratio is important. But class rules include a minimum weight, so the most competitive hulls meet the mandatory lower limit but use good engineering and building technique to reinforce the daggerboard slot and mast step and produce overall stiffness.

The low mast height and high aspect ratio sprit sail is very versatile, affording young (and small, 65 to 130 pounds) sailors a wide window of decent performance. The flat bottom, slab-sided hull is responsive to crew weight-driven trim changes, and the better the sailor, the more agile they become. Light-air performance is all about minimizing wetted surface and maximizing sail area projection. When the breeze starts to kick up, the sailor becomes the ballast, and the art of hiking, sheet handling, and tiller wiggling come into play.

Under careful adult supervision, two 6- to 8-year-olds can double-hand the friendly little dinghy, or one more-confident child can solo sail it. In fact, introducing kids to sailing with similar proportioned small prams has been a right of passage around for decades. A set of oarlock gudgeons can turn the pram into a functional dinghy thats also adaptable to the smaller Torqeedo outboard (www.torqeedo.com).

McLaughlin also markets a Roto-molded polyethylene version of the Opti and sells DIY kits for those who want to create their own wood version.

Bottom line: The Opti is like a first bicycle without the need for training wheels. The fact that at the last Olympics, over 80 percent of the winning sailors had gotten their start in an Optimist speaks well to the value of messing around in this particular dinghy.

Designed in 1951 by ice boaters Alexander Bryan and Cortland Heyniger, the hard chine Sunfish was the prototype board boat. In 1959, it made the transition into fiberglass, and over the following half-century, more than a quarter-million hulls would hit the water. Simplicity and decent sailing attributes combined with an attractive price to make the Sunfish the most popular one-design dinghy ever raced.

Far more than a platform for racers, these boats are an excellent training tool for sailors of all ages. Also built by Laser Performance, they reflect the fun of summer and put sailors in close contact with the water on which they sail. Its no surprise that the larger fleets coincide with warm water and many see going for a swim to be part and parcel of the low-freeboard experience.

The lateen rig is in keeping with the overall design concept and simplifies rigging. A short stub of a mast is stepped and a single halyard hoists the sail along with tilting V-shaped upper and lower booms.

The total sail area is nearly the same as the Laser, but the halyard hoist versatility of the lateen rig make it a handy beach boat and a little less daunting when the wind begins to build. The clean sail shape on one tack and deformation caused by the mast on the other tack are a slight drawback. The Laser rig is more efficient, but when caught out in a squall, its nice to be able to ease the halyard and dump the sail. Its also handy to be able to leave the boat tethered to a mooring, and the doused sail and short mast make it possible.

Multiple generations of sailors are often found sailing Sunfish, and the boat represents one of the best bargains to be found in the used boat market. When considering a pre owned boat, the potential buyer needs to take a close look at the daggerboard-to-hull junction and mast step, points where previous damage can create hard-to-fix leaks.

Bottom line: The Sunfish is a great beach boat that can turn a hot afternoon into a fun-filled water experience.

There were no losers in this group, and picking winners and runners-up proved a difficult task. The outcome had to be based on assumptions about how these boats would be used. For example, parents with a competitive 9-year-old who swims like a fish, always sprints for the head of the lunch line, and likes to steal bases in Little League probably have an Opti racer in the making. Less competitive junior sailors-future cruisers in the making-will do better learning aboard a Bug. Many newly formed sailing clubs target the boat as their trainer of choice.

The Bravo holds plenty of appeal for those with a lakeside cottage or a favored campground destination. Whether its a solo sail just before sunset or a fun race on Sunday, the quick to set up and put away features are a plus, and for those who feel that two hulls are better-the Bravo will hold plenty of appeal.

Serious competitors can campaign a Laser for life, and whether youre headed for a local district regatta or getting ready for the Olympic trials, the hull, rig, and sail remains identical-sort of like the Monaco Grand Prix being raced in a street legal Mustang.

Bic Opens new little speedster tickled our fancy, and as a trainer/performance boat crossover, it drew a strong nod of approval. Watching the junior sailors smiles as they sailed their Open Bics endorsed our opinion.

And if there is any boat that defines the essence of summer, the Sunfish takes the prize.

• The Art of Building with Thermal-setting Plastics

• Youth Safety Gear Top Picks
• Chesapeake Light Craft
• Hobie Cat Co.
• Las er Performance
• McLaughlin Boat Works

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2022 Boat of the Year: Best Dinghy

• By Dave Reed
• December 17, 2021

Sailing World Magazine’s annual Boat of the Year tests are conducted in Annapolis, Maryland, following the US Sailboat Show. With independent judges exhaustively inspecting the boats on land and putting them through their paces on the water, this year’s fleet of new performance-sailing boats spanned from small dinghies to high-tech bluewater catamarans. Here’s the best of the best from our 2022 Boat of the Year nominees »

Skeptics be warned: The Happy Cat Hurricane is legit. This is the unanimous assessment from our Boat of the Year judging squad after sailing the surprisingly quick and nimble 16-foot inflatable catamaran in 10 knots of breeze. While it delivers exhilarating sailing, it’s much more than a recreational rubber dinghy—it’s an adventure craft, a portable sailboat, a pontoon motorboat, a lazy-river drifter, or anything you want it to be once it’s pumped and splashed.

