Spritsail Tuning Notes

Notes on the spritsail brailing line and bridle on our Penobscot 14 ST. JACQUES.

[@johnryan2193]

Thanks for sharing the details of your sail rig , I bought a Devon Scaffie and I have never understood the rig setup, now I do , !

[@kentblairl]

Glad to help!

[@dickiemoughton2932]

Thank you

[@kentblairl]

You're welcome.

[@smea87]

Do you have any issues with the lace lines catching when raising or lowering the sprit?

[@KentBLewis]

No issues with raising and lowering the sprit. For now the luff of the sail is laced tight to the luff, someday we might loose lace it so we can raise and lower the entire sail vs just the peak.

[@terryfinley7760]

Are you still liking that spritsail? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

[@kentblairl]

Absolutely. Very simple setup and rig. Keep in mind we use it as auxiliary propulsion to the oars, the bot is not nor intended to be a speed demon.

[@acuy805]

hello Kent,i have some questions. what size the sheet line on youre mainsail and the size of the block on the traveller? is it important for a loose footed spritsail to have a traveller and block? also what size the line on the snooter and brailing line and there paired blocks? im thinkin about a bolger cartopper which has an option of a loose footed spritsail. thank you very much.

[@kentblairl]

The line is 3/8th inch and the block is appropriate size. The block gives us a little mechanical advantage so Skipper can sheer in easier, and a traveler was the easiest way for us to attach a block. It also creates a better sheeting angle. The snotter is 3/8th also. The brailing line (3mm) has a small block at the top of the mast but a small ring would work as well.

[@acuy805]

@@kentblairl thank you kent. appreciate youre answer.

[@killerguppy2988]

Why don't you run the bridle under the tiller? Seems like it would be easier to flip the sheet under the tiller than dealing with the bridle pressure, and you won't have the block scrapping over the varnish every time you tack. I like the bollards in the corners though, never seen that, and it seems useful to get that extra bit of motion, or to quickly disconnect the traveller for derigging if you wanted.

[@KentBLewis]

Those are good ideas, we like the way we have it set up right now and flipping the sheet under the tiller adds more line to manage while tacking. The pins do indeed make it easy to rig and derig.

[@gerrys6265]

never did see the whole sail setup

[@kentblairl]

Sorry bout that, we'll try to get it all together in one video in the near future.

[@lic.nahuelsanzol6854]

Hi! My name is Nahuel, and I own a sprit-sailed boat (a 12-footer I built myself). I'm having some trouble with reefing and sprit trimming. Could you show me in a video how you manage it? Or could you send me pictures of your rigging system? Thanks !!!

[@kentblairl]

You can look though our blog, maybe some photos there can help. The sprit rig is not a high performance system, but it will get you there with simplicity. Don't overthink it, or overcomplicate. You could send us photos to lewis dot kent gmail so we can see what issues you might be having.

[@nahuelestebansanzol7900]

Can you make a vídeo taking a reef??

[@kentblairl]

It will be a while, now that we have used the sail a few times I think we could have skipped the reef points. If we were to plan on sailing this boat a lot vs rowing, I would lace the sail on different. We don't sail out too far or too often with this boat, if the wind were to come up to where we needed a reef I'd probably just take the whole rig down and row to a sheltered spot. Ben Fuller is our Go To sprit sail expert, check out his articles on Small Boats Magazine: smallboatsmonthly.com/article/living-sprit-sails/