Spritsail Tuning Notes and Brailing Line

17 Jul 20:

Air Temp 79 F, Dewpoint 76 F, Wind NE 9 knots gusting 10.

Took ST. JACQUES out in a little more wind to play with the sprit rig, Skipper could get her to point pretty high for a sprit, head where she wanted but at a slow pace. We fell off a bit and moved ballast aft, ST. JACQUES is happiest on a broad reach or run, which is what we envisioned when we designed her, to row out a bit against the wind and/or tide, then time it so we could ride the tide and wind back to the beach.

The brail line doesn't run as free as I like through the block at the top of the mast, which is a bronze Wilcox and Crittenden block from a Sunfish, so we are going to swap that block with something smaller. We also are going to tighten up the bridle a bit so it doesn't interfere with raising the tiller and that will give us a better sheeting angle.

Video: https://youtu.be/YdBo0A7BoGc



Bridle off of belaying pin on quarter knee.

We run the sheet around the pin at times to adjust the sheeting angle, close hauled.

The sprit is the spar that goes to the peak of the sail.

The snotter is the line that controls the setting of the sprit spar from the bottom pin. On some boats the snotter is fixed length. We like to be able to lower our sprit from down low in the boat, should too much breeze come up.

Video: https://youtu.be/ovPwWkWMRY0

Log of ST. JACQUES.

Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES 16 Jul 20 Voile et Aviron

16 Jul 20:

Air Temp 76 F, Dewpoint 72 F, Wind ENE 3 knots gusting 4.

0714 Launched early in ST. JACQUES to try and intercept the dolphin, they have been coming by just after 0700 each morning. Rowed ENE into the wind for 10 minutes or so, Skipper puts the rudder down so she can steer while I provide motive power. Not much motive power this morning, we seemed to be going uphill against some river current and flood tide eddies. Skipper turned us into the roaring 3 knot breeze, I shipped the oars, lowered the centerboard and loosed the spritsail brail line. ST. JACQUES slowly turned off the wind and Skipper sailed us the 3/4 mile back home on a beautiful run. We played around a bit with moveable ballast positioning.

I think Skipper may have sculled us a bit.

Video: https://youtu.be/jyRslhfis0g



ST. JAQUES telling Sea Stories to SMEDLEY.

Rowed .75/Total 28.75
Voile et Aviron 1h / 15h 0m

Log of ST. JACQUES.

Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES 28 Oct 19 Voile et Aviron

28 Oct 19:

ST. JACQUES had been moved around as part of Tropical Storm TETRIS, she had bits everywhere. We had her in the Carriage House for a bit and it was clear enough to move her back to the Sunfish Shack aka Penobscot Pagoda, so we gathered up her bits and dollied her around to the backyard.

Along the way I noticed a light wind on the bay and 72F air temp. It only seemed right to go ahead and rig her, just to make sure wha had all the bits and lines sorted out, so she would be ready to go on her next adventure.

I got the brailing line, halyard, sheet and ensign line untangled, dropped in the mast and set the sprit, brailed and unbrailed the sail, that all worked. The ensign line was clear, and I rigged the bridle. Put on the rudder. Bay still looks nice. Skipper walked by and I said I might take ST> JACQUES out for a short row. Skipper said she'd get her hat.

We beach launched and cleared the groins usinf an oar for a push pole. Well, almost cleared, I should have pushed harder on the last push. Skipper gave a few strokes of her paddle and I was able to get the oars in the oarlocks and row out to the pier. Winds from the west, small swell, the original thought was to turn and row into the wind for about 10 minutes, then pop the sprit and take her back to the pier on a run and do some gybes and gybes there. As we took a look, a kayak fisherman appeared in that direction, so Skipper decreed that we just reach out and reach back. Fiddled with the centerboard, rudder angle and sheet angle for a few minutes, and then turned back to the dock. We actually tacked, with the assistance of a couple of strokes on the leeward oar.

Spotted a few pelicans and took some detail shots. Approaching the beach Skipper bore down on the kayaker, he had encroached on Skipper's avenue of approach, he quickly paddled away when he saw the mighty Penobscot bearing down on his ship. I think Skipper hollered "Starboard!" About 100 feet from the shore the rudder and centerboard came up and we ran ashore at 1-2 knots, perfectly lined up with the dolly.

