Beads & Boats – Part 1, A Parrel

It seems these days that anything destined to go onto a boat has to come from a specialty store, be stamped “marine” and cost triple what it costs elsewhere. Sometimes there’s a good reason for that, such as electrical equipment that will stand up to salt water and vibrations. Other times, it’s just because it’s hardware for racers trying to eke out a few seconds here and there while staying withing the artificial constraints of some arbitrary and silly class rule. Many times, our simpler cruising boats can use simpler generic gear that is available from non-marine sources. One of my favorites are wooden beads. These beads are available in assorted sizes and colors at local craft shops. The ones I bought came in an assortment, ranging in size from 1/2 inch to 1 1/4 inches (12mm to 30mm) in diameter. They are smooth, varnished and come in a range of colors from white to nearly black. In this series of posts I’m going to tell you about the uses I’ve found for these humble shaped pieces of wood on my Peapod dinghy.

My Peapod has a balanced lug rig. When the sail is unreefed, the halyard holds the yard close to the mast. But once reefed, the extra length of halyard required to position the yard lower down the mast allows the yard to fly away from the mast. This causes a gap between the luff and the mast which ruins the airfoil shape, reducing upwind performance and pointing ability. The flying yard also moves backward, taking the sail with it and changing the relationship between the centers. All in all, it’s not a good thing to have a flying yard.

On my Peapod, the designer’s intention was to use an arrangement where the halyard is wrapped around the mast and acts as a parrel as well as a halyard. The parrel/halyard holds the yard against the mast. I did not like this arrangement because of the complicated routing of the halyard and the low force it produced to hold the yard against the mast which let the yard still slide back and forth.

Instead, I decided to go with a traditional beaded parrel. I took a length of 1/4 inch (6mm) braided nylon line and strung it with 20 wooden craft beads. I put the largest beads in the center and made them progressively smaller as they approached the ends. Just to be decorative, I also selected the beads so they got darker the closer they were to the ends.

I terminated the ends with Brummel clips (available online from assorted suppliers). I used simple lashings to attach the clips. A generous tail was left to lash the parrel to the yard.

The parrel was lashed to the yard at the halyard attachment point. When rigging the boat to sail, the parrel is wrapped around the mast and clipped to itself. All lines, halyard and lazyjacks, are outside the parrel. There is nothing between the parrel and the mast. It rides directly on the mast.

And here’s the parrel holding the reefed sail’s yard closely against the mast. Visually, the wooden beads are a perfect match for the varnished wood spars. They are easily replaceable in case of damage. Assembly was done with lashings and knots, so maintenance can be performed without tools. The parrel is strong enough for even the craziest conditions anyone would sail a dinghy in, being based on nylon line and steel clips. The stretch of the nylon acts as a shock absorber for sudden gusts, keeping the running rigging from having to handle excessive forces.

Next time, using beads to keep gear onboard the boat.