rigs: gaff, cat, sloop

[oldironnut]

As a novice(not totally newb but almost)
I'm currently looking to buy a boat and need some input about different rigs. Quite often I will be sailing single handed so I need something I can handle without a crew. What is the reason that I see such a huge percentage of sloops, seemingly regardles of size and very few catboats. Other priorities: trailerable, easy setup-mast, rigging etc. I would rather make purchase payments on a new boat than on slip rental. I'm looking for something 20 to 25' or a little one way or the other. I haven't even decided daysailer or pocket cruiser. I don't care much about racing but would naturally like a boat to handle well. Another question-I don't fully understand the pros and cons of a "stiff - tender". I know what happens on each (I once owned a 13' Zuma-I think there was a picture of it in the dictionary under "tender") but what are the downside to either? As they say " Learn by other people's mistakes, you don't have time to make them all yourself"

[sailingdog]

There a good book for you to read called: "The Sailor's Book of Small Cruising Sailboats: Reviews and Comparisons of 360 Boats Under 26 Feet", by Steve Henkel.

As for rigs, sloop rigged boats are probably the simplest to deal with in many ways, with good upwind performance, good heavy weather capabiilties, etc.

A cat-rigged boat has only one sail and the really long boom can be a serious danger to the crew under the wrong conditions. It packs a huge wallop with the sail area a cat boat usually has up. They don't go to windward as well as a sloop generally either.

Some boats, usually narrower, older designs are considered tender—they heel relatively easily at first...but generally stiffen up once heeled a certain amount. These boats generally perform best with some heel.

A stiffer boat, usually wider, flatter more modern designs, will heel less, give you a lot more trouble once they do start to heel and will behave a lot better if sailed relatively flat.

A really good book for a novice sailor to read is Dave Seidman's The Complete Sailor, which IMHO is the best sailing primer book I've seen thus far. It is only $16 or so at the local bookstore.

[bobmcgov]

There's a lot to be said for gaff-rigged catboats when singlehanding. They are typically quite beamy (up to 50% of length!), offering good initial stability w/out excessive draft, so you can poke into estuaries and coves. The mast is well forward: large, unobstructed cockpits and cabins, good for fambily daysailing or camping in. Two working lines: the gaff halyard and mainsheet. Mast is short, so one person can step it easily (the gaff supplies much of the final height). Mast is usually unstayed: simplifying setup, keeping the decks clear, allowing the boom to swing all the way out, and even permitting a sleeved luff. The gaff twists off in gusts, depowering the sail, and you can quickly reduce sail area by 'scandalizing' the gaff: dropping it behind the body of the main, moving the center of effort down and forward.

BTW, you can have a gaff-rigged anything: sloop, ketch, schooner, cutter. But they are most popular these days as catboats. The downsides to catboats and gaffers are as Dog says. Windward performance and top speed suffer without a headsail to direct flow over the back of a mainsail. Unless the mast of luff sleeve rotates, the mast causes turbulence on reaches. The boom is long and experiences large forces; it also hangs way overboard, causing the boat to wallow downwind. The large, low-aspects mains are hard to trim precisely, and draft may shift waaaay aft in gust, causing the boat to round up. Catboats often have immense rudders which may need some muscle in a blow.

Tradeoffs, as with everything sailing. I'd give serious consideration to a catboat if I were pleasure cruising alone. Catboaters are kind, generous, mellow people. Among modern builders, Compac makes lovely catboats and gaffers. You'll see lots of cats& gaffs in New England, where they are historical, and along the gulf coast, where they do well in shallow water and chop. Cats and gaffers are short-run built and often meet high standards of finish and construction, as demanded by their traditionalist owners; expect higher prices than corresponding-length production sloops. A good used Marshall can fetch $20k.

The Catboat Association, Inc.

They make me smile.

[sailingdog]

Bob—

Have you read "Catboat Summers"??? It is by John E. Conway, and a great read...features New England waters, mostly around where I sail for some reason...

[Waltthesalt]

For small boats I like catboats as they are easy to handle and have no jib to tend when tacking. A marconi rig is going to be more efficient and faster than a gaff rig. I learned on gaff rigged boats and I think my attachment to them is more sentimental than anything else. With aluminum masts stepping a small marconi isn't much more difficult than a gaff and many small cruisers have mast tabernacles now. Sloops are faster upwind but don't point as high as cats. The advantage of a single sail is also a disadvantage because it has to be designed for moderate winds. In light winds you can't add sail area. Sloops can put up larger genoas for light winds. For larger boats the Nonsuch and older Freedom cat ketches both sailed well.

[midnightsailor]

Another good read involving catboats is a book by a former customer of mine named William Kornblum. The book is "AT Sea In The City" in which he describes his many sails in a vintage Crosby catboat around and near the waters of New York City. Bill is a professor of sociology at the Graduate Center, City University of New York and one heck of a nice guy besides being a wonderful writer. I , along with several others, completely restored his 26 foot vintage Crosby catboat "VICTOR" over a period of several years.
Rick