Why do I have a Mizzen?

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by DumnMad

Don't have a mizzen? Costs went up so they went cheap and left off one mast and called it progress.

You do have a mizzen? You have an older boat built when labour was cheap enough to do it right.

Nope gear got better so bigger mains could be handled , then the performance advantage wiped ketches out.

Dave

[goboatingnow]

Originally Posted by Jammer Six

I wouldn't own in-mast furling. And I'm new.

Your new , listen up !

Dave

[scoobert]

Originally Posted by Celestialsailor

Yes...when in doubt...stand out.

i am docked in a marina with boats worth much more then mine.
there is an american tug there worth over 1 million.
still non-boaters take photos of mine.
people yell out, "i love your boat"
i didn't even get this much attention with my old toy.

[scoobert]

Originally Posted by CaptForce

My greatest advantage with my ketch has been access under fixed bridges.

Some other advantages are:
- more places to dry that wet bedding from rain leaks.
- an easy lift for the outboad on the mizzen boom.
- more options to mount radar and antennae
- more shrouds to suspend more hammocks
- more opportunity to disperse lightning to all areas within your boat
- more positions for flag hayards
-more perches for crapping birds
-more.......

and more places for cicadas to land.



easier to find yourself in a crowd.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by goboatingnow

Yes and subsequently utterly outclassed

Dave

Rofl..... But of course... they changed the rules... something they do every time there's an ass kicking....
How dya think we've arrived at the farce they hold today...

[Group9]

Two masts makes it easier to rig a hammock while at anchor.

[boatman61]

Originally Posted by Group9

Two masts makes it easier to rig a hammock while at anchor.

Must be a bludi long hammock...

[zeehag]

you have a mizzen merely to befoul a perfectly good boom tent.

you have a mizzen so you can ram your head into something daily to knock sense into ye...

you have a mizzen so you can have a better cockpit boom tent

you have a ,mizzen so you can do pull ups in cockpit

you have a mizzen so you can hang your solar shower in cockpit

you have a mizzen so your gato can have a best perch on the water...

you have a mizzen so you do not have to suffer same weather helm and knock down problems sloops have in heavy weather..lol...ketches sail well on jib n mzzen while sloops are sloppily bashing thru something they wanted to point into...rodlmao....

you have a mizzen so that in the tropics you can place a bit of cloth over your sunburned sweaty head and find some comfort from sun

you have a mizzen because real sailors sail ketches...rodlmao


ok guys......bring it on....

[Jolly Roger]

I’m amazed nobody has mentioned the value of a mizzen staysail. It’s a fabulous light airs cruising sail which only a ketch can fly. We had a beauty which we rigged whenever the wind was aft of the beam, and even as it came round to three points off the stern. It gave us an extra few knots in 15 knots of wind.
All the other advantages are valid, including the use of a mizzen as a steering sail, which we were glad of when our rudder fell off and I steered her back 20 miles to our marina, without even thinking about a tow.
Sloops look to me like they are missing a mast .

[MacG]

Do I have a "mizzen"?

I don't know. It looks more like an oversized yawl.

Nonetheless the boat sails well balanced.

[Marmenorman]

I have a colvic victor which originally had a gallant rig. It was changed to the more usual ketch rig but was mediocre. It now had a taller Bermudan rig and sails really well, still experimenting with it as it has been subject to a rebuild and is only just in a sailable state.like the look of a ketch rig but like sailing this more.

[scoobert]

proof i have no idea how to sail....

[DefinitelyMe]

Originally Posted by Jammer Six

I wouldn't own in-mast furling. And I'm new.

Seconded. For the sake of laziness you're sacrificing so much!

1) Sail shape. No battens. Sail has to be cut flatter so that it rolls.
2) Sail area. No roach due to no battens
3) Safety. Beating up the English Channel in a force 8 gale, the roller-furling main gets stuck and i have to go aloft, cast off the clew and wrap the damned thing around the mast? Not cool!
4) Safety again. All that weight aloft does atrocious things to your angle of vanishing stability - reduced by about 15 degrees! If you should ever have the misfortune to become inverted you've now got a huge, heavy keel keeping you there.

Why oh why would you do something so horrible to your rig?! It's just criminal!

Rant over. Don't have a ketch. Want one. SO much more versatile and forgiving.

[zeehag]

i love my ketch.i sailed sloops all my sailing life and one cutter...i love my mizzen and i love my ketch. she can go thru bad weather so easily--as opposed to the sloops i slopped thru bad weather--was a lot of work in the sloops--ketch was soooo easy...wondered why i didnt go ketch before this.

[Richard5]

Originally Posted by markpierce

A ketch is better-looking/saltier than a sloop.

As has been alluded, balancing the rig is the key yet newer sail technology has pretty much rendered the mizzen as obsolete. There is an exception and that is the gaff rigged main.

A gaff rigged main can be reduced by the topping lift. In weather, the topping lift, or "head", may be "scandalized" by dropping the lift which alters the character of the sail. From a single halyard the sail can be utilized to full effect in a broad range of weather. It is faster and more simpler than changing sails whether hanked on or furled. It is truly a sight to see such a rig handled by an experienced crew.