Grabner is an Austrian manufacturer of all types of inflatable watercraft, which the company has been building since the mid-1980s. The Happy Cat Hurricane came online in 2017, and a carbon-mast version was added in 2019. The Hurricane Carbon, which the judges tested, is the company’s flagship go-fun craft, and apparently, it can’t make them fast enough.

We racers know fiberglass better than we do rubber, but Alex Caslow, of Redbeard Sailing in Baltimore (the US importer), says Grabner’s vulcanized rubber is “tire-quality” and sourced from Continental. All of the Happy Cat’s tubes, he adds, are handmade, glued and welded in Austria, producing high-quality hulls that should last at least 20 years. There’s a seven-year warranty on the hulls, he says, but should you ever need to, $2,000 is your replacement price (per hull). The all-up price for a new boat, with everything you need to go racing or gunkholing, is currently $15,000.

The magic to keeping the Happy Cat’s tubular platform stiff is the anodized aluminum frame that holds it all together. Tension cables crisscrossed beneath the trampolines provide additional stiffness in waves. The frame also serves as attachment points for the trampolines, which are clipped on rather than laced like most catamaran tramps.

The boat, Caslow says, can be assembled in roughly 40 minutes—from taken out of the storage bags to inflated and sails hoisted. Upgrading from the standard manual pump to a 12-volt air pump accelerates the process, of course.

Bags? That’s right. The entire boat and rig fit into four bags collectively small enough to transport in the average-size car trunk. This portability is its primary selling point, especially in Europe, where hundreds of owners and devotees regularly gather to rally and raid on alpine lakes and coastal enclaves. Its second selling point is that it sails as well as most fiberglass recreational catamarans.

“It definitely caught my eye when we first walked up to it,” Chuck Allen says. “The bright-red hulls, the carbon rig, all the ropes, but especially the interesting setup with the rudder and centerboard being on centerline. I’d never sailed a catamaran with a centerboard.

“The hulls are really firm—they feel just like a RIB tube, and all the aluminum framing and wires are nice quality. I was really curious how it would sail, and believe it or not, it sailed like a champ.”

Greg Stewart says his first impression was one of skepticism as well. “It seemed like it would be one of those boats that looked cool on land but would let us down, but it didn’t at all. It sailed amazingly. It tacked well enough that I didn’t have to backwind the jib, and got up to speed again quickly.”

The ability to tack it like a dinghy, Stewart says, is because of the centerboard and because the rudder is mounted in the best place possible. “What makes it steer so well is the rudder is so far aft, which gives you a nice turning moment between it and the centerboard.”

The centerboard has up/down lines that are led to the front beam and cam cleats, but there is a breaker line in case you get into shallow waters. The centerboard casing also acts as an anchor point for the dolphin striker.

The reverse “wave-piercing” bows have a lot of buoyancy down low, Stewart adds. When he was sailing upwind through chop, they “just want to lift and rise up over the wave.” If flying a hull gets a bit too unnerving, he says, a small ease on the mainsheet or a slight bear away makes the boat settle right down with a soft and pillowy landing. Stewart forgot to conduct the obligatory capsize test, but he said afterward that the boat tended to simply slip sideways if the weather hull got too high. The optional masthead float, however, would be a good choice for peace of mind, he says.

“There’s a great sensation of speed,” Powlison reports, especially with the 91-square-foot gennaker. “The Velocitek SpeedPuck that was on the boat was reading 10 to 11 knots regularly, and it wasn’t hard at all to tack or jibe either. The spinnaker clew is pretty high, and the boomless square-top mainsail (124 square feet) makes it really easy to get across the boat.”

“This boat rips,” was Allen’s final assessment. He gave it high marks all around, but what ultimately stole his favor was a browse through Grabner’s catalog, which showcased the Happy Cat’s versatility: Leave the mast in its bag, erect the optional sun awning, and slap on the outboard motor bracket to transform it into an outboard-powered exploration craft and swimming platform. Or strap on extra fore and aft trampolines, load the boat up with camping gear in dry bags, and explore new places.

“Its biggest appeal really is its portability,” Stewart says. “If you don’t have easy access to a yacht club or storage near the water, you can easily keep this in the garage or apartment without taking up much space at all. Throw it in the car and take it wherever you want.”

Assembly, Caslow says, is simple and quick once the hulls are inflated. The tubes slide into grooves in the frame, tension cables are clipped on with carabiners, the trampoline is strapped on, and the mast can be raised by one person once it’s pinned onto the ball joint.

