Happily the result has been excellent. She still looks good, but now is a lot easier and quicker to set up, and is a lot easier to sail without compromising performance (6.5 knots the other day). The boom is now 3m long instead of 5m long, so it can be stowed away with its sail conveniently in the cabin, ready for use when desired. That all means we can go out sailing a lot more often.
We’ve had 6.2 knots just with the two foresails up ( no main ), which in blustery conditions was very easy to control as both sails are on roller furlers. The second time out I added the boom to the staysail which was another significant improvement.
Thanks Mark, I was always a bit apprehensive that I would ruin the look of the original cutter rig design, but I am really happy with the result, both in appearance and performance.
Further to that, we took it out on Port Stephens in a stiff 35 knot westerly recently with only the staysail up and managed 5.5 to 6 knots. It was so easy to sail with just this rig and with a single chine it only heeled about 10-15 degrees.
BTW are you the Mark from markstriamaran?
I like the concept of a wishbone, but unless I recut the foot of the sail and get the clew higher, the end of a wishbone (at the clew) would still be at head height. plus I want to keep the style of the boat as close to original design as possible.
Welcome to my blog (especially visitors from the 2021 Worldwide Classic Boat Show). Have a browse through the topics in the menu to see how I have modified my wooden gaff cutter to be more useable.
Also I have added some other projects:
* Construction of an 11’6” Iain Oughtred "Guillemot" dinghy.
* Restoration progress of a 24' 1952 timber cruiser.
aft mast gaff cutter 
6 Comments
That’s different, How has sailing trials panned out ?
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Happily the result has been excellent. She still looks good, but now is a lot easier and quicker to set up, and is a lot easier to sail without compromising performance (6.5 knots the other day). The boom is now 3m long instead of 5m long, so it can be stowed away with its sail conveniently in the cabin, ready for use when desired. That all means we can go out sailing a lot more often.
We’ve had 6.2 knots just with the two foresails up ( no main ), which in blustery conditions was very easy to control as both sails are on roller furlers. The second time out I added the boom to the staysail which was another significant improvement.
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Looks a really nice boat especially with the aft mast. [I got here from boat design forum by the way].
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Thanks Mark, I was always a bit apprehensive that I would ruin the look of the original cutter rig design, but I am really happy with the result, both in appearance and performance.
Further to that, we took it out on Port Stephens in a stiff 35 knot westerly recently with only the staysail up and managed 5.5 to 6 knots. It was so easy to sail with just this rig and with a single chine it only heeled about 10-15 degrees.
BTW are you the Mark from markstriamaran?
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Every boom is dangerous for head. Change to wishbone like
Kankama https://youtu.be/XEiIQn6Ikls
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I like the concept of a wishbone, but unless I recut the foot of the sail and get the clew higher, the end of a wishbone (at the clew) would still be at head height. plus I want to keep the style of the boat as close to original design as possible.
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