Brion Toss (1951 – 2020)

Rigger, Brion Toss Yacht Riggers

Brion Toss Brion Toss authored The Rigger’s Apprentice, Chapman’s Guide to Knots, and other books. He also produced videos on various aspects of rigging, and conducted frequent rigging classes for arborists, architects, treehouse builders, cowboys, and other groups, as well as for sailors. And he rigged boats in Port Townsend, Washington. Brion was a legend in this field and we miss him dearly.

Videos

Title
Cool Sail Rigging Tips #4 – Calibrating Your Eye for Luff Sag: Seeing the correct shape will help you get the most out of your sail....
Cool Sail Rigging Tips #3, Of Rollers, Coils, & Curves: Coiling rope (or even your garden hose!) and other tips....
Cool Sail Rigging Tips #2 – Tail Bury Lengths for Splicing Braided Rope: Synthetic ropes are strong but slippery. Here’s how to be sure you have enough tail bury length when splicing brai...
Cool Sail Rigging Tips #1 – Turnbuckles & Pins: Rigging tips from the pro on how best to handle turnbuckles and those terrible cotter pins....

 

Guide Posts

Title
My Favorite Sailing Rig and Why, by Brion Toss: This is an entirely appropriate and reasonable question to ask a rigger. People in my trade spend a lot of time analyzin...
Good Reads: Recommendations by Brion Toss: NOTE: OffCenterHarbor.com asked the Guides to suggest “Three Books That Should Be In Every Boater’s (or Boa...
Three Tricks of the Rigging Trade: Use of Drill Taps: Rigging modern boats with metal spars entails a whole lot of drilling and tapping, usually into alumi...
Learning from Experience; My Biggest Disaster and What it Taught Me.: For about forty years now, I’ve been rigging. But in all that time I’ve only had one job, and that for just two days...
The Positive Influence of Clients from Hell: “If I have seen further than others, it is because I stood on the shoulders of giants.” Isaac Newton &nbsp Rigg...
The Three Boats I Lust After (and Why): Perhaps it’s my age, or perhaps I am suffering from adult-onset Asperger’s Syndrome, but I can’t say that there ar...