When it’s assembled, the Hurricane Carbon is only 175 pounds, but it is still a bit unwieldy for solo ramp launching. For this particular challenge, Grabner offers flip-up “slip wheels” that mount to the aft beam and stay on the boat while sailing. With your standard big-wheeled catamaran dolly, however, it’s easy to move around and beach-launch. And once you’re underway and zipping along, crew extended on the wire and the soft bounce of the hull on your bottom, you’ll just want to keep on sailing—happy as a cat on nip.

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Admin, Global Mod, Mod Newest Members , , , , 8150 Registered Users Top Posters(30 Days) 1 Forum Statistics --Advertisement-- · ·  |   |   |   |   |  Home » Achieve best Cost/Performance with Traditional Sailing Rigs – Balance, standing lugs and sprit rig sails Achieve best Cost/Performance with Traditional Sailing Rigs – Balance, standing lugs and sprit rig sails Working toward efficient and well tuned lugsails spritsails and rigs.. Any reasonable level sailor can look at the pics above and below and see that this rig is doing most of the right  things. The twist is controlled, the sheeting angles are relatively narrow (though never sheet the front sail of a boat in tighter than 10 degrees from the centreline) and the boat is moving along nicely in a light wind and a leftover chop. This is what I mean when I say that properly set up traditional rigs can be effective … … a yawl or a ketch * that can sail round a racing course about equal with a Laser. See our lug rig setup articles listed on one page . To be picky and see what we can learn, there are some wrinkles in the head of the mainsail (the “head” in a 4 sided sail is the edge tied along the upper spar – the top corner is the “peak”) and they are a sign of me being lazy – but a few are OK when the wind is light and you are trying to power up the boat. The other defect is the mizzen is too full.  Mizzens usually end up too full because sailmakers underestimate just how stiff such short yards, booms and gaffs are if they are designed to be strong enough. The pictures above are of me sailing my first design – the BETH sailing canoe on Lake Burley Griffin in Canberra many years ago. BETH is the boat that helped me work out how to set up these types of sails properly – I already knew from my racing background what the aims were, but there are some specific things applicable to traditional rigs. See a video of a Lug Rigged GIS in a full race against Fireballs and Laser dinghies . Which of the traditional rigs has good performance The balance lug rig shown here is certainly one of the best candidates for a traditional rig that is capable of very good performance.  Any of the rigs that restrict sail twist as the sheet is eased are OK. The OzGoose below is becoming a popular boat for club racing in the Philippines, where we can build 10 boats for the price of importing one Laser. It provides level racing on a low budget and plenty of downwind thrills with top speeds around the 13 knot mark. Trainer for family sailing or fun little racing boat one up. I have used the balance lug on Beth as well as the Goat Island Skiff and the Drop-in canoe rig . A close relative of the balance lug is the lateen (or vice versa) – which the balance lug becomes when it is fully reefed. Another is the sprit rig – which we used on the OzGoose originally and OzRacers . Though we have swapped mostly to a slightly larger balance lug rig as above. The OzRacer – the yellow boat right – is sailing is a good strong breeze.  Note how the twist is restricted and the mast is bending to depower the sail.   Because of the cut of the foot the sail looks like it is sheeted closer than it actually is – the tip of the boom is just outside the transom corner. The pictures are all :old hat” for racing sailors but the mast on this boat cost $50 and the sail is made of polytarp and cost us $45.  When the boat is turned downwind as in the following picture the sail has little twist and is projected well to catch the wind.  This day I broke the sailing peak speed record for the class – raising it from 6.5mph to 9.2mph. Another efficient rig is the lateen – which is a very close relative of the balance lug.  I’ve used the lateen for a number of canoes that have been fitted with my “drop in” outriggers. Balance lug and sprit rigs will sail rings around a gaff rig unless the gaff rig has been set up with a modern boom vang. Can Boomless Mainsails be “highly efficient”? First – there are some good reasons to consider boomless sails, but if you want the boat to sail really well in all conditions then boomless is bad. Performance of such rigs can be OK and there is the argument of simplicity – for example a boomless sail on a rowing tender makes a lot of sense – fewer bits to set up for a boat that is not normally propelled by sails.  Cost can also be a good reason But this section is to deal with those who say “boomless rigs are highly efficient”. Boomless lugs and boomless “leg of mutton” sails are inefficient crosswind and downwind because of excessive sail twist.  Any designer who says that they are “efficient” doesn’t have enough sailing experience to make the call or is getting carried away with the promotional spirit of things. The only exception to “boomless sucks” is in some fast multihulls which have a curved traveller track that keeps the sheet at the right angle all the time.   