This blog is devoted to my John Welsford designed 15' Navigator yawl Ellie. I built her in my garage over a period of 18 months and launched her in 2011. She sports a sliding gunter main, roller furled jib and sprit-boomed mizzen. Her construction is glued-lapstrake over permanent bulkheads and stringers. This blog is a record of her construction and her voyages here in the Puget Sound area and (hopefully) a useful resource for fellow Navigator builders.
Ellie got her first taste of saltwater this weekend! The weather was beautiful with 5-10 knot NNW winds and gentle seas here in Possession Sound. Just enough to move Ellie peacefully along. We couldn't be more pleased with the boat! She performed beautifully. I was impressed with how easily she tacked in the light air. Her sails set beautifully. We had a spectacular afternoon. I didn't take nearly enough pictures because, well, we were too busy enjoying ourselves! However, I hope you enjoy this short video of Ellie's first adventure.
All set up and ready for launch! Setup took a little longer than usual due to several admirers who dropped by with questions, compliments, and asking to take photos.
Ellie is officially launched! She floats! No leaks. The centerboard raises and lowers perfectly.
The only real "glitch" we encountered was a little bit of water creeping through the seam in my centerboard case cap. Entirely my fault for deviating from the plans. The portion aft of the seam, where the mainsheet tackle is attached, is permanently affixed to the centerboard case. I made the capping forward of the seam removable. No problem, I will simply add a rubber seal to the seam.
This is my Son's first sail since he was about 5 years old. He did very well and I think he may be hooked! I am also very pleased with the way the main halyards and furler have been led aft. It sure is nice to be able to control things even with two passengers on either side of the centerboard!
My compliments to John Welsford for designing such an outstandingly beautiful, seaworthy, and enjoyable boat, and for the generous help and support he provides. Thank you Bill Tosh for the terrific sails and thank you Chuck and Sandra at Duckworks for your outstanding service and excellent selection. Thanks to everyone on the jwbuilders forum for generously sharing their knowledge. And a special thank you to my family and my wonderful wife Cindy. Your precious love and support made it all possible.
Click photos to enlarge. Click again to enlarge even more.
There are many ways to rig a Navigator and there are many different sail plans to choose from. Described below is the rigging I chose to use for the Gaff Yawl Rig that I selected to build. I mostly followed the plans, but also borrowed many of the really good ideas from Kevin'sSlipjigrigging videos. Thanks, Kevin! Nearly everything works very well. Where it didn't, I will attempt to describe what I should have done. I will also continually update this article as I fine-tune the rigging.
I provided links to Duckworks for the hardware I purchased to help save future Navigator builders time and effort should they also choose to order their rigging there. I purchased nearly all my rigging, and my sails, from Duckworks because they are helpful, fast, convenient and inexpensive.
Gunter Main in Red vs Gaff Main in Green
Navigator can be built as a conventional sloop, with the choice of a crusing main or racing rig with more sail area. Most builders seem to choose the yawl rigs. If you are building the Yawl version of Navigator, note that there are two different mainsail configurations. The Gaff Yawl (which I built) is shown on plan sheet NV12. The Standing Lug mainsail is shown on NV7. The two mainsails are a different shape as illustrated in this superimposed diagram. The Gaff main's gaff angle is greater and it uses a horizontal conventional boom. The Standing Lug main has a nearly vertical gaff angle, and the foot is cut straight and angled upward to serve as a vang for a sprit boom. In addition, I have rigged my Gaff main as a Sliding Gunter. I will describe the Sliding Gunter rig and its benefits later in this article.
OK, let's start at the bow and work our way aft. We'll begin with the bobstay.
The bobstay is made from a length of 1/8" SS cable with 1/8" thimbles and sleeves swaged on both ends. The SIT-2001 small swage-it tool made swaging easy. The bobstay connects to the Bow Eye with a small shackle. The arrangement leaves plenty of room for attaching the trailer winch hook.
The mast on a Navigator is freestanding, but shrouds and a wire luff are used to tension the jib tight enough to prevent the luff from sagging. I lash my jib to the roller furler with a simple rope lashing. A lashing is quick to rig, inexpensive, and provides plenty of tension
and adjustability. No need for blocks here. The lashing is tightened until the shrouds go "boing" when tapped with a metal tool. Ideally, the jib should be
positioned as low as possible.
Bow chocks are mounted on either side of the bowsprit.
