Offshore Sailing with One Headstay

[sck5]

one headstay and a gale sail. do i wish i had a staysail? sure. i wish i had a bigger boat, and a plane and a pony ......

[AiniA]

i have a sloop but with a removable inner stay that i can use for a staysail or storm jib. Rarely is it hooked up but I anticipate having it ready to go along with the storm trysail (has it own track) for crossing the Indian Ocean this fall - along with having the 110% rather than 135% on the furler. We did the entire trip from Florida to Oz with the big jib and rolled it up and used only the staysail just a couple of times.

I can't imagine rigging a gale sail in the conditions where you would really need it (40+ knots and likely big seas). Would be a huge amount of work and in a nasty part of the boat if the waves are 15'+.

If I had my druthers I would like to have a boat designed like a Saga with a proper Solent stay arrangement. I might check and see if this is possible with my boat. It is appealing for sure.

[Southern Star]

sck5, not saying you have to have one, only that there are advantages IMO.

Cheers!

Brad

[unbusted67]

Originally Posted by Southern Star

My first three boats were all sloops, my last three were all rigged as cutters (Bayfield 32C, Carrtwright 36 Pilothouse Cutter and my current boat, a Solaris Sunstream 40). Due to difficulties in tacking a genoa, I converted by Bayfield and my Cartwright to Solent rigs with a detachable staysail stay.

I hope you had that okayed by a naval architect. Sometimes those inner forestays are very important for keeping the mast up!

[Valkyrie654]

We run a 155% from the bowsprit on a furler. It is a light air sail and as such when we start seeing about 15 knots apparent, it time to put it away. Why stretch it out of shape and ruin it. At the bow, we have a 110%, also on a furler. It is made out of heavier cloth, with a foam luff, though we usually don't reef it more than 20%. Then there is the stay sail on hanks, on a easily removable stay. We just about always fly the staysail unless we are short tacking. Lots of versatility as well as wires to keep the mast up. With all of the stays it can be difficult to keep headstay sag at a minimum. We have twin back stays that we keep tensioned at 20% of their breaking strength. This is a lot of load and I would not recommend doing this to anyone unless they have a steel boat. The versatility these three head sails give along with reefs in the main, we can easily adjust sail area for wind speeds up to about 40 knots with out having to be removing any sails. At the same time we are keeping the sail area low and centerd rather than out on the ends. Past this point it is time for storm jib and try sail

[Cheechako]

Yeah, I had a heavily built 44 footer which additionally had big longitudinal stringers in the hull. I bought a hydraulic backstay adjuster to try to take the large sag out of the pro furl head sail when the wind piped up. For my boat size it was on the cusp between two of the adjusters offerred, so I bought the big one. To make a long story short, I essentially saw no difference in the headstay sag. evidently I was bending the boat by a few inches though!