A multi with a straight traveller and no boom is pretty inefficient as well because the sheeting angle becomes silly as the sheet is eased and the sail twists excessively and the bottom of the sail becomes excessively flat until the limit of the traveller travel is reached then becomes excessively full as the sail is eased for  a broad reach or run. A boomless rig has its place, but it is very hard to argue a performance advantage. The reason that the boomed traditional rigs that I use have a lower performance than modern rigs is also because of this type of twist. BUT:- the difference between them and modern rigs is not huge because the twist is controlled. they are so much cheaper than a modern rigged boat that it is justifiable. Why not talk about tuning modern rigs and their huge range of adjustability? The modern bermudan rig generally relies on a boom vang to have the same effect – and that can cost quite a bit of money.  The traditional rigs on the other hand sacrifice something in fine adjustability and make up for it in simplicity and low cost. Instead of all the bits required to make a sloop rig work, the traditional rigs for the racing Geese use three non ball bearing blocks for the mainsheet, rudder fittings and a ring for the top of the mast for the halyard to turnaround. Everything is attached with Spectra loops, mostly attached to the boat by putting them through a hole and tying figure 8 knots in the end. See our Oz Goose rigging guide to see how we reduce rigging cost dramatically. Modern race boats go completely overboard with adjustable bits – between a quarter and a third of the $25,000 cost of a 505 (racing dinghy for 2 people) or a Lightweight Sharpie (racing dinghy for three people) is in fittings, ropes and wires – Ronstan, Harken and the rest.  This would be fine if it increased the performance by 25% but the reality is more like 5%.  But that is enough to win races. Assuming you know how to use them. And half of sailors don’t know, another quarter don’t dare touch them much and just under another quarter overdo it. :) Traditional rigs generally have a very low part of the cost involved in these parts – maybe about 5% of the all up cost – and the boat is already much cheaper anyhow. In fact we built two OZ PDRacers for less than the cost of a shroud tension system on a 505 or Australian Sharpie in 2006.  $350 each. Or in the Philippines we build and rig complete Oz Goose sailboats complete for around the price of a set of spars for a racing Optimist Dinghy. And the tuning of modern rigs is well covered in other places.  I strongly recommend that traditional rig owners have a look at that information too – it covers the basics very well. Back to traditional rigs So you can get on the water cheaply and the boat can still go well – If both you and the designer have both done their jobs. A large part of getting these rigs to work efficiently is down to the designer – he/she has to get the sail area right for the boat and position it correctly and also design the spars for the correct bending response as the wind strength fluctuates. There are few designers that actually do a good job of this part.  Iain Oughtred is one of the few who invariably gets it right with almost everything well positioned and specified. If the designer understands this properly they can put much more sail area on the boat and still have it easy to sail in stronger winds.  Before we put together our OZ PDRacers with the flexible masts and matching sails the largest sensible sails in the fleet were around 45 to 65 square feet.  The OZ PDRs had 86sq ft when we first launched them and they were docile to handle and very quick. The lugs are 89 square feet and here is Rick Landreville winning his second PDRacer championship. The rigs are also docile in strong winds when set up properly. Another area the designer is helpful is in setting up and choosing the rigging for the boat.  There is a big difference in the cost of blocks (pulleys) from Ronstan’s basic range vs their deluxe.  In general if the right rope and the right fitting have been chosen by the designer and the correct placement and attachment specified there is no need to pay Ronstan or Harken the extra for ball bearing blocks. The sailmaker is important too – a sailmaker who is interested in these types of sails makes a big difference too (though with the PDRacer we have included the plan to make sails for yourself at a fraction of the cost). If the designer gets the rig right, the sailmaker was interested in the project and you get the details right then the boat will sail REALLY WELL – and perhaps more importantly – just be trouble free. As far as the owner’s responsibility – getting these rigs to work well is more a question of detail – just getting little things right – get them all right and the boat will GO! Setting up and tuning lug rigs and lug sails – also Lateen sails and rigs Here is a page for setting up most types of lug rigs and lugsails on small and medium sized boats.  