Off Shore Sail Plan Conversion

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by forsailbyowner

I tossed my roller furling right off. I now carry 4 headsails for varying conditions. I have a very light large genoa, a beat up working sail. a small stout jib for winds to around 35 and a storm jib. I recently changed my main from the original to a main that is cut very flat that i had laying around. I found it much better upwind when it starts blowing hard. In winds that would require a reef in the original sail, the flat sail with a shorter foot starts working well. Ive never been a fan of roller furling. I may be a glutton for punishment but Id rather get up there on the deck and change sails instead. I repair leech lines on roller furling sails regularly from the sails getting jammed and flogging to failure because they couldnt be brought in when they should.

Yeah in a boat your size it's not bad at all. My 30 footer had hank on's and I was very comfortable with it. Now when you get up to 40 ft or 50 ft... whew... big job trying to control that hank on headsail while changing with the wind blowing 25+!

[estarzinger]

It seems to me the question is: do just you want to sail, or to sail well?

You can get across oceans and round the world with just a furling jib and a main. We have very experienced friends who do that.

However, you can sail much better than that if you want/enjoy actually sailing the boat (which many cruisers and most delivery captains don't). You can go downwind with just the furling jib, but you will go much much better (faster with better boat balance and easier steering) with twin jibs poled out. You can heavy air close reach with either just a deeply reefed main or a deeply reefed genoa, but will go much better (again faster and better balanced and more versatile) with a staysail and deep reef. Etc etc.

Perhaps it's a "vanity project" to enjoy sailing . . . I suppose that's exactly true. And if that happens to be one's vanity then ways to fly other sails are in fact very rewarding.

Now there are all sorts of ways to do it. The old reliable (back in the hiscock days) was twin side by side stays. We had that on our first boat. Some people then made them fore and aft stays, with various spacing between them (close = solent, far= staysail). Most recently people have been using high modulus rope luff sails with continuous line furling and 2:1 halyards (this is mostly what we do on our current boat, except we also have a dyneema inner/staysail stay).

There are also some potential safety benefits of extra stay and sail options . . . .but honestly they really rarely come into play (note: Beth disagrees with me on this, and believes this is a significant factor).

[zeehag]

my formosa is a ketch an d i love it--i had dreams about sailing her when i was in gom sailing a sloop--- hd roller furl headsail which is what we used in heavy weather t o sail her--we hit every tboomer off fla for a year.. severe ones pack 70 kts of wind power. yes we dropped main and used furled jib and were happy. .
we had to prevent boom because when not prevented in high winds it broke...that as bad and could have killed someone but for fast thinking and grabbing it in my hand before it came to slam into my head as i exited cabin.
yes i prevent my main boom. i also prevent my mizzen boom.
my boat--is a ketch and i will prevent both booms even if not using the sail attached --i do not wish to suffer breakage at sea--have btdt and seen the damage that can occur without preventers in high winds. i only use a bit of line to secure boom end and keep flogging and destruction to a minimum.

btw--never prevent to your taff rail......lol.i only just got mine repaired after the chubasco i sailed in 2011 may, just north of cabo san lucas. at 0400.....

i have sailed sloops from 1956 or 1957 until i bought this ketch. i wont go back to sloop for cruising.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by unbusted67

Preach on!

I guess I just get stressed thinking of having to claw upwind, like on a lee shore, with a big baggy genny that won't roll up right, in big wind. I had to do that once doing the Baja bash, it was actually on the Vagabond 38 but the staysail had blown out and I just couldn't get the thing to go upwind with the genny half furled. Stressful. Sailing is stressful.

It doesn't have to be stressful.

I carry two foresails. Heading down toward Baja, I'd use the 110% that is part of the designed sailplan. If I need more power in a deep reach, I'll pop up the G3 gennaker. Returning from Baja, I've used the 85% yankee, which actually points higher.

No stress, not on the rig or the crew.

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by Bash

It doesn't have to be stressful.

I carry two foresails. Heading down toward Baja, I'd use the 110% that is part of the designed sailplan. If I need more power in a deep reach, I'll pop up the G3 gennaker. Returning from Baja, I've used the 85% yankee, which actually points higher.

No stress, not on the rig or the crew.

I had this exact same setup, and my yankee blew out. I assure you it was stressful

[ctl411]

Unbusted you said your staysail blew out??? A yankee is a high clew short lp headsail.

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by ctl411

Unbusted you said your staysail blew out??? A yankee is a high clew short lp headsail.

The function being the same: a smaller sail which you reduce down to in case of high winds. I won't bother with semantics other than to say that I ran low on options when I blew out the smaller of my two headsails.