Sailing Yabávideo
Building Traditional Wooden Gaffs for Our +80ft Boat — Sailing Yabá
22 February 2026 · 35 min · 62K views · shipyard
Ben and Nico carry timber across muddy shipyard near Yabá.
What this video covers
Ben and Nico build a pair of wooden gaffs from scratch aboard Yabá, an 80-plus-foot traditional wooden vessel, at a Brazilian shipyard — the first step in converting the boat from its failing existing rig to a gaff rig before sailing the full Brazilian coast from south to north. Master shipwright Zeca is sidelined by an injury, leaving Ben to lead the work.▶ 3:58 The process runs from laminating four planks with epoxy and clamps, squaring the blanks to 9 cm × 9 cm on a planer, scribing centerlines with a marking gauge (called a graminho in Portuguese), and progressively planing the corners to an octagon before grinding to a near-round section.▶ 8:13 Custom metal rings are drawn up and sent to a welder; final shaping waits on that metalwork.▶ 29:07 Parallel work includes stripping old varnish and switching from a 10-coat conventional varnish — which failed in under two years — to Cetol, chosen for its recoat-without-stripping maintenance cycle.▶ 16:48 Deck caulking compound that has separated from the planks is also addressed.▶ 29:31 A neap tide prevents hauling Yabá onto the crib; the crew waits for spring tide, with high water rising 10 cm per day.▶ 19:56 The episode ends before the boom build and gaff jaw shaping begin.
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