The Death of the Ketch ?

[sailing_jack]

A fellow at our marina was showing me the boat he was restoring. It is currently ketch rigged but he wanted to convert it to a schooner rig. When I asked why he just got a rather dreamy look and said he just liked the look of them. I completely agreed, there is something about a schooner that just makes your heart beat quicker.

BTW, I see that the Bluenose is fully restored and re launched. Love that boat, I have been out on her, and sailed in convoy with her in a tall ships regatta. She does draw the eye.

[bobconnie]

Yea the Tall mast Sloops look sexy but if ya live and use the ICW ya learn darn quick that the shorter masts of a ketch help ya a bunch !! with our new to us 51 ft ketch, we can clear all the bridges on the Icw, and that sure helps us as we live right off of it !! justa thought

[Nicholson58]

We just returned from an extended weekend criuse to Milwaukee from Muskegon. We topped out at 11.4 Westbound (jib, cutter staysail, main mizzen staysail, mizzen) and 10.6 on the return (AS spinaker, main, mizzen staysail, mizzen). Favorable North winds both ways. Milwaukee is a fun town. Lots of water front activity, water-walks along the two main rivers. Many draw bridges. More good restaurants than we could do in a summer. We found it easier to walk and leave the boat in the 'busy' marina. This time of year, you may well have the place to yourself.

[charliehows]

Originally Posted by Blue Stocking

If for no other reason, you want a split rig to fly "nature's sail", the mizzen staysail.

I've never had a mizzen staysail to play with - why 'natures sail'? having recently added a fully battened mizzen to my fully battened main i'm wondering why i'd forego the convenience of these sails in favor of a staysail.

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by sailing_jack

Does anyone notice that boat sizes are still creeping up?

All this talk about 55's, 64's etc. Anything larger than 40 is probably starting to push my size limits. Big boats, big problems.

Yes. But having never owned anything less than 46' it is difficult for me to consider anything in the 40s as 'big.' And we have never yet (knock on wood) had any problems, big or small. Regular maintenance; sure. But problems; never. Amel still builds only ketches, although the current models can be cutter rigged ketch if purchaser desires. And Amel now builds only the 55' and 64' now. 64' is too big for me; but, as much as we love our current boat, we would sell our 53' and buy the new 55' Amel in a heartbeat -- IF we won the lottery. Out of our price range without that lottery win.

We have owned a sloop and a ketch and sailed all kinds of boats. Sloops for fun; ketch for world cruising. Speed is not important when cruising; comfort is.

Judy

[svBeBe]

Originally Posted by charliehows

I've never had a mizzen staysail to play with - why 'natures sail'? having recently added a fully battened mizzen to my fully battened main i'm wondering why i'd forego the convenience of these sails in favor of a staysail.

What is a mizzen staysail? And how is that rigged?

We have a mizzen assymetrical, called a mizzen ballooner by our boat manufacturer. It is a standard sail on our ketch. You do not forego the convenience of the mainsail and the mizzen sail when flying the mizzen assymetrical/ballooner. You fly all 3 at the same time, plus the genoa or a forward assymetrical if you prefer -- or all 5 if you are really into messing with sails instead of sitting back and just enjoying the ride. Only once have we flown all 5 at the same time. But we fly the mizzen assymetrical anytime the apparent wind angle is 90 to 150 degrees and we have at least 2 hours until destination. Too lazy to deal with it if we will be at anchor in less than 2 hours.

Judy

[flagorio]

And up to how much wind speed do you fly all 5?

[MacG]

On a large 11-12 mtrs or > vessel, a split surface could be quite practical. Otherwise I prefer the slutter-rig.
On my little boat, the mizzen is rather a nuisance, save that I can use the mast for aerials etc.
Next year I' ll fix a longer boom and a bigger main. (if I don't have another boat by then.)

[GaryMayo]

Learned yesterday my boat is classed as a cruiser racer. Sweet!

OK, who wants to race for pink slips??? Lol

The comfort number is low, must be why my wife has a look of displeasure every time the wind blows.

What do some of the other numbers mean?

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by flagorio

And up to how much wind speed do you fly all 5?

Look at our photos above. The staysail is not an "instead" sail. It, like a spinnaker, is a reaching & running sail. You may need to change the location of the tack from midship to windward if the wind is well aft as shown in the photo.

We run the whole lot in apparent wind up to 11 or 12. Close reaching in winds up to about 8 apparent the boat speed will match the apparent.

Photos are of our sister ship in Sydney Harbor.

[bobconnie]

We sure look forward to flying all those sails as we just found on board, a Yankee a Mizzen mule and a Spinaker!( which Ive never had before LOL) We did not know any of these sails were there when we made our offer to buy our new to us boat ! but are sure happy about them !!

[GaryMayo]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

We sure look forward to flying all those sails as we just found on board, a Yankee a Mizzen mule and a Spinaker!( which Ive never had before LOL) We did not know any of these sails were there when we made our offer to buy our new to us boat ! but are sure happy about them !!

Congratulations!

[rolandgilbert99]

Originally Posted by bobconnie

We sure look forward to flying all those sails as we just found on board, a Yankee a Mizzen mule and a Spinaker!( which Ive never had before LOL) We did not know any of these sails were there when we made our offer to buy our new to us boat ! but are sure happy about them !!

I had the same good surprise with my ketch and have to set some blocks to be able to use all of them, I am so anxious to try them all at once, this is going to look great and make us really fast in light winds!

[DSDman]

Ok I have a ketch but I know very little about sailing it and the various sail configurations. Bob or one of you old wise sea dogs want to explain all the different sails and where they go, mizzen mule, yankee kite, storm flipper??? I have not found a book out there that explains specifically how to sail or rig a ketch.

[Cruiser2B]

I saw a Dreadnaught 32 Ketch motoring out of Little Creek on Sunday. That is my idea of a classic salty cruising vessel. I love my Alberg but wish I had the pocket change for one of those.......... I like the looks of Alberg 37 yawl, Allied Seawind and Westsail 28/32.....this list goes on.

An interesting boat I saw on yatchworld was a Alberg 30 Yawl....Anyone know if this is an Alberg 30 original rig or added later. Just curious