ST. JACQUES got hauled and we gave her hull a fresh water rinse, wiped down her innards with a couple of towels. Downrigged her, this time I left the brailing line loose and rolled up the sail nicely, I had been leaving the brailing line tight, which caused creases along the sail up top. Put her nice cover on and stored her back in the Penobscot Pagoda, ready for the next trip.

First Mate's vantage point of the spritsail, aft the mast on the forward thwart.

Oarlock and vintage longleaf pine oars, the oars were gifts from our neighbor Al, his Uncle had used them on his mullet boat.

Padook and boat hook. Acceptable patina.

Centerboard trunk and mid thwart details.

Tropical front moving in off the Gulf, rain expected for the next few days. Another reason we thought it might be good to go mess about for a bit.

Played around with sheeting angles for a bit, did not come up with anything defintive.

Brailing line block at the top of the mast. We might swap this over to a small ring, and smoother line, to get that last 1/2 inch of leech opened up.

Miles rowed 0.5/Total 23.0

Log of ST. JACQUES

Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES 28 Sep 18 Rudder and Spritsail Rigging

28 Sep 18:

Hauled ST. JACQUES out for a row and sail. The cover is working out nicely, held up for about a year now through a few tropical storms and lots of rain. We have rinsed it off once and it is keeping the inside of the boat clean and dry.

The sail and spars were stored outside the boat for a few days, they rewarded us by creating this beautiful "Bill Knot," a magic creation of unidentifiable origin consisting of the bridle, mainsheet and brailing line.

Some spritsail basics, the mast, sprit, sail and control lines. Peak of the sail is the peak, top forward corner is the throat, the bottom forward corner is the tack and lower aft corner is the clew. The upper spar is the sprit, hoisted up on the mast with a "snotter" line. There is also a thin "brailing line" running up to the top of the mast, around the leech of the sail and back to the top of the mast, it is used to collapse the sail and reduce sail area.

We can also secure the lower part of the sail with a sail tie. Our spritsail is lashed on with a marlin hitch in a permanent position, if we ever to reef it we would just roll up the foot to the reef points and not fiddle with lowering the throat, readjusting snotter etc...We would most likely brail the sail if needed, then maybe remove the sprit and "scandalize" the sail if we needed to reduce sail area fast. WOuldn't be pretty but it would get the sail area reduced.

Top of the sprit and an idea on how tight the brailing line secures the upper part of the sail.

Spritsail brailed and foot furled.

Video tour of the spritsail lines.



Miles rowed 1.5/Total 11.75

In case you missed it, We wrote an article on the Penobscot 14 for the January 2018 issue of Small Boats Monthly. SBM is the digital sister to WoodenBoat, they publish boat profiles, stories on reader built boats and gear reviews every month. Monthly subscriptions are $2.99 and yearly $29.99. Click here for the article.

Log of ST. JACQUES.

Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES 30 Mar 18 Row and Sail

30 Mar 18:

Light winds so we took ST. JACQUES out for a row to the bayou and hoped to test out rudder repairs on the way back. I rowed from the front seat for about a mile, Skipper steered and paddled a bit. The Penobscot 14 carries well and is fun to row.

Left the bayou to head home, wind had picked up to 12 gusting to 15 on a broad reach. We dropped the centerboard and popped the brailing line loose on the spritsail. Skipper surfed us back to the house through lots of fetch on the lee shore, ST. JAQUES rolled through all of it on an even keel and felt very controllable. The spritsail acted like a spinnaker, and we didn't have to worry about ducking a boom or a gybe. We covered the last 3/4 mile in under 8 minutes :) As we neared shore we brailed the sail and glided in to shore. Rolled ST. JACQUES back up into the yard on the dolly and she got a fresh water rinse.

Here's a few pictures of the boat to see how we outfitted for the morning expedition. Outfitting for the 1:20 cruise included coffee, water, two foam seats, a throwable device/cushion, 2 towels, a blankie for Skipper and of course the PFDs.

Here are some shots of the rudder uphaul and downhaul. The uphaul is used primarily on land and during launch and recovery. The downhaul is used to counteract the buoyancy of the rudder. The rudder worked great during the sail.

Miles rowed 1.5/Total 7.5

Log of St. JACQUES.