RAKA rocks...

Over the years I have used just about every type of epoxy available to boatbuilders and for the most part they all work really well but they all have a definite learning curve attached to the process. Mostly I simply choose epoxy based on the two factors of quality of service and availability. Price, of course, does come into the picture but more often than not, availability and service always trumps cost.

Every once in awhile though, things all come together (availability, excellent service and a good price) and I get to do the "Happy Dance"... Such is the current case with the materials for the new mast, new dinghy and a new self-steering gear for "So It Goes". Which brings us to the RAKA epoxy folks...

I've been using their epoxy for a number of years and it works great but then again so do all of the other players in the whole goops for boatbuilders niche. What is really wonderful about the folks at Raka is that they are quick at filling orders and don't hesitate to ship via US Mail (remember how I went on about Mr Zip being your friend?) and, as a result, I saved over five hundred dollars on shipping alone. Throw in the fact that Raka is also a chunk cheaper than most of the epoxy and glass folks and you have some impressive savings. What's even more astounding is that within three days after ordering, the three big boxes of epoxy, fillers and glass, found its way to us here in St Croix... way to go Mr Zip!

I'd be seriously remiss, however, in not pointing out, that the West System folks pretty much invented modern epoxy boat building and we owe them a lot and they'd be my first choice if I did not have to deal with middlemen who seem more than apt at not giving the sort of service that WEST system used to be all about. That said, I have never yet done a project that at some time or other, I did not refer to "The Gougeon Brothers On Boat Construction" for the needful answer to a question or an idea. If you ever plan to work with epoxy, this tome is the foundation to understanding epoxy boat building and repair, as well as how it all works.

The right plug rant...

Trying to make sense of a boats electrical system can, for want of a better word, make you nuts...

... and we are not talking minor league nuts, we are talking full blown foaming-at-the-mouth-profanity-spewing-cutting -a-hole-in-the-bottom-of-the-boat-because-it-seems-like-a-good-idea-and-Palin-starts-looking-like-the-answer-to-our-problems-and-as-soon-as-you-sink-your-boat-you'll-volunteer-for-her-campaign-because-it-is-more-sane-than-dealing-with-your-boats-electrical-system nuts!

Yeah... Seriously nuts!

A big part of the problem is that no one really makes marine products of an electrical nature... Oh sure, they say they do, but when you factor in the various ill-chosen metal combinations (how many different metals can we put in this product?), undersized and untinned wiring, mixed of course with components that are simply not up to any enviroment much less one where salt and humidity is part of the normal day to day.

My pet peeve and foaming-at-the-mouth trigger are connectors/plugs... A couple days back we went to the local chandlery and the only plugs they had looked like this...

 

To say that your basic cigarette lighter plug  is the worst possible way of connecting a device to power on a boat is something of an understatement. However, it is a great means of driving you around the bend so if you have someone you really, really dislike you might want to get them a dozen for their birthday!

A real connector on a boat should not depend on friction alone, have reasonable metal in the wire to pole section and have self-cleaning and robust contacts. In a perfect world the wire to contact connection would not involve tiny screws of dissimilar metals that become immovable due to corrosion while not providing a solid contact.

Enter Anderson Power Products who make a line of connectors dubbed "PowerPole" and they look like this...

... What's really neat is they lock together so it is easy to build wiring looms (for example, if you have six wires going up your mast instead of having three to six connectors you can make a single mast plug). How cool is that?

They go together with a simple crimp, handle power from 10 to 180 amps, have no dissimilar metals, are color codeable and because they are a simple industrial product used in the millions, they are affordable... What's not to love?

With the right plug... (dare I say it?) I could rule the world...

A Dynex rig of note...

Gary Felton who is something of an ace marine photographer over in St Thomas has the synthetic rigging bug in a big way...

Most folks who have jumped on the synthetic rigging bandwagon are of the racing fraternity and more likely to be rigging multihulls and other light/super light displacement designs... Not so with Gary who sails a Bristol Channel Cutter designed by Lyle Hess. We'll just say the BCC's are real solid boats...

There is a lot to be learned by following the evolution of Gary's new rig as it develops on the Hess/Sam Morse forum where the Bristol Channel Cutter folks hang out. A must read of the first order... As is Gary's blog devoted to his boat "Shanti" which has a blow by blow and picture by picture coverage of his new Dynex and deadeye rig.

