I have been asked my opinion about the best way to rig and sail a lateen rig on a dhow. I must confess to an almost total ignorance of dhows, and no knowledge of any books on the subject.
I found an equal lack of information on the correct rigging of a Foochow Pole Junk, until I found G.R.G.Worcesters book on Yangste River junks.
Can anyone enlighten me about dhows?
Rod
The reference I have been using is by Clifford W.Hawkins “The Dhow - an illustrated history of the dhow and its world”.
Out of print, but my local library managed to track down a copy for me. I have read it from cover to cover - solid gold!
I am in the process of building a model dhow. The construction blog shows what I have achieved so far. Hope this helps.
Regards, Keith Richardson (Melbourne, Australia).
Thanks for your reply. The original inquiry seems to have died away— all our water being solidly frozen— but perhaps in summer the interest will revive. Unfortunately, the original inquirer is not on the Internet, so its all verbal and phone and 50 miles away.
My efforts at authentic junk rig illustrate the problems of non-European designs. I have concluded that it is easier to find out how to design the forefoot of a Napoleonic War era Ship of the Line than it is to find out how to design a junk or a dhow. Rod.
Keith Richardson,
Your hull building seems to be getting along famously, but I am concerned that you are going to end up heavy. After adding electronics and batteries, rig, rudder and keel, what is your calculated weight in relation to the waterline?
The problem that I am having some difficulty getting my head around is the mechanics of sail control, specifically tacking, with the nescessity of shifting the boom from side to side of the mast. I can visualize a bipod mast, or perhaps even a hoop, but those wouldn’t look ‘authentic’. It could be done like the New Zealand rig, with some sort of “fake” mast— a virtual mast made out of paint, perhaps? One could, of course, just ignore the problem and leave the boom on one side only.
My interest in this point stems from my experience designing and building authentic masts, booms and sails for my Chinese junk, with three masts, where the booms and sails stay on one side of two masts and on the other side of the third. I constructed my masts so that they could be removed, along with all their rigging, just by lifting them out of tight fitting pulpits. There is no standing rigging. The rig allows the sails to be furled and/or lowered if nescessary, without even removing the masts, but not, of course, by radio-control. But they “look” very authentic and the boat sails very well, and authentically on the water. I attach a photo showing the hull and rig. The “Goddess” is one metre hull length, with about 8" of ‘stern sprit’.
One interesting characteristic that I had not realized before is that a junk must be sailed upright, the sails always being at a quite shallow angle to the wind.
Hi Rod - sorry for the delay, I missed your message! (Also I cannot work out how to start a new thread - any solutions?)
Your junk looks fabulous!
Re your question “I am having some difficulty getting my head around is the mechanics of sail control, specifically tacking, with the necessity of shifting the boom from side to side of the mast”
I have the solution to that, for dhows at least. It is how the full-size dhows do it. They go about onto the next tack by gybing, allowing the sail to blow to the front of the boat. The yard (wooden spar along the top of the sail) is pulled into a vertical position with a ‘rope’ attached to the lower end, towards the base of the mast. The yard articulates at the top of the mast with a loose figure-of-eight that can slip around to the leeward side once the yard is vertical, the sail blowing forward (remember the boat has gybed), the main-sheet is pulled to the windward side (probably is actually an endless loop, how I used to rig my full-size cat).
So, Rod, that is how it is done. My problem, however, is working out how many RC channels would be required to achieve the above. I am tempted to adopt Brett’s unarig (NZ Footy expert) but with the setup looking more like a setee or lateen sail. My building has slowed down until I work out what RC equipment to purchase, its size, and location in the hull.
Cheers, Keith:cool:
I put on my ‘thinking cap’ and came up with a possible solution to the Dhow rig problem, using only one sail winch servo. Other than the fact that the mast slopes the wrong way…
Rod
Keith
On the page listing all of the threads, down at the lower left corner, is a box saying “New Thread”. Rod