Shelter Island Boat Works

When I was making the rig and sail for the Seaford Skiff I took a picture of the rig standing up in my yard. As I was looking at it I thought, ya know, this needs a topsail. So I photo shopped one in.

Seemed to be a reasonable addition to the rig. So I made one. The vertical spar was made from left over Sitka Spruce from the Coquina build. The sail was made from cloth from Sailrite. I designed it according to lines from other topsail layouts I researched. The rigging was a bit complicated. The sail is permanently attached to the spar. The spar, along with the topsail, is hoisted to the top of the mast and the base of the spar is lashed mid-mast. A small block is attached to the top of the sprit and a line is connected to the topsail tack, run through the block, and down the sprit and lashed. Trim is achieved by adjusting this line. Making sure the height of the spar aligns the tack pull angle is critical. It needs to tension both head and foot equally. That’s about it.

I have not tried it on the water yet as it is still a bit cold but it looks promising, if not just beautiful.

Sewing the topsail.