Hey, hey Gardner McKay...

One of the first things you have to realize when going off into the sunset is that what lies there has been grossly misrepresented over the years... Most cruisers these days are more interested in finding a K-Mart or a place to stock up on Hellmans mayo rather than stealing the jewel eyes of Tiki gods or searching for the lost location of the isle of love hungry Vahines and, of course, the saving of island virgins from being fed to a volcano...

Damn!

That said, I think all of us of a certain age were warped and molded by "Adventures in Paradise" with Gardner McKay. It's a stone cold fact that without "AIP" more than likely I'd be a fat middle-aged investment manager whose biggest excitement would be to maybe hit par on some golf course (golf being in my purview a bit less exciting than watching paint dry so I owe Gardner McKay a lot) without a falling spar in sight!

Jimmy Buffett, of course, heard the "AIP" siren call and followed it, or maybe more to the point, he recreated it and made it his own when he found that the call had grown so quiet it needed to be amped up and rebroadcast...

Hey, hey, Gardner McKay...

On a pyratical bent... Rustmonster

Since I have to work on the boat today... I'll let you listen to Rustmonster!

Lobsters and weeds... Very scary stuff

Apparently the current acidification of the seas is proceeding at a rate ten times greater than the previous high point of record and it is some seriously scary stuff. Imagine an ocean where most of the sea life has died out and the only thing left were weeds and the odd lobster (lobster being more resistant to acidification than most sea life).

Not such a pretty picture is it?


ACID TEST: The Global Challenge of Ocean Acidification from EARTHNATIVE on Vimeo.

a smart and elegant solution... Bamboo!

Over and over again I see a lot of misinformation about wood and it's place on boats. Especially in the area of its supposed need for Herculean efforts to maintain it... It just ain't so!

I won't go into the whole wood vs other materials but I will say before you subscribe to some of the idiocy floating around you really should read "The Gougeon Brothers On Boat Construction" and take note of the various testing data where wood is concerned... a lot of it developed through testing for NASA projects that the Gougeon brothers were involved with... The bottom line is wood rocks.

One wood that I'd like to get very up-close-and-personal with is Bamboo as it has physical properties you'd have to get involved with a carbon composite to approach and it would seem used in a composite situation (like for instance a spar) you would have an amazing strength-to-weight ratio with the bonus of minimal upkeep and extended longevity. Throw in the fact that bamboo is a very sustainable material and earth friendly... what's not to love? I think Michael Schacht said it best "I Have Seen the Future and it is Tubular"

Sadly for me, the new mast for "So It Goes" will not be a bamboo composite as I just can't seem to source the materials needed (in spite of the deluge of bamboo flooring and chopping blocks) but I am very much looking at various bamboo composite scenarios for the next "Loose Moose"! If any readers have information on bamboo in a processed lumber form I'm all ears!

In the meantime... How about a bamboo spinnaker pole?

A worthwhile read... SpliceRight

When making the decision to rig with something other than wire, one quickly learns that there is not a huge body of information available and tracking it down is something of a chore. Doing a search on the subject returns a lot of stuff but very little of it by people who have actually done the deed and a whole lot of misinformation. What good information there is seems to be rehashed quite a bit by those selling Dynex such as Precourt and Colligo who both deserve to be bookmarked.

Over at Brion Toss's abode on the web, there is some good information on the forum as well as the promise that SOON (we're holding our breath here on "So It Goes") Mr Knot will wax eloquent on Dynex Dux Splicing details in his column "Fairleads".

From downunder SpliceRight is selling an E-pamphlet (I'm sorry I just can't call a twenty page offering a book) on using Dynex that is seriously good and includes a  rig strain calculator as well as a means of using a Loos rigging gauge for Dynex Dux for twenty bucks. If  you are considering rigging with Dynex it is a more than worthwhile investment!

The pamphlet is also available as part of a very well thought out rigging kit which they also sell.

Keeping the costs down... Mr Zip is your friend!

Yesterday was something of a bang-your-head-against-the-bulkhead-until-the pain-stops sort of day...

I had a small metal order which included the stainless for the new chainplates, a bit of aluminum for new solar tracking mounts and some billet material to make my new deadeyes for the new rig. Not a big order, at just a kiss over $100, but the shipping quote we got for it was over $281! Can you spell ...O-U-C-H?

