Best Way to Rig a Main Topsail

[David R. Coller]

osteoderm (poor guy--he's all skin and bones)

I do indeed have a jackyard tops'l as you have described it (not the Cornish variety). Thank you for your advice--I'll be putting it to the test in the spring. I have "The Gaff Rig Handbook" on order.

The previous owner had no blocks mounted on her gaff nor any belaying point on the boom and if I understood correctly, simply tied the clew to the eye at the end of the gaff and raised the topsail with the main. Not surprisingly, he regarded it as a pain in the posterior. The first thing I noticed on setting it was how much better she performed to windward--the bane of the schooner rig. Consequently I'm trying to make setting and dousing easy enough to use it regularly.

True, a gaff schooner is not the simplest boat on the water, but they are arguably the most beautiful, and they do zip along on a reach....

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
So nice to have a truly salty thread here. As you will no doubt discover, through Mr. Leather and others (you might also want to get a copy of "Hand, Reef, and Steer", by Tom Cunliffe), gaff tops'ls have a lot of fine points to them. You'll see, for instance, that there are a variety of ways to set the tack: to weather of the peak halyard; to leeward of the peak halyard; or either way, but also threaded to leeward or to weather of the gaff; and tacked or not.
You might also end up with a sheave built into the end of the gaff for the sheet, or install deck gear for a perfect tack lead, or install a jackstay for the luff, etc. The idea is to make this wonderful sail more efficient, as well as easier to use. Wheel-reinvention is the single most significant it's-harder-than-it-needs-to-be factor, so research as much as you can.
As for that throat pendant, it gets the line fairer from the gaff end, without chafing in the head lashing, and keeps the lead away from the luff lacing or hoops, among other things.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[Ian McColgin]

Is "trimminoggy" related to the term "timinongy" (spelling suspect) which is the term for any line rigged across something to keep other lines from foulings? The most common example of that, though modern sailors don't often know the name, is when you rig a timinongy from the mast, perhaps about gooseneck height, down to somewhere on the foredeck to keep the jib sheets from fouling a hatch cover or bow cleat or whatever.

I always fancied the word was the nautical precursor of the land word "thingamjig."

G'luck

Ian

[osteoderm]

Of all the various suggestions/possible improvements, the jackline seems the most interesting. To keep down the number of jack-things, i've always called tops'l jacklines "leaders". The leader is a line fixed aloft to a point on the masthead/topmast (depending on tops'l configuration), running down the aft side of the mast, or sometimes on the quarter, and belayed on deck. A siezed-on fairlead or hank on the tops'l luff is let onto the leader, which when hauled taut at deck level, helps set up the luff closer to the masthead/topmast.
This is usually a development for free-luffed tops'ls. With a jackyard tops'l like yours, it wouldn't help much with the set of the sail, but might help with raising/lowering. Pressure from both the wind and the tops'l sheet will tend to move the top of the jackyard aft and to leeward, which in turn pushes the heel of the yard forward and to weather, effectively keeping the luff in check. The tackline keeps things in control.
Raising a jackyard tops'l, however, is more of a hassle, as the jackyard wants to fall over; to control this, you typically have to keep the tackline tensioned, easing it out as the halyard is brought in. With a leader installed, and run through a fairlead at the heel of the jackyard, you now have hands-free way to keep the heel (and thus, the long top of the jackyard) from reeling about too drunkenly as it lays aloft.
The traditional set for a tops'l is to weather of the gaff peak halyard falls, supposedly to add support to the body of the sail. Still, it's pretty obvious to most that setting to leeward makes for a superior sail shape. With a leader rigged, you could only raise or lower the sail on one side, however, once rasied you could "horse" the tack over the peak halyard falls with another tackline... Or set up two leaders on opposite quarters, and set the sail on the side that favours the longest tack of the course to be sailed... how many lines aloft do you need?
For the sake of performance and simplicity, some non-traditional jackyards are worth considering. In lieu of wood, how about aluminium or 'glass tubing? A beautiful wooden jackyard could be made of teardrop section, with an aft-facing groove to accept a boltroped tops'l luff, instead of the more common lacing.