Ahoy! Hello! Salud !
I al writing to you about the maintainance of a dutch sailing barge.
To put it quickly, my friend Warren acquiered a (to our knowledge single edition) tjalk from 1903, which was originally destined to postal service. A magnificent beast of 15.31m. It lived a long life in good conditions, except for the sails and the overall rigging.
The last owner wasn't found of sailing and only used it as a motorboat. A pity! He threw away ropes and pulleys as they grew old, not to buy any new ones.
My friend is no expert in sailing (he's a good barge captain, though), and wanted to put me in charge of all the shopping list and trying to get the beauty rigged once more.
I'm Breton (sorry for the broken english, btw), we're put on sail boats at age 6, but still, it's the first time I'll be in charge of sailing a tjalk. So there will be a few tricks that I need to learn about them.
So basically we're on a quest for knowledge and experience, and I under the impression r/sailing might be a good place to ask.
Over time, we'll probably come with more questions and pictures/videos showing the barge, but for now my main question is "Where could we find references ?" I've been wandering a lot on the internet, never to find a proper book with all the rigging possibilities for a Barge or a tjalk.
Anyway! A reference book (or whatever media or people to exchange with) with all kind of ways to rig a barge/tjalk would greatly help sort out how this one was intended to be rigged.
We hope that, with your help, she will proudly show her colours once more.
Best, a galon,
Nicolas & Warren.
https://preview.redd.it/pjarbu6bodr41.jpg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=86132a6e50bcc6ee167249b2305c65beedca8783
Hi everyone!
I'm left a bit dazzled in front of the gaff that is on board of a tjalk my friend boat...
You can find a video here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU6eKX6VpnI
And a scheme here : ibb.co/d7JnPZY
Note that there is nothing hidden under the sheath. The only eyelets are those you can see for luff, throat halyard and on the jaws.
The "perpendicular" aspect of everything is bugging me... I almost want to rivet the sail in place!!
Has anyone seen such a gaff? How am I expected to install the peak halyard? Cabestan around the weird shape? Then it means there's space between the gaff and the sail... so I don't really need the holes and I lace the head around the gaff ! But then how do I manage the end of the gaff ? There's nothing to attach the lace to...
And the boom+sail will be over 350kg, can't have anything unsafe.
Anyway... references, comparison points, direction to move forward are needed.
Thanks in advance!
I have lived on a dutch barge with my family for a couple of years now, and we have either had to use the bath on the boat, or use the shower in the marina toilets. As nice as those showers are, it would be nice to have one on board. I am 6'2" and my head just about brushes on the ceiling of the bathroom as the deck is pitched and the bathroom is against one of the sides. Is there any showers which any of you have which are in a similar position. Despite the size of the boat, the bathroom is very cramped; there is a bit of room for extension, but not much, so space saving is a massive priority as well as ideally getting water pressure up, be that with some kind of tank, or something else.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
