Videos Showing Details of Phoenix III Balance Lug Rig

During a recent visit from Paul Hernes (builder of the first Phoenix III) I was able to take a number of still and video shots of the details of the balance lug rig on Pauls Phoenix III.

This was my first ever attempt at video filming and editing, so please be patient with the results. However, you may find some of the clips to be worthwhile as they do show how well the boat has been developed by Paul over the years. Here they are: -

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Sprit Rig Virtues and Details

Of my published designs, two of the most popular (Phoenix III and First Mate) make use of a sprit rig with a small jib set flying. You can read some of my comments about the rig in this post from May 2012.

Phoenix III showing-off her sprit rig and flying jib

Despite the simplicity and effectiveness of this rig, I receive a large number of enquiries about the details of setting and reefing, and it appears to me that many people are unsure of how to benefit from its virtues. This is a real pity, because the sprit rig can set a very large sail area from a very short mast, and is a rig which is ideally suited to small boat cruising. In addition, if set properly, it is a good sail for windward work.

Phoenix III tacking away from a Pooduck Skiff in a battle to get up-wind

For me, one of the great joys associated with small craft is experimentation with rig variations, and learning how to make rigs which use an absolute minimum of store-bought fittings. There are plenty of old books about traditional seamanship around, and time spent learning is a good investment.

Below is an except from Phil Bolgers book, 100 Small Boat Rigs (Copyright 1984 International Marine Publishing ISBN 0-87742-182-X)

Back to the 17th century. What Ive said about spritsails in Rig 23 ap­plies. By adding a jib to the basic boomless spritsail, some extra area is added in an efficient form, without any multiplication or lengthening of the few short spars. The jib is a good airfoil in its own right, and the draft off it improves the drive of the mainsail. The position of the jib is perfect for a leading-edge device. The spritsail is prone to twist on ac­count of the difficulty of keeping the peak up tight. But the jib compen­sates for the twist to some extent. Taking the jib off doesnt affect the balance of the rig as much as might be thought. If its sheeted correctly, 10 or 12 degrees out from the centerline, the pull of the sheet tends to swing the bow into the wind. The forward position of the sail has a sur­prisingly small tendency to knock her bow off the wind. By the same token, if you want to make a boat weathercock downwind, as in a broken-down powerboat that wont steer if she gets broadside to the wind, a loose-footed staysail is not the best sail to make her do it.

This is one of the few sloop rigs that can be weatherly without backstays or standing rigging of any sort. The spritsails mast is so short that it can be built very stiff without its weight overpowering the boat. With the sloop rig the mast is stepped farther aft than in a cat, so the weight of a heavy mast does still less harm.

Moreover, the head of a spritsail is in tension, even when it isnt set up as hard as it should be, and that holds the masthead. The peak halyard of a gaff sail has the same effect, but its not as powerful because theres less trouble keeping a gaff sail properly peaked: the angle of the halyard to the top of the taller mast of the gaff sail works at a better mechanical advantage. The halyard is also slipping on a sheave, with the vector of its force dividing the angle of the standing part and the fall, while the throat of a spritsail can be lashed, or even shackled, solidly in place.

Of course any cantilevered mast has some give. A big boat with this rig would need something by way of a backstay to get the most drive out of the close-hauled jib. In the 15-footer cartooned, with a 13 1/2-foot mast and sprit, and a jib of 18 square feet, the backstay isnt crucial. The rig is auxiliary to the oars, and since it is a spritsail, the spars can not only be stowed in the boat, but stowed out to the sides to be out of the way of the oarsmen. This is the most powerful and weatherly rig that can meet that specification. The fact that its a cheap rig, easily built, strong and reliable, easy to maintain, and readily repaired with makeshift material, is an incidental bonus.

For those of you who would like to learn more about the rigging and versatility of a spritsail, there are three exceptionally good illustrated articles available in back issues of Woodenboat Magazine  #89 and #165.  The magazines are available as instant digital downloads for only a few dollars each, and I recommend them to you. Here are links to both issues: -

http://www.woodenboatstore.com/product/WoodenBoat_magazine_Issue_89_DIGITAL

http://www.woodenboatstore.com/product/WoodenBoat_magazine_Issue_165_DIGITAL

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Balance Lug Rigging Details

If you are looking for a super-simple rig which is effective on all points of sail, and which can be put together with the absolute minimum of fittings, the Balance Lug could be for you.

Phoenix III showing-off her Balance Lug rig option.

I first used the Balance Lug for the first time in about the year 2000, nearly forty years after first learning to sail, and I have to say that it was a revelation. For most of my sailing life Ive been interested in the simple rigs associated with small working boats, with particular focus on the Chinese Lug (a.k.a. Junk Rig), the Standing Lug, and the spritsail in both its leg omutton form and the better known four-sided layout.

