Feasible to turn a Pacific Seacraft 27 sloop into a cutter?

[dwlangham]

I'm thinking of adding a Pacific Seacraft Orion 27 to the short list of boats I might sail shorthanded across the ocean. I think I would prefer a cutter to a sloop.

If I were to find a sloop in the right condition, right location, and right price, I wonder if it would be feasible to add a stay to make it into a cutter? How about with a self-tending boom? Would this be ill advised?

[roverhi]

On a boat that small stick with the sloop. A double headsail rig would have such a small staysail that it wouldn't be much good on its own except as a storm jib for really serious conditions. The staysail stay will be in the way of an overlapping headsail which you'll need for light air. A 135% jib with a foam luff will handle almost all conditions. You can get a storm jib from ATN that will set over the furled sail for conditions that the furled 135 won't handle. A 100% jib with reefing patches would cover everything else.

[Benz]

Of course you could, but as roverhi said, it would probably be more trouble than it's worth. If you were redesigning the entire rig, to include a longer bowsprit and bigger main (to balance the longer bowsprit), and running backstays to oppose the pull of the forestay, and addressing THAT design spiral from the bottom up, then that boat could take a very nice cutter rig. But without all that, I doubt I'd bother.