The Saturday Night Special (SNS) is more or less traditionally built over a strongback. It was designed as a group building project for the Texas200 five day event that runs every year.
John Goodman, a good friend and former sailmaker asked us to produce a semi stock sail for the SNS. We have a list below of other sails for John Welsford designed boats that we have made.
These are his Photos of setting up the trial sail on his Goat Island Skiff while waiting for the SNS builds to be ready.
He wrote back to us very happy at the sail we produced, considering it very well finished and setting very well.
John Goodman ended up putting together a mini tutorial to help get other Welsford Saturday Night Special setups looking as good with our really simple sail.
We tend to use a different halyard setup using a single halyard for all functions for the Goat Island Skiff and other Storer Boats, so this is a good tutorial for the more common setup with a halyard attaching to the yard close to the mast and a separate loop around the mast to keep the yard in the right place.
One of the things that takes a little bit of time is getting a new sail to sit right on a new boat, so this will save many Saturday Night Special owners a bit of time. It can make the difference between a very so-so looking sail and one that looks great.
A good reference for sail setting is usually the drawing of the hull with sail in the plan. It is important to replicate the way the designer sets out the sail in terms of how high to hoist the sail, how much sail is ahead of the mast and the angle of the luff.
As John suggests if the sail goes a bit more forward at top and/or a bit further back at the boom level then there will be way more boom clearance in the cockpit as you get further back from the mast.
Much more convenient.
And some more little mods that will be applicable to many boats.
Great advice for getting the most out of your sail, whatever way it is set up.
For more information on Lug rigs and some of the things we have learned this page might be useful.
Resources for setting up, tuning and handling balance and other lug sails
And the diagnostic and quick fix of a very common lug setting problem experienced by new lug sailors.
And using Leach ribbons for sail trim.
List of Sails for John Welsford boats we have made (some available “off the shelf”.
- Sei/Korora is the standard 89sq ft lug from Duckworks (contact John to check spar lengths for changes)
- Saturday Night Special
- The new 17 footer will accept the stock 105 mainsail from duckworks (contact john to check spar lengths for changes).
- Long Steps can use our standard 105sq ft lug as mainsail, contact John for spar dimensions.
- Rogue can use our standard 105sq ft lug as mainsail, contact John for spar dimensions.
Contact us for quotes for other John Welsford boats.
All looks good, very helpful. I am wondering about one of the tips, it says, “adjust yard halyard turning block to get the luff parallel to the mast.” It seems to me that adjusting where the yard halyard attaches to the yard would make that adjustment, rather than the block. Am I missing something?
Hi Jerry,
The block or ring or spectra loops (depending on what was chosen for the attachment to the yard) can be moved.
John’s instructions mean the attachment point along the yard for the rope loop that connects the block to the yard. So your idea is correct.