Most of the advice for balance lugs will also work for Lateen sails. See our major resources that cover these situations from low cost to adjustable methods RELATED LINK – All our Lug Rig Articles – over 20 directly useful articles on setting up and thinking about lug rigs. Leave a Comment Cancel reply This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed . SmallCraftAdvisor.com Small-Boat Related Message Board Skip to content Subscriptions Back Issues Instant Downloads Boat Plans & Kits Message Board Classifieds Quick links Home Board index General General Discussion It is currently Wed Sep 04, 2024 3:05 pm All times are UTC Moderator: Moderator Post by Michel » Tue Aug 21, 2012 10:41 pm Re: Boomless! Post by Steve » Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:02 am Post by Michel » Wed Aug 22, 2012 2:00 pm Post by Griphos » Wed Aug 22, 2012 4:06 pm Michel wrote: The boom and things like the outhaul,cunhinham and all are really there to control an overpowering sail by flattening it up. Some boats would really benefit from a free breathing main sail that liberates some more driving power. Post by Michel » Wed Aug 22, 2012 4:48 pm Post by Michel » Wed Aug 22, 2012 5:08 pm Post by Michel » Thu Aug 23, 2012 5:41 pm Post by Griphos » Fri Aug 24, 2012 2:21 am Post by Michel » Fri Aug 24, 2012 11:12 am Post by Griphos » Fri Aug 24, 2012 3:33 pm Return to “General Discussion” Boat Building and Designs Small Boat Events and Gatherings Race to Alaska (R2AK) West Wight Potter Precision Sailboats ↳   News and Annoucements ↳   General Discussion Home Board index Powered by phpBB ® Forum Software © phpBB Limited Style by Arty - phpBB 3.3 by MrGaby Privacy | Terms Small Craft Advisor The Best Small-Boat Rigs Are you a casual cruiser who values simplicity and ease-of-handling above all else, or a racer who looks to maximize performance with every tack we ask readers about the pros and cons of various rigs. Article by SCA Editors — Illustrations by Rick Myers Most of us know sailing rigs are, much like boats themselves, a series of tradeoffs. What any of us considers the “best” rig is really just the best for us, based on our needs, where we sail, and possibly other considerations. The kind of sailing you do obviously matters as well. Are you a casual cruiser who values simplicity and ease-of-handling above all else, or a racer who looks to maximize performance with every tack? Do you carry an outboard motor or rely on sail and oars only? Do you typically sail with crew or mostly singlehanded? Where we sail is a factor as well. Exploring the windy San Francisco Bay might have you thinking about sails more easily reefed, where cruising on the light summer winds of South Puget Sound will convince you that any rig ought to start with plenty of sail area. Negotiating shallow water and 30-knot gusts during a Texas 200 will give you new appreciation for the yawl, as you watch boats with these rigs peacefully weathercocked on a sheeted mizzen while you struggle to heave-to. There are other factors too, like aesthetics or a sailor’s skill level. There some especially handsome traditional rigs with topsails, and running backstays, or little boats with schooner rigs, for example, but with each mast, sail, or new string to pull comes another learning curve. Same goes for racing rigs with lots of fine adjustments and tweakability—while some sailors demand these options, others wouldn’t know what to do with them. Although we’ve established that “best rig” is subjective, is it possible there are a particular few small-boat rig types that seem to do better generally? Or rigs that consistently get higher marks from their owners? With this is mind we sent out an e-mail survey to thousands of you asking about your small-boat rig, what you’d consider its strengths and weaknesses, and what you’d choose if you could do it over. What follows are the results of this survey along with any conclusions we were able to draw. We should also point out: A sailing rig is only one part of the performance equation—the same rig on a different hull shape or underbody is obviously going to perform differently. — Eds Keep reading with a 7-day free trial Subscribe to Small Craft Advisor to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives. Forums New posts Unanswered threads Register Top Posts Email What's new New posts New Posts (legacy) Latest activity New media Media New media New comments Boat Info Downloads Weekly Quiz Topic FAQ 10000boatnames.com Classifieds Sell Your Boat Used Gear for Sale Parts General Marine Parts Hunter Beneteau Catalina MacGregor Oday Help Terms of Use Monday Mail Subscribe Monday Mail Unsubscribe Boomless sailing 26S MAC Thread starter BILLNPR Start date Aug 8, 2020 Macgregor Owner Forums Ask A Macgregor Owner I am thinking of sailing boomless. With the foot conected with a cunningham to the tack and the clew sheet and block attached the rocket launcher on the stern above the tiller. In the picture the yellow life ring attache to the rocket launcher, think big U that is the mast holder when the mast is down for travel. The main sheet and blocks then would be out of everybodys way.   Attachments Boomless mainsail Boom-less main sail - macgregorsailors.com. A storm trysail is rigged boomless, sheeted to the aft cleats. Have to change working sheets just like a jib when tacking. Make sure the is pulled forward to the mast, not just down. If you want the mainsheet out of the cockpit for good you could raise the boom and build a mainsheet arch, preferably with full-width traveler. This is usually done on much bigger boats so you may not get full standing headroom if you keep descent proportions. You'll have less sail area and it will be higher, but will probably sail better than boomless.   stickinthemud57 OK, I don't have the credentials to be voicing an authoritative opinion, but I'm going to try to make sense. It seems to me that attempting to sail without a boom will limit you to downwind or, at best, a broad reach. Maybe I'm just unclear on the concept. In light winds, the mast support at the stern would work as an attachment point for the mainsheet, but I could see it getting bent pretty easily in a gust. If the idea is to get the mainsheet clear of the cockpit area, I wonder if it would work to rig the mainsheet at the stern, like in this photo .   