When using a roller furling jib with a wire luff, there is no need for a jib halyard or a separate headstay. The wire luff serves as the forestay. At the head of the jib is a swivel for the furler, a shackle, and a boom bail. The boom bail is one I had lying around, but a good alternative would be a RL-425-H hound. The shrouds are made of 1/8" ss cable with swaged thimbles on both ends. They attach to bent RL-320 tangs on either side of the mast with small shackles. The small line immediately below that loops through the pad eye is the lazy jack/topping lift for the boom.
Note that when adding a roller furler to the jib it may be necessary to move this hardware higher up the mast from the location shown on the plans to account for the added space required for the furler. I recommend not drilling this hole in the mast until after test fitting the jib and its associated hardware.
The peak halyard controls the angle of the gaff, from horizontal to vertical. Instead of tying mine to the gaff with rolling hitch, mine attaches to a cable bridle on the gaff with a carabiner, then goes through a swivel block attached to the mast with a RL417-S boom bail. This swivel block can abrade the mast under certain conditions so I added a strip of leather to protect the mast. The bridle is made from a length of 1/8" ss cable with loops on both ends and two SD-081200 pad eyes on the gaff to hold it in place. The bridle needs to be as tight as possible and long enough to accommodate two reef points. It goes roughly from the middle of the gaff to the top of the gaff. This bridle is called a "Gunter". Having one changes the rig from a Gaff Rig to a Gunter Rig. The Gunter allows the gaff to be raised and lowered while remaining vertical, which makes reefing safer, quicker and easier. Without a Gunter, and before the sail could be reefed or de-reefed, first the gaff would have to be dropped, the peak halyard repositioned higher or lower on the gaff, and the gaff raised again. With a Gunter, the gaff stays up the entire time. The gaff is lowered a bit, the reef tied in, and the gaff tightened back up. The Gunter and gaff jaws also prevent the gaff from flailing around or inverting when it's lowered. Click here to download a brief 2-page article describing the Gunter Rig.
The throat halyard raises and lowers the gaff. It attaches to a rope bridle at the gaff jaws with a carabiner. The plans show a pad eye in lieu of the bridle. Use a bridle instead. Because the gaff sets nearly vertical, a pad eye would bind between the gaff and mast, damaging the mast. Two SD-081205 heavy duty pad eyes are located on the gaff to attach the main sail, one at the throat and one at the head. I keep the main sail lashed to the gaff and roll the sail around the gaff for transport.
The throat halyard then goes through a RL-308-B cheek block mounted on the mast. The cheek block is mounted off center (to port) so the halyard can go up the center of the mast and down on the port side. The cheek block works much better than using a double block for the throat and peak halyards atop the mast.
The halyards and furler line go through the deck with RL-49P fairleads. Note that the furling line makes a 90 degree turn here through its fairlead. A block would be nice to have here but I haven't been able to find a suitable one yet. The arrangement works but would be better without the added friction and abrasion. I know it's more traditional to run the roller furling line along the port side deck, but I like all my controls located near the aft centerboard case for safety and convenience.
The halyards and furling line then go through three RL-2040 deck blocks on the front seat and are then led aft. Also in this area is an oblong eye plate for the boom vang, and a RL-708-AD double cheek block for the centerboard lift. Good thing I added reinforcement under this area of the front seat!
The centerboard lifting line attaches to the centerboard with a RL-702-A becket block and two RL-320 tangs. The tangs were easily bent to the shape shown.
Ellie's control center. Port to starboard are throat halyard, roller furler, main sheet, centerboard lift (cleated), and peak halyard. The halyards and furling line go through RL260S cam cleats although a horn cleat or clam cleat would have worked just as well. The cam cleats work well for tensioning the halyards. The throat halyard in particular requires a lot of force to tension it tightly. The downside of using cam cleats for halyards instead of horn or clam cleats is the risk of the lines getting inadvertently released causing the gaff to fall. I tie a stop knot in the halyards to prevent this. [UPDATE: I later switched to home-made jam cleats for the halyards] I can raise, lower, furl and control all three sails, and the centerboard, while remaining safely seated in the cockpit. I can't over emphasize how safe and convenient this is.
Mainsheet tackle consists of an RL-850 swivel camcleat and RL-306-DF fiddle block mounted on the aft centerboard case top. On the boom is a RL-334-S boom bail, a shackle and a RL-304-A becket block. This arrangement works very well. I find the 3-part tackle to be perfect. The aft portion of my centerboard case top is permanently fastened in place. The forward portion is removable for access to the centerboard. First time out I noticed a slight amount of water seeping through the seam from water sloshing around within the case. I solved that by making a rubber gasket seal.
