"Dhows - Lateen Rig" Topic

Well I find myself sitting in another airport and got the idea to finally ask all of you this question that has been on my mind for months. I do have a sailing background. Either racing 5.8 or 6 meter catamarans or on slow boats in various regattas off the coast of California. So I am very familiar with tacking, broad reaching, etc. So finally my question. How do you sail a Dhow with that rig? How do you tack, reach, Jybe, etc. with those stays in the way? Do you just throw the sheet from the clew around the mast?

I have googled, YouTube'd this topic to death and can't get my head around it. The reason is that I received some beautiful Laser Dream Work Dhows that I am building for my next Sudan adventure at Colomial Barracks. I want to rig up the Dhow and make some sails so you can imagine why I am asking. Any links pictures or video would be great. I have seen some very nice models and pictures and I will build accordingly but I just can't seem to understand how it sails up River and tacks. Going "downhill" seems easy enough, I got that. So anyway thanks for reading.
Last Stand Dan

On a lateen rig, the spar is either lashed to a ring around the mast, or to the mast with some degree of play that causes the spar to not be tight against mast. The sail is lightly hung from the spar, not tightly as in a square rigger.

To change tacks for example, the spar is stood vertical next to the mast and the sail, hanging limp like a flag without wind, is loosely gathered. The spar is then walked around the mast to the other side, and it is rotated as it goes (imagine twirling a stop sign so that the sign (i.e., the sail) faces the other direction). If it is lashed to a ring, the lash slides around the ring to the other side. If it is lashed to the mast, the play in the lash allows enough slack to move the spar from one side of the mast to the other. The spar is then tilted back into the lateen position and the sail is secured.

Excellent question, and I agree, not answered with any satisfaction by YouTube. I've been wondering about this for quite awhile myself, as the answer probably explains how Medieval and Renaissance galleys came about (drawings of them under sail look exactly like dhows), and probably also how lateen mizzen sails on 16th-18th C. men-o-war were worked.

Here's another answer (from this blog), a quote from The Dhow: An Illustrated History of the Dhow and Its World by Clifford W. Hawkins:

As we closed in on the sambuk [a common two-masted dhow of the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, South Arabia, and East Africa] I could see that some action was about to take place. The crew, rising off their haunches, casually sauntered to working positions; one right up int he bows at the mains'l tack, four at the shrouds, two to the yard's backhaul and a small group ready to handle the main sheet. These were the action stations for wearing ship, the preliminary operation for sailing on the opposite tack. When the critical moment arrived the helmsman threw over the wheel to bring the wind aft and the big mains'l was allowed to fly forward with the release of its sheet. Every member of the crew now came into action to carry the operation through. The two shrouds that had been taut to windward were eased off and the other pair set up on what was already becoming the new windward side. The yard, which had been freed from the masthead by letting loose the parrel, was at the same time hauled momentarily by the foot, so allowing it to pass over to the forthcoming leeward side. The flying sail was then hauled back and sheeted home on the opposite side to where it had been. it filled out and the sambuk was away on the new tack.

Surprisingly the operation of wearing ship was not a long or very difficult procedure. The dhow turned unhesitatingly on its heel and was away on the new board with the loss of very little ground. It is possible for a dhow to go about, head to wind, but in doing so it would be in a somewhat similar position to a square-rigged sailing vessel caught aback with the great settee sail afoul of the mast and rigging. In an emergency a dhow could sail, after a fashion, like this and there is in fact one vessel, the Tuticorin thoni [a three-masted, Indian dhow], that habitually sails with the yard on one of its masts slung to port and the other to starboard so that one sail is alternately pulling free or is afoul of the mast as the thoni tacks. The thoni has an entirely unorthodox manner of setting up its rigging and it is this that allows the vessel to tack and not wear as other dhows do.

This YouTube video shows at least a part of this process, though with only two sailors. I'm guessing that movement of the spar to the new lee side of the mast wasn't filmed because the cameraman was helping with that.

- Ix

Some period art of Renaissance galleys under sail:

"As we closed in on the sambuk ….."

Basically the same procedure as I described, save in Yellow Admiral's description they let the sail fly free while they bring the spar (yard) around to the other side of the mast. The parrel is the same thing as the ring or lash I described.

Try movies with Dhows in them: Four Feathers, Khartoum, etc.

Thanks Everybody. Yeah I saw that You tube vid when they let it fly. And I have both of those movies. A cool vid is watching the present day races off Dubai. But again it was not clear.

Thanks again and I will be sure to post dome blogs on my progress.

Last Stand