Project_Mayhem Or just went BOOM!   Removing the boom and traveler will make some difficult upwind sailing, especially with such a blown out mainsail. The major consideration will be clew reinforcement and modification. I would talk to sailmaker... Most beach cats and many larger multi hulls are rigged without booms now... but the mainsails have mutiple clew grommets on a plate that compensate for the missing outhaul (which is a very important control)...   A main without a boom sounds like it's acting as an asymmetrical spinnaker placed midship   This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register. By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies. Accept Learn more… Free Shipping On Boats to the Lower 48 States! MINICAT PORTABLE SAIL BOATS Minicat makes the most portable sailboats in the world store your boat under your bed or in a closet instead of on a trailer in your driveway. minicat boats pack away into one to three bags (also see our minicat bag and wheel bag .) for easy transport and storage.. MiniCat offers the widest range of inflatable boats on the market. They offer a boat for every sailor or use. It is no wonder why MiniCats are the most popular and best selling inflatable sailboats in the world! With four unique models in the lineup, there’s a MiniCat for every sailor’s next adventure. The ultra-portable MiniCat lineup brings the joys and thrills of sailing to you without the need to fuss with a trailer or rent a boat slip. Quickly assemble your MiniCat at the water's edge and off you go. MiniCat sailors all over the United States are exploring new waters such as the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Chesapeake Bay, the Great Lakes, the Gulf of Mexico, and every lake in between! Explore just a few of the innovative features MiniCat has packed into each model and discover what MiniCat model best suits you! The mast is light enough to step with just one hand. Keels developed by the Tomas Bata University in the Czech Republic to be made out of 100% recycled plastic. Better for the environment, and they float! Boomless mainsail makes this the perfect learner boat. Many customers start at a Guppy to "learn the ropes" before upgrading to a 420. Innovative stay supports slide into pockets making for a boat that can be rigged in seconds. Trampoline is pre-laced and attached to both hulls for a "unroll and inflate" method for lightning-fast assembly. Fully battened square top dacron mainsail for maximum performance and a long life. High performance 55 ft² sail plan makes this small sailboat akin to a performance sailing dinghy. Padded bench seats are comfortable for long days on the water. 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The larger MiniCat models are perfect for taking the whole family for a relaxing yet exciting day on the water. 420 Instinct SHOP THIS MODEL 420 emotion shop this model, 420 evoque shop this model, 420 laura dekker shop this model, 460 esprit shop this model, 460 elite shop this model, minicat racing sailboats. If go-fast technology and systems are what you're into, look no further. Thanks to premium materials and advanced technology you’ll achieve maximum performance and higher speeds, and the best part is these boats assemble in 20-30 minutes and can be stuffed in a hall closet when not in use. MiniCat Specification Comparison MiniCat Boat Specification Comparison 10+ YEARS IN THE MAKING. MiniCat portable sailboats are a design and engineering marvel that are solely manufactured in the Czech Republic, EU. Their exclusive factory is equipped with the latest technologies and all of their boats are held to a rigorous quality control process before they are shipped. Thirteen years ago a young enthusiastic Czech sailor, Matin Horak, had an idea to create a sailboat that would be easy to transport, would be affordable, and would be able to be sailed by both new and experienced sailors alike. The MiniCat Story Fueled with this idea and passion, Martin would begin to design and prototype his first iterations of this portable sailboat. After two years of testing, MiniCat was ready to hit the market. Thirteen years later, it’s sold all over the world and is still considered to be best in its class—selling over 200 boats a year. MiniCat is sold only through 20 distributors worldwide with Red Beard Sailing being one of them. Our close relationship with the manufacturer has awarded us the privilege of being able to carry our own Red Beard Exclusive model, the MiniCat 420 Carbon. SHOP MINICAT BOATS Laura Dekker x MiniCat Record-Breaking World Sailor Laura Dekker, who at 16 became the youngest person to circumnavigate the world and make international headlines, has long been a big fan of MiniCat. The boat brand collaborated with Laura on the MiniCat 420 Laura Dekker Ltd Edition. It’s design is based on best-selling MiniCat 420 Evoque, with usage of carbon fiber items, matte finish of the frame, double colored mast, fantastic eye catching design of sail and jib, and newly designed trampoline with an embroidered Laura Dekker logo.   Laura said, “Since the first time I saw a MiniCat being sailed (circa 2009) I was so impressed at how so much fun could be had from a sailing boat that you could carry in a bag…I have seen and sailed numerous inflatable catamarans and this one really stands above them all.” Minicat Warranty Full 24-month warranty for defects in material or workmanship. Contact Red Beard Sailing or the dealer you purchased from to file a warranty claim. Be sure to fill out the warranty registration from in the back of your Owner’s Manual and email it to us or directly to MiniCat to activate your warranty. Sign Up for Our Newsletter Receive exclusive offers, and be the first to know about upcoming events, demos, sales, and discounts. Explore your world The journeyman nesting, sailing dinghy . Is a purpose designed yacht tender, for sail, row or motor power. Designed for maximum load carrying, stability, and simplicity.  