One of the reasons we are in St Croix at the moment is it allows us access to the US Mail service but we are finding these days that far too many companies are no longer working with the US Mail and instead are only shipping via FED EX, UPS, and my least favorite DHL (dropped hard and lost). The reason they give is better service and cheaper rates for their customers but while my math abilities have never been great (just ask my algebra teacher Mr H at Virgil Jr High) they are, however, up to the task of comparing the difference at between $35 to $79 for USPS and $281 and change for UPS.

Sadly, these days, a big part of the problem is people who slide in to the customer vendor matrix offering to help and improve things and then once firmly entrenched ramp up the prices... When I was a jock I had jobs with both UPS and DHL and knowing first hand how both companies worked on the level of a guy who sorted boxes on the night shift... Well, let us just say, the the Dropped-Hard-and-Lost was considered a moniker of PRIDE for us on the floor who loved to hear things jingle inside those boxes marked FRAGILE.

Of course, that was a long time ago (dinosaurs were still a regular sight in the boonies of Westwood) but having had over ten years of experience getting film gear and boat bits shipped to the Caribbean, if you want it quick and in one piece the US postal service is the way to go.

So, if you need a small order of metal, forget the folks who only do the UPS/FEDEX/DHL shipping and go with someone like Online Metal Supply and ask for Diane (she understands!) and the bonus is not only do they do USPS shipping but they were also less expensive than those other guys... YOWZA!

One other thing is why don't I just just buy Schaefer chainplates, for instance, from someone like West? Let's see if you can do the math? Schaefer chain plate = $107.99 (which I should add is both thinner and shorter than needed) each as opposed to $9.20 per chainplate for the metal at Online Metal Supply.

Now I will have to put a bit of labor into the DIY chainplate (drilling six holes, rounding off the corners with a grinder and giving it a quick passivating and polish) but when you do the math even I come up with a pretty clear number!

Nice knife...

I've never been a real fan of Buck knives as they never ever seemed quite right on a boat...

Well, that is til now. The Buck 750 is all kinds of boat friendly steel! What is even better, it comes at a price that warms my Mr Cheapseats heart!

I'm looking forward to picking up one of these in the not too far distant future and seeing how it compares to my normal choice of things Gerber...

Building the rig... All the bits that fit

It's a bit frustrating still being a powerboat but we're almost on a roll!

Losing your rig in the Caribbean is always a bit problematic after the fact as the materials for replacing the rig are always someplace else. In our case, I'm currently waiting for epoxy and glass fabrics, stainless steel for new chainplates, Dynex Dux for the rigging, aluminum for the deadeyes, a variety of sail making stuff (cloth and notions) to build the new sails and some Glowfast tape from down-under!

So it goes...

Of course, once all the stuff is here it's a couple of weeks of madness followed by a quick round of sea trials and hey presto we will be a proper boat again!

Not that there is any rest for the wicked as a friend needs his walkabout bulkhead sorted out and a new interior (galley moved and a new cabin built for his daughter) so not a lot of time for the boredom thing...

Electric propulsion goes prime time... Well sort of

Some days it just gets weird...

My friend Mike (oops that's Captain Mike these days!) over at Bianka Blog just pointed out that West Marine now has two electric propulsion systems in their catalog. Now, I'll be honest, being something of an electric propulsion cheerleader and long time user, that I should be doing the happy dance that electric propulsion has finally become accepted. But instead I find myself just a bit worried...

The fact is while electric propulsion is not exactly rocket science, it does take a certain mindset and slightly out of the box attitude to work and the folks who sell electric propulsion systems really should have their act together and make sure that folks do not have unrealistic expectations about what electric propulsion can do for them.

Throw in the fact that an electric drive on a boat does create a near rocket science need to get the most bang for the buck out of batteries and charging systems and you have a situation that requires some serious guidance and education. I'm not real convinced that a big chain/catalog store will be able to give the same level of service, knowledge and after care as someone like Electric Yacht who really know their stuff. Truth be told, more often than not, I can't get even basic information on something simple like a block or shackle from a marine chain store these days...

So I guess you can color me somewhat happy that West is selling electric drives since that will mean my electric drive quits being a freak show, but also color me just a bit worried that the very possible bad experiences some people may have may just set back electric propulsion in the long run...

With a whimper and a sigh... America's Cup

Oh well, now that the 33rd America's Cup has come and gone just maybe (if we are lucky) the whole foul smelling mess and stupidity will dissolve into the collective memory hole...