Jib sheets lead through SD-082615 fairleadsnear the shrouds [oops, the fairleads should have been located 120mm aft of B4 per plan sheet NV11], and another SD-082615 and RL-260-S cam cleats mounted on douglas fir pads so the jib sheet can clear the cockpit coamings and angle back toward the cockpit at about the same angle as the mainsheet.
I also added non-skid strips to the side decks. Not necessary. They never get used as everyone prefers to step directly onto the seats instead.
The goose neck fitting is an RL-328-C with a 3/8" pin. I drilled an oversized hole in the boom, filled it with epoxy/silica/fiberglass, and re-drilled it to 3/8". I located my gooseneck fitting 6" higher up the mast from the location shown on the plans. The plans have the boom located right at face level. When located 6" higher, the boom clears my head with a nod instead of a crouch. Much improved and highly recommended.
The Boom vang has a RL-378-A double fiddle block at deck level, attached to the oblong eye plate with a small shackle and carabiner. The boom end consists of a D-100 block/cleat, a RL-304-A single block, a RL-334-L boom bail and a small shackle. I wish I had led the boom vang line back to the cockpit too. [Done. Substituted an RL-304-A for the D-100 and led the line back to the cockpit to a cleat. Much better.]
And here they are in the reefed position. The reefing line, attached to the ring, loops around the underside of the boom to the opposite side, goes up through the eyelet in the sail, back down through the ring, and to the cleat.
The topping lift/jackstay line attaches to a SD-081200 pad eye on the port side of the boom, goes through another SD-081200 pad eye on the mast [recently replaced by a small fairlead], and back down to a 3" cleat on the starboard side of the boom. It too, is readily accessible while seated in the cockpit. When I lower the mainsail, the topping lift/jackstay line supports the boom and captures gaff and mainsail, preventing it from spilling all over the deck.
The rudder uphaul line leads to a SD-043030 cleat on the port side of the tiller. The downhaul line leads to an auto release clamcleat on the starboard side of the tiller.
The mizzen mast has three SD-043030 cleats at its base. One for the halyard, one for the snotter, and one for the topping lift. The mizzen sheet leads through a RL-260-S cam cleat, similar to the jib sheets.
The snotter leads through two SD-081200 pad eyes. A stop knot is tied in one end, thread it through and cleat it off. This arrangement is simple and works just fine.
I built my mizzen mast as a "rotating mast". Past experience with sprit booms and snotters has taught me that if the mast cannot rotate, when the sail is eased out, the snotter will put considerable pressure on the pad eye on the mast and something will break. To allow the mast to rotate, I rounded the bottom of the mast and lined the mast partner with leather and allowed sufficient clearance so the mast fits loosely within the partner.
The mizzen tack attaches to yet another SD081200 pad eyewith a carabiner. [Update: I replaced the carabiner with an s-hook, with the pad eye side of it pinched closed. It is much easier to release the tack for furling now] The plans show a downhaul line that goes through a pad eye on deck to a cleat. That arrangement would have prevented my rotating mizzen mast from rotating.
It took a considerable amount of tweaking to get my new Suzuki 2.5 outboard to clear the transom in the raised position using my Duckworks motor mount. Mine is the 15 degree model. The Suzuki 2.5 comes with a bracket that only allows the motor to be raised when the motor is pointing forward. Facing forward, the power head hits the transom so I had to remove this bracket to allow the motor to be raised on its side. I also had to add the thickest possible wood block to shift the motor aft as far as possible, and I had to shift the motor as far starboard as possible. I finally got it to clear - barely. Other outboards have different sized and shaped power heads that may make them easier to fit using this mount. An adjustable mount might be a better choice as well.
Here are my mast carriers. They were constructed from leftover 2x4's, scraps and some brackets I had lying around. It works very well and it requires no modifications to the boat. The forward one rests on the foredeck and ties into the forward cleats. The aft carrier rests on the side deck and is held down with a short line that goes through the cam cleat for the mainsheet. Foam pads protect the deck and foam-lined notches hold the lashed down main, mizzen, boom and gaff.
Setup time at the boat launch takes about 30 minutes. Here is a time-lapse video.
I hope these examples help someone. If you have any questions or comments, please post them below. Feedback is always appreciated!