Powered either by a simple and efficient 5.5 sq. m boomless sprit rig, a 7'6" set of oars or a small (<4hp) outboard. The Journeyman has the versatility to be a capable tender or work-boat as well as a fun boat to silently explore your local anchorage or inlet. The boomless sprit rig is simplicity itself with the furled sail and spars simply dropped into position. The sheet is clipped in and a single line releases the sail and you are ready to go.  A simple to build Do It Yourself plywood boat  The CnC cut plywood comes together effortlessly using the stitch-and-glue construction method.  Made from 3 sheets of 6mm BS1088 marine ply and 1 sheet of 12mm, this is the largest boat that could come from standard sheet sizes.  Construction of the various parts of the boat are simplified due to the self locating slots and tabs throughout the design. You could almost build this boat without a tape measure. The boat is self jigging, using the bulkheads and transom to pull the hull panels into shape, the addition of the gunwales then locks the boat into position and you are ready to start gluing and taping it all together. Nested for storage, The Journeyman dinghy takes up only 5'9" (1.75m) x 4'6" (1.37m). 6 bolts hold her together, and the centerboard seat bridges the two halves for easy assembly.   Carries up to 5 adults Built in buoyancy and highly stable hull.. With 2 buoyancy chambers in the aft hull and 1 in the forward hull, providing 75L of buoyancy on the GRP model and 60L on the Plywood version, the Journeyman dinghy is virtually unsinkable. With its highly stable hull form the Journeyman is able to easily carry 5 people in rowing and motor mode and can be comfortably sailed with 3 people. Two positions for the thwart seat and two positions for oarlocks enable the Journeyman to be set up for different loading situations . Explore your world   Missing journeyman dinghy, help us find hull number pa-gscjm006j2018. Very special custom GRP Journeyman dinghy, black hull with cream interior, with the hull number PA-GSCJM006J2018 stamped on the fordeck, went adrift at Escudo de Veraguas in Panama. It is currently drifting the Caribbean sea, if found please contact either us through our contact page or the owner Ray Swartz on whatsapp +507 6607 0815 157 IMAGES Testing A DIY BOOMLESS & SELF TACKING Staysail Setup Boomless mainsail on the XC5 beach catamaran A-Class, Boomless Main: Cut & Sail Ilur Considering the Drascombe Lugger was designed w/ a boomless sail rig Boomless spritsail sheeting options/add sprit boom? VIDEO "Boomless Bummer: Where Did All the Fireworks Go?" Dalat Sailboat Rigging HIDING our sailboat from hurricane BERYL in a mangrove How to Calibrate a Boomless Sprayer My Favorite Boat Reviewed at 2023 Florida Boat Shows Building a 44' Performance Catamaran BY THEMSELVES! Ft. @MJSailing COMMENTS Duckworks The use of a boomless rig is dictated by matters other than aerodynamic efficiency, with the most important one being safety when operating in open water. When an un-ballasted boat is over pressed the best course of action is to head up into the wind slightly, and as a last resort, ease the sheets. The problem with a boomed sail is that the aft ... Club Wave A large, fully-battened, boomless mainsail is powerful in the light stuff, but is designed to reduce power in an unexpected gust. The three-piece mesh trampoline is heat melded for the ultimate in longevity, has two main sections and is simple to adjust. Specifications * Crew: 1-4 ; A mainsail without boom Regarding boomless main sail, here is my experience. My first A-Cat bought in 88 was boomless without circular track for cost reason. The main problem was to manage the gusts windward: When releasing the mainsheet tension to open the sailplan, basically, the first effect is just like if you release the footsail tension on a boom fitted sail, 2024 Hobie Wave Sailboat This recreational boat can be sailed solo or with a crew of four, and the Wave's boomless sail provides power in all conditions. Thanks to the shape of the hulls, no daggerboards are needed. The rotomolded hull is virtually indestructible, so launching and docking is stress-free. The Hobie Wave is simple and always engaging. Boomless Rig Testing A DIY BOOMLESS & SELF TACKING Staysail Setup Our sailboat came with a staysail that included a boom. Our preference though, is to keep our foredeck space clear and open so when we headed out to go saili... What is a Sailboat Boom? One modern example of a boomless sailboat rig is the Ljungström rig, which was designed by Fredrik Ljungström around 1945. This simple rig uses two triangular mainsails tied together at the luff and trimmed by a single piece of rope in each corner. Many ancient rigs did without the boom and relied on a single top-mounted spar instead. Going boomless? Magnum 21 Trimaran Another problem with boomless rigs is that you tend to have to have the mainsheet track aft of the clew, otherwise you cannot flatten the sail. I suspect the clew on the Magnum is aft of the track (sorry I cannot remember it was a long time ago that I sailed one) Richard Woods. Richard Woods, Jan 29, 2014. #8. Hobie Bravo Square Top Sail Design Boomless Sail Design Perhaps the