Congrats to sailor Doyle, who sent us a note to say that after two-plus years of restoration work, his 16.5-foot Melonseed is finally back on the water.
Doyle, that’s a fine looking boat! I don’t know anything in particular about lug rigs in Melonseeds, but Mic Storer has a ton of stuff at his website about setting up and tuning lug rigs in all kinds of small boats. You can try a web search, or... let’s see if this pastes in here in a usable form: https://www.storerboatplans.com/boat/sailing-boat/everything-lug-rig-and-lug-sail/
Great looking Melonseed, Doyle! I like his use of a balanced lug, too. One of my biggest reasons for not acquiring a Melonseed is the awkward spritsail rig. I'll bet that balanced lug is much easier to raise, reef, and stow. Congratulations on a fine-looking (and hopefully great-sailing) boat!
David I agree (awkward spritsail). I loved the three hour daysail in my Crawford MS but never could get myself to do more - never liked that I could adjust nothing (other than the sheet and tiller) while on the water. Balanced lug to me, is a much better rig for the MS and Doyle showed me it looks good too!
Lovely restoration and.modification of a classic. I've fitted balance lug rigs to many boats for the reasons you mention (and many more), but, alas, none have a beautiful tanbark sail...
MIK Storer's site is the bible, but a couple of observations from your photo.
Good luff tension is the key to good lugs'l performance, particularly going to weather. "Brutal" downhaul tension (MIK's word) is key, usually requiring both a multi-part very low stretch downhaul and very low stretch halyard (dyneema line is ideal). Your sail might be small enough to get good downhaul tension with a bit of Irish. Standard lug rig setup has the downhaul rigged to only one side of the mast partners, though your setup may be fine and allows for easily setting the sail on either side. The boat will have less power, more weather helm, and point a bit higher when the rig is to weather of the mast, and there may be outings when this is a consideration. You may want a "square lashing" (lashes the boom to the mast). The head of the sail (laced to the yard) looks like it could use more outhaul tension to remove the wrinkles, and the foot looks too tight (use less outhaul). The sail will be more powerful if it has more belly.
Hopefully the boat balances up nicely with the new rig. If not, you can play with the placement of the halyard on the yard and downhaul on the boom in order to achieve a (more) balanced helm. And the beauty of the balanced lug rig, particularly vs the standard sprit rig, is that it's easy to reef, the helm balance remains virtually unchanged, and it saves having to stand up in the boat and wrestle with and then stow that pesky sprit😱
For instruction on setting up a spirit rig, see the Video Rambler, also known as the Boat Rambler on YouTube. An extensive series of videos depicting the construction, rigging and sailing the Goat Island Skiff. Most informative!
Doyle, that’s a fine looking boat! I don’t know anything in particular about lug rigs in Melonseeds, but Mic Storer has a ton of stuff at his website about setting up and tuning lug rigs in all kinds of small boats. You can try a web search, or... let’s see if this pastes in here in a usable form: https://www.storerboatplans.com/boat/sailing-boat/everything-lug-rig-and-lug-sail/
Thanks for sharing that. I have a lug rig I'm always trying tune.
My pleasure. Glad to be able to share the good stuff! 😉
Great looking Melonseed, Doyle! I like his use of a balanced lug, too. One of my biggest reasons for not acquiring a Melonseed is the awkward spritsail rig. I'll bet that balanced lug is much easier to raise, reef, and stow. Congratulations on a fine-looking (and hopefully great-sailing) boat!
David I agree (awkward spritsail). I loved the three hour daysail in my Crawford MS but never could get myself to do more - never liked that I could adjust nothing (other than the sheet and tiller) while on the water. Balanced lug to me, is a much better rig for the MS and Doyle showed me it looks good too!
Beautiful Boat & setting... thank you for sharing...I want them all!
👏👏👏👏👏👏 THANK YOU Per 🙏
Lovely restoration and.modification of a classic. I've fitted balance lug rigs to many boats for the reasons you mention (and many more), but, alas, none have a beautiful tanbark sail...
MIK Storer's site is the bible, but a couple of observations from your photo.
Good luff tension is the key to good lugs'l performance, particularly going to weather. "Brutal" downhaul tension (MIK's word) is key, usually requiring both a multi-part very low stretch downhaul and very low stretch halyard (dyneema line is ideal). Your sail might be small enough to get good downhaul tension with a bit of Irish. Standard lug rig setup has the downhaul rigged to only one side of the mast partners, though your setup may be fine and allows for easily setting the sail on either side. The boat will have less power, more weather helm, and point a bit higher when the rig is to weather of the mast, and there may be outings when this is a consideration. You may want a "square lashing" (lashes the boom to the mast). The head of the sail (laced to the yard) looks like it could use more outhaul tension to remove the wrinkles, and the foot looks too tight (use less outhaul). The sail will be more powerful if it has more belly.
Hopefully the boat balances up nicely with the new rig. If not, you can play with the placement of the halyard on the yard and downhaul on the boom in order to achieve a (more) balanced helm. And the beauty of the balanced lug rig, particularly vs the standard sprit rig, is that it's easy to reef, the helm balance remains virtually unchanged, and it saves having to stand up in the boat and wrestle with and then stow that pesky sprit😱
Miles of smiles!
Per
Pretty place
Pretty boat.
Nice words.
Regards
Adios
Rick Pratt
Beautiful! Love that sail surrounded by fall colors- well done!
I should have said balanced lug, rather that sprit.
For instruction on setting up a spirit rig, see the Video Rambler, also known as the Boat Rambler on YouTube. An extensive series of videos depicting the construction, rigging and sailing the Goat Island Skiff. Most informative!