For the best coverage for those who might care Sailing Anarchy is all over it!

Mooring madness...

Down here in the Caribbean there are more and more moorings popping up of the for profit variety and while these mooring fields are being marketed as "green" and "for the protection of the environment" most are anything but...

One of my main objections to moorings is that the folks who put them down, while being very energetic in the collection of fees are somewhat less energetic when it comes to actually maintaining them (maintenance would cut into the profits no doubt). Which, just maybe, is the reason that when they collect your $25 they also have you sign a release which absolves them of any damage to your boat (or boats you may damage) as a result of the mooring failing...

Over the years, being an avid diver, I have seen some very scary mooring systems both in design (would you believe dog chain?) and mooring tackle so badly maintained that the rope was only a thread or two from parting while the chain components were rusted through and ready to part from their own weight (much less a ten-ton sailboat). These days we keep hearing more and more stories of sailboats going walkabout because of mooring failures and as the various mooring for profit mooring systems tackle gets older I expect we will be hearing about a lot more in the not too distant future.

Of course, if you find yourself in a situation where you are required to pick up a mooring, I cannot stress enough the need to dive on it and inspect it before you pay for the mooring, leave your boat unattended or sleep.

For more on the subject you might want to drop over to the always worthwhile Attainable Adventure Cruising for the sad story of the loss of "Kantele" and a postscript.

More tools and a couple of books...

Except for the odd mast falling down and going boom, we don't have much of a problem with things breaking on "So It Goes" and it has always been my contention that most breakage on boats is crew induced and we pretty much don't break stuff...

Not having an internal combustion beast driving the boat also goes a long way towards keeping the repair list and expenses down as electric propulsion systems by their very nature are about three steps less than IC engines in hassle and expense factor. Throw in that the cost of components are low enough that when we head off to the boonies we can easily have a spare motor and controller tucked away in a locker for that WTF moment. The fact that a spare electric motor costs less than most basic IC repairs,  means that you can color me (Mr Cheapseats) a very happy camper!

That said, other electrical devices on boats are not so user friendly and we face a constant uphill battle to keep all of the various electric and electronic goodies on "So It Goes" working and Radio Shack level tools are simply not up to the task. A really great basic electrical tool set up is available from Adafruit (who does one of my favorite geeky blogs... remember the Bedazzler?) and is just the thing needful for modern day electrical repairs. They also sell a bunch of neat kits which the building of would give you the skills to deal with what ails your chart plotter or loose connection in a running light. Of course, you will also need what I consider the bibles of marine power knowledge from the Ample Power folks "Wiring 12 Volts for Ample Power" and "Living on 12 Volts With Ample Power" as compared to what else is out there, they are simply the best.

More zombie apocalypse and lifeboat drivel...

Apparently not everybody gets the whole z-o-m-b-i-e thing on a nautical themed blog and some cold hearted people I know think it is simply a manifestation of the gene pool cleansing itself.

Maybe, maybe not.

Then again, it is all just a bit of silliness but as my mother used to say "It's all silliness and fun until someone puts their eye out"!

I grew up on a mixture of history books, fairy tales, Jack London and Norse sagas, which is no bad thing to introduce your children to as they teach a lot of important and dark lessons we should all know, with a big emphasis on the dark...

Then again, we all are talking about silly things and in our perfect world no one does harm, greed is not the compass, and insurance companies don't take your premiums for years and years and then decide not to pay out when you have that odd little case of cancer because way back when in high school you had a couple of zits and did not tell them about it. Nah, we live in a real warm and fuzzy world!

But there are things that go bump in the night and whether they be giant Kraken, vampires, corporate government takeovers, genocide or flesh-eating zombies there is evil about and it is no bad thing to be prepared... but I digress and back to the silliness!

My pencil is yellow...

Things in the world are changing... A lot of folks are finding the same old same cruising areas not quite as welcoming as they once were, yet it's a really big world and 70.8% of it is water so you'd think there would be some alternatives available. Ya think?

A lot of cruisers or would be cruisers are not too inclined to get out of their comfort zone of their native tongue and this simple fact is a biggie. A smattering of Spanish, French or Portuguese opens all sorts of areas that are more than welcoming... Throw in a little Chinese and the world is your oyster!

