Welcome to the Forum!
On our JollenFlottille meetings, we discussed this topic in 2010. The next year, one of our members turned up with a load of inflatable Moorhens which he had filled with expanding foam (top picture on page 12 of https://mirrordiscussforum.org/documents/stories/JF2011.pdf. Some of us tied these to the heads of our mainsails. I did this too but must not have doen so properly because just before the scene at 01:56 in the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITt8cvMxXEY&t=110s), mine came adrift and fell overboard, so I had to perform a "Moorhen retrieval" operation.
At the beginning of the video, you can see a commercial masthead float (like a small orange fender) attached to the head of one of the masts.
Some folks suggest using pool noodles.
I have capsized my Mirror three times, each time without a masthead float, but managed to right the boat before she turtled. Having a wooden gaff means that the boat doesn't turtle too quickly. I fear that one-piece masts do not have this advantage.
Cheers,
Gernot H.
The wood of the gaff is almost the same density as water, so it barely floats and won't resist a capsize in any significant way. A metal mast is full of air and likely provides more buoyancy for a moment until it fills up with water and ends up a bit denser on average than water, but again it's marginal, and its initial lesser density may help slow the capsize enough when it hits the water to prevent the boat inverting.
I like the pool noodle idea - if you cut away material from it the right way to make a gaff shape inside it, you could fit it down half the length of the gaff while using its round shape to disrupt the air flow round it less than those horrible commercial inflatable masthead floats that stick out to either side and kill airflow over the top of the sail.
PuffinInTegel
Mon, 09/30/2024 - 13:03
Permalink
Depends on your aesthetic requirements
Welcome to the Forum!
On our JollenFlottille meetings, we discussed this topic in 2010. The next year, one of our members turned up with a load of inflatable Moorhens which he had filled with expanding foam (top picture on page 12 of https://mirrordiscussforum.org/documents/stories/JF2011.pdf. Some of us tied these to the heads of our mainsails. I did this too but must not have doen so properly because just before the scene at 01:56 in the video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITt8cvMxXEY&t=110s), mine came adrift and fell overboard, so I had to perform a "Moorhen retrieval" operation.
At the beginning of the video, you can see a commercial masthead float (like a small orange fender) attached to the head of one of the masts.
Some folks suggest using pool noodles.
I have capsized my Mirror three times, each time without a masthead float, but managed to right the boat before she turtled. Having a wooden gaff means that the boat doesn't turtle too quickly. I fear that one-piece masts do not have this advantage.
Cheers,
Gernot H.
David Cooper
Mon, 09/30/2024 - 18:41
Permalink
wooden gaff not a floatation advantage
The wood of the gaff is almost the same density as water, so it barely floats and won't resist a capsize in any significant way. A metal mast is full of air and likely provides more buoyancy for a moment until it fills up with water and ends up a bit denser on average than water, but again it's marginal, and its initial lesser density may help slow the capsize enough when it hits the water to prevent the boat inverting.
I like the pool noodle idea - if you cut away material from it the right way to make a gaff shape inside it, you could fit it down half the length of the gaff while using its round shape to disrupt the air flow round it less than those horrible commercial inflatable masthead floats that stick out to either side and kill airflow over the top of the sail.