skipper 12 weight, and other suggestions?

Hello All.

Just thought I'd follow up - after checking apolloduck/boatsandoutboards/ebay/Gumtree on what seemed to be a pretty much daily basis, I've finally got a boat, which is a GRP Heron.

I was going to go for either a Gull or Heron, whichever came up first at the right price and not 500 miles away with a road trailer. This one came up, with a Snipe trailer and a number of sails (I need to get them all out in the garden and work out what they're all for but at least one main & jib and another jib/genoa that looks unused) and spare bits + only 100 miles away. It could do with a bit of tidying up - wooden trim a bit rotten at the front and it needs repainting - paint flaking from the hull and deck, but first things first, I need to work out how to rig it! It is a gunter rig which I am not familiar with. The boat originally belonged to the late father of the person who sold it to me, but he wasn't familiar with how to rig it to show me how, so it was a bit of a gamble but one I was happy to take bearing in mind the very agreeable amount of money he wanted for it.

Perhaps I'll start another thread in the 'I've just bought a boat and have no idea how to rig it' section to see if I can get some advice.

Saying that, I did have a go earlier and got the bottom section of the mast up, shrouds, forestay and then jib, but got stumped with the top section of the mast!

Hopefully I can figure it out soon as I'm excited like a big kid at Christmas with his new toy and want to get out in it!

Regards


Greg

It will al be pretty similar to to how the Mirror dinghy was, so it might be worth looking out for an old copy of Sailing the Mirror by Roy Partridge, though there is probably a fair amount on line, too.

Thanks for your replies JimC, Rupert & ColPrice2002.

I did have a look at a brief guide with diagram for rigging a Mirror, but found that a bit confusing so used the head scratching & tinkering approach (I did read on here about a mention of a Heron manual that someone produced, but haven't managed to find it). I will look out for Sailing the Mirror by Roy Partridge though - thanks for the suggestion Rupert.

However, after a few attempts I think I'm getting there with rigging it.

Attached is a picture of my progress so far...
The boom is not horizontal but I think I just need to hoist up the gaff a bit more as still at a bit of an angle. JimC, you mentioning the need to tension the halyard as tight as you can makes sense with this, as I think I do need to pull that up more to get the gaff right up against the mast and that will in turn bring the boom up to horizontal. As long as that is all it needs, then it is looking quite simple after all but it took getting all the bits out and having a play with it to work it out!

ColPrice2002 - thanks for the link. I emailed the association to check if it still has an active following, and they have replied back to confirm there is a very active following, which is good news so I'll join up shortly and perhaps see if they can offer some advice on removing the flaking paint and repainting it!

Thanks again.


Greg.

Worth finding some battens to go in the sail, Greg - makes a world of difference to how the sail looks and works.

You are quite right that getting the gaff right to the mast will help with the boom.

Another place to go for advice on all things paint is the cvrda - www.cvrda.org.

Greg you need to get the gaff hoisted as close to the mast sheave as possible. Do that before you put the boom on the gooseneck. I'd also advise replacing the halyards with Dyneema to minimise the stretch.