Stephen Newbold wrote about yawl rigs in the Spring Bulletin and invited comments from the "Drascombe brigade”. I find the mizzen very useful - particularly when used in conjunction with the jib and no mainsail. We conducted our experiment in Carrick Roads last year in force 4 - 5 winds. We tried sailing with a reefed mainsail on its own and achieved a speed of about three knots. We then took in the mainsail and set the jib and mizzen which took us along at virtually the same speed. We checked our speed with an old-fashioned ship-log (If you don't know what that is, write and ask.) The sail areas are approximately 62 sq ft in the reefed mainsail and 35 in the jib and mizzen.

When beating to windward I find we normally tack through about 120° and this is unaffected by the sails we carry - whether carrying the full sail area of 118 square feet or the 35 square feet of jib and mizzen only.

The Dabber is different from most of the Drascombe range in that it has the rudder mounted on the transom making beaching less of a problem. The mizzen mast is mounted on the transom but offset to one side which appears to create no problems. One improvement at the stern could be made by fitting longer pintles on the rudder so that it could be raised perhaps 6" - 8" without becoming unshipped.

Our Dabber has a boom fitted for the mainsail. This has advantages when running with the wind but my crew has reservations when gybing or tacking. We have tried sailing without the boom but not enough to draw a fair comparison between a boomed and a boomless mainsail. It appeared that the back of a boom could be a disadvantage when broad reaching or running, but made little difference on other points of sailing.

The standing lug is probably less efficient than a bermudan rig or even the gunter used on the larger Drascombe boats. However we sail within its limitations.

The disposition of mizzen (towards the starboard side of the transom) and rudder creates no problems in our experience.

Recalling John Deacon's re-rigging of Jady Lane when he changed a gunter lug for a plain bermudan mainsail set on the mast without the yard, we sometimes wonder if we might invest in a small bermudan mainsail. Such a sail would not be more than about 30 sq ft and would reduce our maximum sail area from 118 sq ft to 65. We question whether this would be sufficient in light airs. If anyone should have such a sail to dispose of, we might try it out. It would need to be about 9 or 10 feet in the luff and 6 or 7 feet in the foot.

The reduction in total sail area for light airs could perhaps be partially compensated by a large genoa in lightweight sail cloth. This could be in excess of 40 square feet, compared with the normal jib of 21 square feet.

To complete the picture perhaps I should list the various sails and their areas.

I Normal rig: Jib 21 sq. ft. Mainsail 83 sq. ft. (about 62 when reefed) Mizzen 14 sq. ft.

2 Possible alternatives: Genoa 40 sq. ft. Bermudan Main 30 sq. ft.

I don't know what John Watkinson would have to say about an amateur messing about with his boat. I should be interested to have comments on these thoughts from other members, and from John Watkinson if he should read this. Derek A Blasdale