most valuable feature of the Bravo sail is what it is missing - a boom. The benefits of the boomless feature are simple - less expensive, easier to rig and most importantly it is safer. This boomless feature is very rare for small sailboats and yet it completely eliminates a major concern of sailing. Living with Sprit Sails Then, after you've lowered the snotter, if needed, slide the peak grommet down the sprit and tie the peak pennant to the sprit shoulder. Hook the sprit's bottom on to the snotter and set the snotter just tight enough so the sprit doesn't come loose. Tie in the reefpoints. Restep the mast. Practical Sailor Reviews Seven Performance-Sailing Dinghies The boat features a single, midline rudder and roto-molded hulls. The shape of the hulls provides enough lateral plane to allow a crew to make headway to windward. ... The furling mast supports a roachy sail with slightly slanted vertical battens, helping to shape the boomless mainsail. The result is convenient sail handling, decent performance ... 2022 Boat of the Year: Best Dinghy The spinnaker clew is pretty high, and the boomless square-top mainsail (124 square feet) makes it really easy to get across the boat." "This boat rips," was Allen's final assessment. Rigging a standing lug The advantages to going boomless are similar to those of a boomless spritsail - no boom to hit your head on or to stow away. Likewise, the sail shares similar disadvantages, namely poor sailshape when the boom is outboard on downwind legs, since there is nothing there to hold the clew corner out, control sail twist, etc. Boomless Sailboat In high winds, the boom provides a direct ability to depower a bit more effectively, by use of the out-haul, which can flatten the main-sail and allowing for more tuned power. The boomless rigs wiggle and arc more in gusts, which can mean more of a deeper mainsail foil shape, but its really not a big performance deal. Achieve best Cost/Performance with Traditional Sailing Rigs Can Boomless Mainsails be "highly efficient"? First - there are some good reasons to consider boomless sails, but if you want the boat to sail really well in all conditions then boomless is bad. Performance of such rigs can be OK and there is the argument of simplicity - for example a boomless sail on a rowing tender makes a lot of ... Boomless! The boomless main is the ultimate loosefooted main and it works just fine. ... I am sure that it depends greatly on the individual boat. Some, may lose some by going boomless and may need all these adjustments to be efficient. I respect your point of view. Michel Boulet Ex: "Mari-Bell" Sandpiper 565 (18.5367454 ft) ... The Best Small-Boat Rigs Standing Lug: "Boomless sail makes gybing (and tacking) risk-free for novice passengers and crew. Also makes reefing very simple. Sail twist in standing lugsail rig automatically depowers the sail in windy/gusty conditions. Short mast fits inside boat for rowing and trailering, and can fit under some bridges other masts can't. Boomless Mainsails 03-30-2004, 01:42 PM. I really don't like boomless mainsails for several reasons: First, the sheet force for a given area and wind strength is considerably higher than a boomed sail - one more degree of freedom, y'know. The sheet has to hold the clew out away from the mast, down, and in toward the center of the boat. Boomless sailing 26S MAC The boat behind you already went boomless! S. SFS. Aug 18, 2015 2,081 Currently Boatless Okinawa Dec 5, 2020 #6 Or just went BOOM! Joe. Jun 1, 2004 8,067 Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego Dec 5, 2020 #7 Removing the boom and traveler will make some difficult upwind sailing, especially with such a blown out mainsail. ... Boomless roller furling mainsail rigs for small boats Boomless roller furling mainsail rigs for small boats. I'm interested in thoughts and opinions on boomless roller furling mainsail rigs like what's on the Hobie Bravo, Adventure Island, or, on the homebuilt side, Drifter trimarans. I guess my ultimate boat design would be a Goat Island Skiff hull with a kick up centerboard and rudder and a ... MiniCat: The Cutting Edge Portable Inflatable Catamaran Sailboat Boomless mainsail makes this the perfect learner boat. Many customers start at a Guppy to "learn the ropes" before upgrading to a 420. ... The boat brand collaborated with Laura on the MiniCat 420 Laura Dekker Ltd Edition. It's design is based on best-selling MiniCat 420 Evoque, with usage of carbon fiber items, matte finish of the frame ... Boomless Sail Question A boomless Bermudan hoisted on a raked mast is remarkably similar to a genoa, but with a thicker and less aerodynamic luff. Another solution is the mast aft rig, which has a long forestay with a large staysail which is effectively the main sail of the boat. Journeyman nesting dinghy The Journeyman nesting, sailing dinghy. Is a purpose designed yacht tender, for sail, row or motor power. Designed for maximum load carrying, stability, and simplicity. Powered either by a simple and efficient 5.5 sq. m boomless sprit rig, a 7'6" set of oars or a small (<4hp) outboard. The Journeyman has the versatility to be a capable tender ... Boomless spritsail sheeting options/add sprit boom? 07-17-2013, 11:16 PM. Re: Boomless spritsail sheeting options/add sprit boom? Get yourself to the Center for Wooden Boats and take a look at the setup on Plover. The traveler is bronze rod, it's got a couple parts purchase on the sheet, and there's a little snubbing block on the aft end of the centerboard case. catamaran gulet motorboat powerboat riverboat sailboat trimaran yacht