Here is a painless way to pick up some French... French Word-A-Day is a great blog that gives you a word or phrase, what it means and how to pronounce it. Simple and no unpleasant bending involved!

A cunning plan for Mr Cheapseats...

My rumination on the tools on my boat got me thinking a bit about MY want list...

A small real drill press would be seriously some kind of handy just in the day to day cruising gig, but for someone who is about to build a mast and do all the rigging, it becomes some kind of a no-brainer!

For instance... The new rig will be supported with synthetic rigging and the stay adjustment will be with deadeyes (talk about salty!). The required deadeyes and thimbles available for sale these days are at a price point to make me (Mr Cheapseats) one seriously unhappy camper. Even so, buying the line and deadeyes still comes out a bit less than a standard wire/Sta-lok/turnbuckle rig... 


On the other hand, if I could fabricate my own deadeyes, it would bring down the cost by a huge factor. Since a small drill press like the Grizzly "Baby" would make this a fairly easy operation and buying it would save me at a minimum five hundred dollars or so it starts looking like a cunning plan of note!

What's in the tool locker... or we used to have a quarter berth

I've had several readers asking about what tools I have on board that allows me the freedom to take on various projects like building the odd spar, dinghy, or self steering gear when needful or the urge takes hold...

Those with a low boredom threshold may want to be elsewhere but here is the current tool locker contents.

A couple of claw hammers, a mallet, a set of wood chisels (but I really do need a two-inch slick), several planes, a few Surforms, two Japanese saws (I really don't know how I survived before I got these!), a set of metric and Imperial wrenches & sockets, a half dozen crescent wrenches, various pliers, three vise grips (almost always the wrong tool for any job), a couple of sets of hex keys, a couple of dozen screw drivers (I'm pretty sure they breed!), files, rasps, a couple of Leatherman clones (always the wrong tool for any job), a hand drill (and I really do need a brace), two crow bars, a small hydraulic jack, prop puller, tubing cutter, big hack saw, small hack saw, a tap kit, Nicro press tool, a biggish vise mounted on a board, and a big bag of clamps which is not nearly big enough as you never ever have enough clamps! Plus, lots of seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time bought on sale tools that do come in handy from time to time.

On the power tool front...

A sabre saw (but I lust after this one),  circular saw, Dewalt cordless circular saw (which gets used 90% of the time and is simply wonderful), router (I'd really like a second smaller one as well), Fein tool (gets used every job!), Fein tool clone, two Dewalt cordless drills, a cordless Dremel, a RotoZip tool (the jury is still out on whether this is worth the space), four sanders (1/4 sheet, Six inch, 1/2 sheet, and Seven inch and, of course, the Fein), power plane, angle grinder, small DeWalt shop vac (really needful), ... Any of which run quite happily with our Honda 2000i.

Which is all really pretty basic stuff and looking over the list, the only things missing that would make a real difference is some sort of mini table saw and drill press arrangement and an electric file... Well, as long as we are wishing, a bench top plane would bring a smile, as would a small milling machine... With a small milling machine I could (dare I say it?) rule the world!

I also have a pretty deep electrical tool box but I think those contents are for another day...

A neat wheelie-dealie... Swirl

Just my opinion, but a lot of folks take the wrong tack on choosing ever more complicated and expensive systems for their boats when they should be looking at how they can simplify.

These days there is a lot of great design effort devoted to making life in the third world better and just maybe if we were to look at what is available on that front we'd be a whole lot better off.

For instance... Take a look at the Swirl which is a means of moving water easily between places with the added bonus of also being a way of washing clothes. Not such a bad idea! There are a lot of spots that would be great places to cruise but being able to move the boat (or dinghy) up to a dock and get water is just not doable. I remember being someplace where the nearest water was up the beach and just a mile down the road and after ferrying a dozen jerry cans I realized there was a whole new meaning to the word... PAIN! Something like the Swirl on the other hand, would have made it pretty close to just a reasonable stroll!

On the other hand you can take the western approach and buy a washing machine (Splendide 2000S for $1500 for instance) and a watermaker (between $3000-$10,000) with a means of powering it, and so on... Most of the folks we have come across on our travels that have built in washers seem to have a lot of expensive problems with them and still wind up doing their laundry in a bucket or taking it to someone on shore to do for them. All of a sudden a bucket or wheelie-dealie starts to make a little bit of sense?

Guns on boats...

