Anchor Riding Sails - Do They Work ?

[rtbates]

Originally Posted by lannen

Anchoring off my stern is not very sleep friendly for me. The center cockpit, and aft cabin, means I listen to the little wavelets trickling against the hull all night...

Boy, does that make one keep jumping up and going to the head... might as well just sleep with my hand in a pail of warm water all night...

sorry about that.

[captqrunch]

Used the mizzen on my Westerly 36 as a riding sail while anchored off Newport, RI, some years ago. Not on a mooring but lying to a big Delta anchor that had proved itself in many storms. The sail worked fine to pin the bow, but the sail's extra windage caused the anchor to drag in a moderate breeze. Luckily, we were returning to the boat in the dinghy as the wind piped up, and were able to get aboard and reset the hook in time.

[Healer52]

I used to use an old Sabot (8' catboat) sail as a riding sail. I had a couple of grommets installed and used the topping lift as a halyard. It worked well enough.

[Surrymark]

I've used a small mizzen, pulled off to one side, on my Sea Sprite 34, but by chance I discovered another way. I bought a very neat "Lazy Bag" that lets you drop the main and zip it up, no flake no fuss. The bag itself has enough windage that, when tied off to one side or the other, keeps a reasonably steady angle at anchor. The boat has a cutaway full keel and is well balanced, so that may help too.

[saillr]

<<DO NOT buy the wedge shaped ones, they are for people who don't understand how a riding sail should really work.>>

I am curious why Bill says wedge shaped riding sails don't work. No one commented on his post and I don't see why they shouldn't work better than a single. No flop from side to side, continuous slight pressure on stern abaft COG.

Also there was another comment by someone with twin backstays. One is used for the Single Sideband antenna and so he says he cant use that one. I am curious why not? I too have twin back stays and one is an antenna but there is no reason why it cannot be used.

[kas_1611]

Originally Posted by fishwife

After a poster mentioned using a drogue on the anchor chain (thank you), I made a drogue from a large, strongly constructed canvass bucket. With a short wooden bar keeping the handles apart and a three foot bridle to the handles, I fasten it to the chain about 5 foot under the water. It's made a remarkable difference to my high windage, sail-less boat. Very cheap and easy to replace if needed.

P.

Wonder if one of those collapsable buckets would work in this instance? Might give it a try as our 40ft Bavaria dances like a cat on a hot roof. In a calm anchorage it's quite nice to slowly watch the world rotate around you but in a breeze it rapidly becomes annoying and unpleasant.

I've also considered the Sailrite Riding Sail kit, even with the added cost of shipping and customs dues getting it to the UK, so it is good to hear others have had good experiences with this. I would probably rig it off the back of the boom with the topping lift as the halyard, kick the boom to one side and rig it out to the midships cleats with a "handy billy" to get the tension into it. My main worry is shading the solar panels on the top of my bimini but if the sail was able to "hold" the boat into the wind rather than swinging I should be able to kick the booom to the "shady" side of the boat.

if i can try the bucket off the chain method next week when I'm back onboard and it works I'll let the collective know.

Cheers

Keiron

[yachtgemini]

We have a sailrite riding sail which we use from the backstay across to the rail. Rarely use it as our Tayana 47 tends to hold to tide fairly well. However, it is a fantastic asset to have on those occasions the boat is sailing to the anchor.

Considering it is a fairly cheap (boat wise) and compact little sail I have always felt it was worth continuing to carry.

I have lent it to other friends and their mileage varied considerably... boat shapes do vary greatly and I would not suggest what works on one boat will work on another. Try before you buy.

Ross

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by saillr

<<DO NOT buy the wedge shaped ones, they are for people who don't understand how a riding sail should really work.>>

I am curious why Bill says wedge shaped riding sails don't work. No one commented on his post and I don't see why they shouldn't work better than a single. No flop from side to side, continuous slight pressure on stern abaft COG.

Also there was another comment by someone with twin backstays. One is used for the Single Sideband antenna and so he says he cant use that one. I am curious why not? I too have twin back stays and one is an antenna but there is no reason why it cannot be used.

It depends on how the antenna is run. A lot of them are run external to the backstay, and extend its whole length, rather than using the backstay insulators, and just one wire feed.

Ann

[svspirited]

Sailrite has some good photos and a video of setting one up here

Originally Posted by Boomp

Do you or anyone else have a picture of that? I just bought one and want to get it right. I am reading that it must be kept taught. Right?

[Montanan]

Ha, I couldn't help but not notice that of all the pictures posted of sailboats at anchor with riding sails deployed, not a single one also had a black ball day signal deployed indicating their at anchor status.

The black balls being a subject of a very lengthy recent thread, at 45 pages, 664 post to date. Titled: Re: Do you use a Daytime Black ball at Anchor?

There apparently being some regions of the globe where the black balls are utilized commonly and many areas where they aren't.

Perhaps riding sails and black balls don't mix.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by saillr

<<DO NOT buy the wedge shaped ones, they are for people who don't understand how a riding sail should really work.>>

I am curious why Bill says wedge shaped riding sails don't work....

a. He has a ketch. A conventional sail rigged to one side probably is enough for him.

b. He probably has not tested a V-style riding sail. He does not know that they are better.

c. He is right, that rigged down the CL a single luff sail does not work. And the makers don't suggest you do that, so why would you?



A CQR works. Other anchors work better. Same thing.

[Quadrille in JB]

This post got me thinking as all of our boats have sailed extensively at anchor, form a 27’ to 50’. We tend to anchor in high current areas where the water is beautiful and clear, and there’s usually a lot of wind, so...
I cut the top 10’ off of an old head sail from our 27’ Watkins, seamed a piece of Dynema into the foot and voila, I had a riding sail. The foot is 4’ wide
This weekend our 34’ O’Day was swinging badly when I hanked on the new sail’s luff to the toppling lift. I raised it with the main halyard and stretched the clew tight to a winch on the boom. It reduced the swing down to about 15 deg while the wind and current were coming from the same direction and totally stopped the swing after tide change when wind and current were from opposing directors. I moved the traveller far to starboard. Interestingly enough, the more the wind increased, the more stable the boat became.