Newporter photos posted

[William P. Gibbons]

  am posting two photos from the 1970's. At the time there were two Newporters in Chicago.

The one under full sail on a broad reach is a glossy black and white 3 x 5 in.print which I must have taken ( but I don't remember.)  It is the only picture I've ever seen of a Newporter flying a "mule"/"fisherman" sail, and mizzen spinnaker plus mizzen, main, jib, and genoa. We all need it for inspiration.
 
 If anyone knows the dimensions of the mule and mizzen spinnaker, and how to rig, please post with diagrams if possible. When I step my masts, I will have extra blocks with messenger lines on my main and mizzen for adjustable backstay, halyards. and sheets. Then I plan to measure and look for sails. Then I hope to set them flying.

The newspaper picture is probably the same Newporter in silhouette at a Wooden Boat Festival in Chicago in the 70's.

[David Kritter]

Hi William your post prompted me to write. Regarding the picture you posted of the Newporter 40 under full sail with the mule and the mizzen staysail. That picture was actually taken off of Milwaukee probably around fall of 1974 and was my parents boat.  Raven was hull #94. That picture and another taken on the same day both hang on my office wall. That would be close to the last sail we had on Raven as we sold it shortly after.

We owned Raven since about 62 or so and sailed all the Great Lakes and Caribbean with her.

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Bill, and all others with an interest in MIZZEN STAYS'Ls and MULES.

First a word on names.  I never criticize a person who uses the "wrong names."  There are two reasons for such things: (1) the "right name" has not been learned, and (2) with any jargon (and that's what names are in this field), a right name in one place may very well be a wrong name in another.  So here's a little on the names of the two sails being considered in these posts:  

The "mule/fisherman" as used in the first post by Capt Gibbons is a misnomer in that he is speaking of one sail but names two, basically because they are flown in the (almost) same position.  "Mule" is the correct term of a Newporter's sail.  I sometimes have called it an "upside down mizzen stays'l"  The mule is a three cornered sail, flown with its 'head' at the head of the main mast, its 'tack' low on the mizzen mast, and its 'clew' (the corner with the sheet) being drawn up to the mast head of the mizzen mast.  Compare that with the mizzen stays'l that we will be discussing later: its head is pulled up to the mizzen mast head, its tack is hooked to the main cabin roof (there are two eyebolts with the eye up piercing the cabin top out near the sides of the top just a wee bit aft of the main mast.  When sailing and you are coming about on a different tack you release the tack of the sail from one side and put it on the other side (always hooking the sail to the weather side of the boat).  The sheet is basically taken aft to a block on the outboard end of the mizzen boom and forward along the boom to a double block also used for the mizzen sheet and down to its cleat on the mast.  See the drawing for the mizzen stays'l for details.  Note the sheets of both of these sails: the mizzen stays'l sheet pulls aft and down; the sheet of the mule pull aft and up to the mizzen mast head.  The halyards of the two pull differently also: the halyard of the mule pulls up and forward to the head of the main mast (making the mule a "sail of the main mast) and the halyard of the mizzen stays'l pulls up and aft to the mizzen mast head, making this a sail of the mizzen mast.

The "fisherman" is a four cornered stays'l of a schooner (most Newporters are ketches) that was originally used on the Banks fishing schooners in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, therefore called a "fisherman."  This is outside our discussion so we'll drop it for now..

So much for the names.  Now to the sails and their rigging.

I have posted all my personal drawings to this website, drawing not to teach anyone anything but to remind me, as the Newporter rigger, of the bits and pieces I need for rigging the boats.  But, luckily they can be used for teaching and learning.  To find the two drawings go to the main page of this site, find any place that has my picture (look for a red jacket and white hair and beard), click on that picture and that should bring you directly to my personal page on this site.  Close to the upper left hand corner of this page you'll find "RIGGING DRAWINGS" and click on that to bring you to a two page collection of my drawings.  On the first page (the one that should now be showing) you'll find at the right end of the bottom row of pictures the two you need for this study.  The mule is the forth one from the left side on the last row and the mizzen stays'l is the fifth picture, the lower right corner of this page, with all its glory given to it by the age of the paper on which it was made. 

This should give you an interesting study and should answer all your questions.  You will note that the sail is not the only thing needed to fly these sails.  Off the top of my head (but you use the drawings to pick up on the ones I may forget) there are things needed for the mule like a main mast head "bonnet" to which you move the spring stay and other fittings, a new tang for the tack of the mule, and various fittings at the mizzen mast head for handling the mule sheet. For the mizzen stays'l you'll need two corner bracket castings (can be brazed together using stainless steel sheeting that are mounted inside the forepeak to back up the two shoulder-eye bolts for the tack pendents and the double running mizzen back stays.  There are various other fittings, like the blocks of proper size for the halyards and sheets, a boom bail for the end of the mizzen boom and others that are named on the drawings but are for now forgotten by me.  Study hard, form and write down your questions, give yourself a two or three day break, then try to answer your listed questions.  This is the way I go about learning things.  Then feel free to email me or post your questions and we'll take another whack at answering.  Have much fun, because that's why we have boats, isn't it?  

[Clyde A. Phillips]

Bill, if I can call you "Bill,"

When I was growing up in Port Norris, NJ, we had a family of Gibbons living down near "Peak of the Moon" and one of the children of about my age (slightly younger I think) was named Bill..........

I will be writing a post on you questions about these 'extra' sails and their rigging. I will be adding a few of my old drawings to illustrate the whole and I may be able shortly to direct you to those drawings after I finish this little note.  See you soon!   Clyde