PDRacer Sailboat

Balanced Lug
It is one of the simplest of all sails to make, is very simple to use, and puts a lot of sail area on a small set of spars. Both the yard and boom extend beyond the leading edge of the mast, so that when going down wind the sail is balanced over the boat instead of all off to one side, this is where it gets it's name.

This is James Banik's sail, it has the following dimensions:
95" Head
95" Foot
65" Luff
104" Leech
It was an expansion of the lug sail shown on Craig O'Donnell's Cheap Pages

This rig has a piece of electrical conduit as the mast, and the yard/boom are made from closet rod. The perimeter of the sail was made with duct tape, holes were poked it the edge with soldering iron and zip ties were used to lace it. Extreme simplicity, very cheap materials, yet an effective sail.

Standing Lug
A very pretty sail, this rig can be made with many different dimensions giving it a variety of shapes. The difference from the balanced lug is that the tack of the standing lug is attached to the mast, and does not extend forward of the mast. Can be configured with a (1) sprit boom, a (2) bottom edge boom, or no boom at all. If you use a sprit boom, then the sail becomes self vanging.

Sprit Sail (4 sided, traditional)
This rig is distinguished by having a stick that goes diagonally up to hold the peak of the sail. The sail can be used with or without a boom. Since the luff is laced to the mast, it becomes very easy to add a jib to the sail rig.

You can even use a perfectly rectangular piece of polytarp. This is Roger Harlow, and he is using one stick as the sprit to lift the top back corner, and a second stick to act like a sprit boom, holding the back lower corner. You could use it with just the upper stick (sprit), so the bottom would be boomless. Don't forget to put in a couple of darts to create the draft.

Gaff Sail
This sail has a yard attached to the head of the sail. The yard typically has a halyard attached to it called a Peak Halyard. This line controls the tension on the head of the sail. If the sail is to be hoisted, there is also another halyard that is attached to the yard where it contacts the mast, this is called the Throat Halyard. (1) is a conventional gaff sail with a boom.

Potter Gaff Sail
An interesting adaptation of the gaff used by the West Wight Potter 15's. Instead of a yard, it has a batten inside the sail, and then the sail material extends to the top of the mast instead of a peak halyard.

There are many ways to hoist and control sails, this is the simplest method I have found to hoist a lug sail. It uses only 2 lines, a halyard and a sheet. A third line is added for the reefing line if needed.

The halyard pulls the sail up, and then comes down from the top of the mast. It goes under the deck, around the mast and then back up on the outside of the sail and boom.

Then it crosses between the boom and sail, goes around the mast and back out. This forms a gooseneck.

Then the halyard goes down below the deck and around the mast again, and is finally cleated off. This last turn forms the downhaul, and the sail is self vanging.

If the wind picks up, you can thread a line thru the reefing points and lace it to the boom to shorten your sail area.

Many people specify that the halyard should be attache to the yard at 30% back, I have found it best at around 40%. Also I think the yard should be angled about 45 degrees up, or higher. Just my preferences, you can make your sail any way that you want.

General Comments About Lug Sails:
PROS: They are all very easy to make and use. Lots of area on a small set of spars, so you could make the sails without having to laminate together a mast or longer spars. Also since such small spars, you can transport the entire rig inside many cars (either with the folding seats, or the rig partially sticking out the passenger window). Reefing is very easy with a lacing line along the bottom edge. Since most of them rotate freely on the mast, in an emergency you can let go of the main sheet and the entire sail will rotate forward spilling all of it's wind. Very low center of effort, so you get more pulling power with less heeling force, and can use a much larger sail. Can make them from a perfectly rectangular piece of material.

CONS: The top portion of the sail tends to twist a bit and loose it's shape while going to windward, so it won't point as high as a triangle sail. It is more powerfull on every other point of sail though, especially reaching.

Back to main page

Home