The Chinese Lug

Four-sided Spritsail with a jib set flying - Phoenix III

Leg o Mutton Spritsails on my Little Egret design

Standing Lug with a sprit boom shown on my old Phoenix, designed by my father back in 1970. She is the same boat as in the photo showing the Chinese Lug. She has been the workhorse for my rig experiments, and has carried at least eight different rigs (so far...)

Dipping Lug. This boat is a Francois Vivier Aber which I built in 2007

All of these older working boat rigs evolved over long periods of time, and the evolution was not perverted by the artificial constraints imposed by the rating rules used in various forms of racing. These rigs were developed by people who required low-cost, reliability, ease of operation, and repairability in order to survive on the oceans, lakes and rivers of the world. The result is that the rigs work efficiently with the minimum of costly fittings, and they are reliable. If the crews understand the idiosyncrasies of the rig, their performance can be superb.

The Balance Lug is said to have been a pleasure boat rig more than a working boat rig. It has been said that the working boatmen would have found the boom to be an annoyance, particularly because of its self-vanging characteristic. For many years I discarded it as a worthwhile rig for a reason which seems to worry a lot of other people as well, and that is that the rig appears to be so asymmetric with the sail being distorted by the mast on one tack. That is a strange attitude for me to have, because the Chinese Lug (one of my favourites) is similarly asymmetric.

They say it is a virtue to become aware of ones own stupidity, and that was brought home to me in about 2003 when my friend, Doug Laver, gave me a near-new sail which was surplus to his requirements. The sail was a Balance Lug, and I added it to the inventory of sails I had for my old boat, thinking it would be interesting to try out, but not thinking much more about it. However, after several moths of regular sailing, it occurred  to me that the sail I was using most often was the Balance Lug, and that I was almost totally oblivious to the asymmetry which had worried me so much in my armchair theorising.

A Jim Michalak-designed Mayfly 14 demonstrating satisfying performance with her Balance Lug

So, what is it which makes the Balance Lug such an appropriate rig for a small cruiser? Here is my take on the rig: -

• The sail is not attached to the mast anywhere, but is simply laced on to the boom and the yard. This greatly simplifies rigging, unrigging, and reefing as there is no sail track, no mast hoops, no luff lacing, and no slugs or shackles;
• The halyard and down-haul are simply attached to the yard and boom by a rolling hitch - at least in the case of small boats. No expensive fittings, no gooseneck, no slides, no shackles;
• Because the boom extends forward of the mast, the combination of the downhaul adjacent to the mast and the upward tension in the luff of the sail pulling the forward end of the boom upwards, the rig is self-vanging. No boom vang and associated pulleys and shackles required;
• The luff of the sail is well forward of the mast, working in clear air free from mast-induced turbulence;
• When the halyard is released, the sail always comes down on its own. No more tugging away at reluctant sails stuck in tracks;
• Furling the four-sided sail is convenient, especially as the boom and yard can remain attached;
• Reefing is convenient, quick, and neat. The remaining sail shape is good, and the sail cloth is not strained. Reefing can be done with nothing more than some light line, and the resulting centre-of-area of the reefed sail is very close to being in the same longitudinal location as with the full sail - in many other rigs, the reefed centre-of-area moves forward significantly;
• Being balanced by the portion of the sail which extends forward of the mast, sheeting is light and gybes are relatively gentle;
• The mast, boom, yard, and sail make up into a neat bundle for transportation and stowage.

There are plenty of tricks which can be employed to make the sail even more versatile, the most important of which is the use of a parrel on the boom. Here is how I do it, but there are plenty of other methods.

This is the view from above showing the boom parrel looped around the boom with a loose bowline (or rolling hitch if you like), and then running around the mast, forward to a hole through the tack end of the boom, and back to a cleat on the boom which is within easy reach of the helmsman. By tightening or loosening the line at the cleat, the entire boom and sail can be moved aft or forward relative to the mast location, making alterations to the balance of the rig. 

Here you can just see the downhaul on the port side of the mast, and the boom parrel running around the starboard side of the mast and extending to the forward end of the boom.

This is a closer view of the same arrangement

An out-of-focus photo, but you can see how the parrel runs through the boom and then back to a cleat placed anywhere handy on the boom

A view from below showing the entire set-up. All very simple, but also very effective.

This view of Periwinkle with her heavy weather rig set-up shows the mizzen mast removed, the main mast moved aft to a more central step, and the main sail set on its own, with a reef tied in. See how well the sail will set when reefed. This particular sail is set loose-footed, but it would probably be better laced around the boom.

The Balance Lug is a simple, effective, and versatile rig which can be put together with few, if any, store-bought fittings. The unobstructed luff, free from turbulence generated by the mast gives far better windward performance than many would imagine. The above video clip shows just how well the Balance Lug can drive a small boat, which in this case is my Phoenix III design.

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