OUR DHOW
ABOUT DHOWS
THE RIG
TACKING
PERFORMANCE
OUR DHOW - 'ASHRAF'
Our dhow is Ashraf, built of camphor in Kizingitini, Lamu five years ago.
She is 9.5m long overall, with a beam of 2.5m and a draught of 1m and she has an outboard motor.
She has been fitted out for boat charter with a toilet and shower forward of the mast, a covered structure over the aft deck for shade and the solar panels. Lockers, seats and flooring are midship and there is a table around the mast for eating. She has four 120w solar panels with batteries to run the VHF radio, a fridge, lights and a music system.
Berths are on mattresses in the open air or under mosquito nets and a canvass tarpaulin when needed.
Safety equipment includes liferaft, dinghy, lifejackets, radio, fire extinguisher, fire blanket, life buoys and a bilge pump.
Ahsraf is fully licenced and carries comprehensive insurance.
ABOUT DHOWS
There are many different types of dhow, ranging from 20 metre sambuks with full decks down to 3 metre dug-out trimaran fishing boats. They all share a triangular sail held by a hoisted yard, which is tacked round the front of the mast.
Their closest European cousin is the lugger, a popular fishing rig in Brittany and the West country last century, whose lugs are dipped round behind the mast. The rig is quite dufferent from modern crusiing yacht types.
THE RIG The mast is stepped into the keel and supported by a crossbeam with wedges and the pole from the bow by lashings.
The yard is raised to the top of the mast by the halyard, which then becomes a backstay. The lower end of the yard is controlled by two ropes at the bow, which become fore and aft guys off the wind. Sometimes another control rope is attached to the higher end of the yard.
The pair of forestays are tightened to windward and released to leeward on each tack.
The running backstay performs two functions. It stays the mast but also pulls the yard in tight towards the mast.
TACKING Tacking can be a laborious process so is only attempted in light airs, otherwise the boat is gybed.
The sheet is released, unrove and passed to be taken forward of the mast and yard.
The running backstay is released and left slack ready to be attached to the new windward side.
The bowman releases the foot of the yard from the bow and brings it back towards the mast. With the yard almost vertical it can take two men to roll it round the other side of the mast.
Once the yard is on the right side of the mast, everything can be tightened up, and the sheet rerove on the other side.
A common trick for short tacking is to take one of the tacks hove-to with the sail aback. This is surprisingly efficient, because the foot of the yard is set to windward thus creating more forward drive.
PERFORMANCEDhows point like a Bermudan with their long luff, but track like a gaffer with their lack of a keel. They make about 15 degrees of leeway, so that their track on different tacks is about 120 degrees apart, or 60 degrees from the true wind.
This lack of windward ability is not a drawback in the Northerly monsoon, the kaskazi, because a gentle northerly wind allows dhows to leave the south-east facing harbours in the morning. At about 1100, a sea breeze builds so that they can reach along the coast and return to port in the evening. Trading dhows used to simply sail downwind with the monsoon seasons.
The Lamu dhow with its large sail soon attains five knots in a force 2 wind. They have two sails: a kusi sail made of nine panels of cotton for the stronger southerly monsoon winds; and a kaskazi sail of eleven panels for the gentler northerly monsoon. Storms are rare and Kenya is above the cyclone belt. If the boat is temporarily overpowered, the sheet lead is moved aft to luff the top of the sail by increasing sail twist.
The ability to position the foot of the yard with two guys makes the dhow very adaptable downwind.
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