Staysails - Best When?

[ribbony]

Now we have had our first little cruise in our restored vessel, many questions appeared, the first is the STAYSAIL. As we had only sailed sloops before, this little sail has up puzzled. When is it best used ?

We tried to use it close hauling but only seem to block flow on the other sails with it.

[Randy]

I think you ought to have someone actually be on your boat to see how it's set up. It sounds to me like the stays'l is led incorrectly or your fore triangle is not set up right for the stays'l.
In my experience they should dramatically improve windward performance.

[Hud3]

Good suggestion from Randy.

I use the staysail from close hauled to a beam reach, and usually get an extra half knot of boatspeed with it. The slot between the 110% foresail and the main on my boat is pretty large, since the sheets are led outside the shrouds, which are at the toe rail, so the staysail has plenty of room to work. It's easy to over-trim it and backwind the main until you get used to it.

[ribbony]

We tried it beating away off the coast in a nice chop so were could not experiment too much at the time. Our furling headsail is not huge and tends to sit out wider than we would like, also outside the stays. We hoped the staysail would enable us to sail closer to windward or more efficently.
Seen that close hauling is one of the angles of sail to use it, then we will try some more in less demanding conditions out in the bay where we can play with it a bit.