I'm not a huge fan of the whole ideas of guns on boats for the most part (zombie apocalypse situations excepted of course) but this steampunkish bit of art that Boing Boing hipped me to by a Colorado based artist Jonathon Albertico might make me waver in my thinking...



Seriously way cool!

The mast and guitar conundrum...

The real hassle of building a boat or any big project of a nautical variety is simply to get started. There are always a million reasons not to get started, but once you do, it all gets pretty simple...

Getting started is the HARD PART!

Case in point... The new mast! For years I have had a certain idea about a way of building a mast that would be light, strong and the sort of price that would make my oh so frugal Mom give me a big thumbs up. Of course, like a lot of good ideas that no one has actually done, there are a whole lot of reasons that many will give on why it should not be done that way... We, being something of a herd animal when all is said and done. So what it comes down to is a whole lot of pressure to go with the same old same and tried and true. What makes it worse is half the pressure to do the same old same is generated by "yours truly" as I find myself on one hand knowing the idea will work but then having attacks of doubt and the whole if-is-was-such-a-good-idea-why-isn't-everyone-doing-it sort.

So I have been doing the running in circles route the last few weeks, jumping from a semi-traditional mast construction to semi-traditional strip planked mast construction to a what the hell maybe I should just buy some aluminum pipe to the mast I really want to make and back again, and again and again! Exactly the reason boats don't get built sort of stasis!

The traditional mast in wood has a lot to say for itself as it is strong, easy to build, and fairly cheap, but it is also heavy in the grand scheme of things and while a monohull is not as sensitive to weight as a multihull, it is a real factor when all is said and done. The semi-traditional strip plank or birds mouth is more work and while lighter than your basic box mast is still heavier than it could be and they both have issues that make me a little uncomfortable. Which leaves my untried adaptation of the old Gougeon/Gold Coast wing mast construction as possibly lighter, stronger, cheaper and with a very real possibility of being a complete failure (spelled mast fall down go boom)... Yeah, choices are hard.

So what to do? Well, one way I use to decide stuff is by simply working it out using the guitar algorithm. Traditional wood mast means I have to give up a guitar or two... Strip planked or aluminum mast means I can keep my guitars while my adapted Gougeon mast design means (if it does not fall down and go boom) I can get a couple of guitars to add to the quiver. Now put that way, what do you think I'm going to do?

Which brings us to the red/black conundrum... Should I get this in red?

Or Black?

Jamais deux sans trois...

I'm not exactly sure where the line gets drawn between superstition and common sense on boats... I do know that, when push comes to shove, that leaving on a Friday is not something I am all too comfortable with.

Superstition aside, I do know that Murphy and his law are a very real part of sailing and have a sure knowledge that trouble tends to travel in threes...

Good reading for the zombie apocalypse...

 

Yeah I know I should be working on the new rig and telling you all about it, but it's important to keep up with other priorities as well!

For instance, I've been waiting for the next installment of "The Walking Dead" series which has all sorts of helpful hints for those in the know, as well as being a good read for those  who like that sort of thing.

Another source of great info is over at "The Oatmeal" which has an excellent (if simplified) breakdown on how your basic zombie apocalypse can get out of hand in a big way... Good stuff!

Of course, for those readers who are still of the whole zombie apocalyse is just silly horror movie fodder camp, and just don't BELIEVE... Here is rock solid proof that there really are living dead and zombies!

Latitude 38 and the bulkhead test...

 

Latitude 38 is easily the best sailing magazine around. Which is not to say it does not get thrown against the bulkhead from time to time (their pissing puppy fawning over the Tom Perkins ego exercise MF comes to mind) but a whole lot less than CW and Sail... What more to say, other than it's FREE and you should be reading it!

So what kind of rig is it...

I recently spent far too much time listening to several folks go on and on (and on) over what a cat schooner was as opposed to a cat ketch and so on... Boring!

The new rig for "So It Goes" is a cutter, which is pretty obvious, it having a couple of foresails and all. Where it gets tricky is where the main comes in. Some might call it a Batwing, while others looking at how it all goes together would classify it as a gaff variant with an extra sail panel above the gaff. My take is that as the top horizontal batten has gaff jaws and the boat is more or less rigged as a gaff, except without the peaking stuff, you might as well call it a gaff or some such. Or not.

Well as far as I'm concerned... I'm simply going to call it... Simon!