Otter Rigged as a Lugger

Discussion forum for the Otter class of sailing dinghy

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electronpusher
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Mar 18, 2015 9:10 pm

Otter Rigged as a Lugger

Post by electronpusher »

Otter Rigged as a lugger
Otter Rigged as a lugger
Otter Lug.JPG (174.82 KiB) Viewed 10597 times
Hi, I have an Otter I purchased about 2 years ago, it is a standard Bermudan Rig and I have had difficulty towing it because of the length of the mast.
I realise from reading this forum that the original version was Gunter rig and hence all the sprs could fit inside the boat.
This got me thinking about an alternate rig.
Being also a bit of a Swallows and Amazons fan I was drawn towards a lug rig.
Consequently I purchased a sail on e-bay that I believe came from a Christchurch scow.
I bought a couple of lengths of spar quality douglas fir and made a boom and gaff.
The mast was made from a length of aluminium tube from an abandoned Minisail mast project.
Last weekend was the first outing with the new rig, hopefully a photo is attached.
It has a lot of weather helm and the next project is to move the mast forward, this will require additional bracing under the foredeck.
Peter

paulgato
Posts: 5
Joined: Mon Aug 29, 2016 11:27 pm

Re: Otter Rigged as a Lugger

Post by paulgato »

How did you get on with correcting the excess weather helm with the lug sail?

Small jib? That would be easiest probably.

Or get hold of a complete gunter rig from a wooden Mirror whose hull has rotted away?

Or dispense with the stays, and bond a tube through deck and onto keel to drop the unstayed mast into? Unstayed masts create moderate lateral forces but almost no vertical forces, so that might be easier to deal with. You could start with a pair of strong plates clamped above and below a slightly larger (slotted fore/aft) deck hole, so you can fine-tune the amount of weather helm by adjusting mast rake angle. Maybe a bit of forward rake would help keep the boom and yard out in light airs.

Anyway, I'm curious to know how you got on. I just acquired an Otter, and I don't need to move it just yet but a shorter mast would certainly make it easier. Much easier to lower mast single-handed too.

...In fact, is there scope for simply raking the mast forward in its present configuration?

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