Article by Chris Waite
Following his previous articles, readers submitted a number of follow-up questions for inventive sailor and boatbuilder Chris Waite. In response, he takes a closer look at how he handles the balance lug rig.—Eds
Yes—the balance lug is my favourite rig for sail areas up to about a hundred square feet. Thereafter I consider it can become, er, “unruly.” At its smallest, say forty square feet and below, it can be used with just three lines— a halyard, a sheet, and “something” to hold the boom to the mast....
1. I say “something” advisedly, as most use a downhaul, but up to this size, there's an easy alternative. To sailors of the Goat Island Skiff, it is called a “bleater,” (goat—“bleater” get it?) As it is so simple, I've started with this piece of kit. The GIS gang use a line from the boom at the tack, round the mast and made off back round the boom again. This prevents the boom sliding forward, kicking up in the air as it does so. Without a way of holding it down (a downhaul), there is no way to tension the the sail—unless(!)—you fix a downward facing hook on the opposite side to the boom—another non-string thing to simplify matters. You will notice that in this image, I have used a cleat as this hook. Furthermore, I see no reason to go all the way out to the tack. So I have an eye on the boom, locating the whole arrangement.
(The blue line is the halyard), the black toggle is the bitter end of the topping lift—more of this later; but two more points here:
a. This is an older dinghy, but my current lugger has well cambered decks and on top of that a rounded “cudulette,” a half-cuddy. If you lower the rig onto this, it spends its time desperate to slide overboard. To overcome this and anyway for stowage and reefing purposes, I have a topping lift system that holds the sail/spar bundle above the cockpit.
b. I also mentioned the (black) cleat. As well as preventing the boom riding up, so tensioning the sail vertically simply with the halyard, it is very useful for making off the topping lift itself. These days, I would have had an open fairlead like one of these instead, to prevent the bleater from slipping too far up, or down. Bear in mind that if your sail is big enough to require a boom downhaul, then that renders the upper arm of the cleat superfluous.
