Flying a Staysail

[cortezsailor]

With the staysail being smaller, less then 20% of youre total sail area, the sail becomes not very useful. I was in the same situation so by getting a genoa staysail made I was able to increase the sails total area so that the sail became much more effective. My goal is to have sails effective for offshore so I don't plan on a lot of tacking . I agree with Tacoma that it is most effective when beating. The only other sail I plan on using on that stay is the storm jib, if needed, ( fingers crossed ) but it serves another purpose.

[robert sailor]

SparrowHawk1 you mentioned that your staysail was mounted at the spreaders which is normal but then you mentioned that you did not need running backs. If you have a substantial sweep in the spreaders and a real heavy mast section then you might be fine but if you have straight spreaders and neither fixed or running back stays you should probably have a rigger look at it.

[Tayana42]

I also have a cutter without running backstays. My mast section is quite substantial and I have jumper stays to keep the mast in colum. No bendy mast or adjustable back stay. I should mention that every component of my rig is over built. Not a racer but very secure.

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[Cheechako]

It sounds like it's not a cruising staysail. To be much good when you need it , it should be on a staysail stay with it's own halyard and be well built.... not a downwind reaching staysail.. A great sail for those times when it's blowing 30 and you douse the headsail with a double reefed main and just keep moving fast and flat. I probably wouldnt spend the money on a 30 footer though. Just buy a small working jib to put up. or a solent stay is a possibility.

[robert sailor]

Tayana if you have fixed jumper stays then all is good as they take the place of running back stays and support the staysail stay.

[Lojanica]

Boat cutter rigged with club footed staysail on permanent inner forestay.

Not to hijack the thread but I have question: I wanna dump the storm jib so I have more room. When it gets feisty I'll often furl the genoa and hoist the staysail. I was planning on taking the staysail to a sailmaker and having one deep reef sewn in the staysail so it can double as a severe weather sail. I do have running backstays.

I was also gonna put a deep third reef in the main.

All this in an effort to reduce sail inventory. Jettison the trysail and storm jib

That way I only have to keep the drifter and a backstay riding sail in the sail locker.

Comments? Thanks!!!

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Lojanica

Boat cutter rigged with club footed staysail on permanent inner forestay.

Not to hijack the thread but I have question: I wanna dump the storm jib so I have more room. When it gets feisty I'll often furl the genoa and hoist the staysail. I was planning on taking the staysail to a sailmaker and having one deep reef sewn in the staysail so it can double as a severe weather sail. I do have running backstays.

I was also gonna put a deep third reef in the main.

All this in an effort to reduce sail inventory. Jettison the trysail and storm jib

That way I only have to keep the drifter and a backstay riding sail in the sail locker.

Comments? Thanks!!!

Assuming it's a boomless staysail, the sheeting angles are usually quite limited, so be sure to figure that out when you add the reef. You might want a pendant to make the fairlead come out in the same general location. I had a reefing staysail once, it was a PITA. the sail is so heavyweight cloth that making it reefed and tidy was a real chore. It was a wire luff with a loop in the wire at the reefed location. It would have been much easier, faster and better to just put a differnt sail on the stay. And the stay sail didnt set that well either because of all the reinforcing, cringles etc in the body of the sail. I vote NO!
Dump the trysail and put a 3rd reef in the main.

[casual]

Not throwing cold water on you but I do not believe the C&C 30 was ever intended as a cutter. Perhaps you found what you believe to be a staysail and in fact is a storm jib. Have owned C&C for 20 plus years.

[kbudd]

Spinnaker staysails are not used much anymore. Spinnakers are cut flatter and are bigger than they used to be. Staysails fill in the area under the foot of the spinnaker. I had one on my Pearson Vanguard and played around with it a few times. robert is correct. They have wire luffs and don't use a forestay or running backs. You don't need a whole lot of halyard tension. Of course if you don't want it, someone like me would probably buy it from you. They make great mizzen staysails!

[Lojanica]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Assuming it's a boomless staysail, the sheeting angles are usually quite limited, so be sure to figure that out when you add the reef. You might want a pendant to make the fairlead come out in the same general location. I had a reefing staysail once, it was a PITA. the sail is so heavyweight cloth that making it reefed and tidy was a real chore. It was a wire luff with a loop in the wire at the reefed location. It would have been much easier, faster and better to just put a differnt sail on the stay. And the stay sail didnt set that well either because of all the reinforcing, cringles etc in the body of the sail. I vote NO!
Dump the trysail and put a 3rd reef in the main.

Has a boom but yeah very stiff sail. I guess the best thing to do would be to hoist a heavy storm sail on the innerstay and then use that as the riding sail for the backstay too.

Thanks.

[robert sailor]

Third reef in the main is a good idea, ditch the trisail.

[sparrowhawk1]

Originally Posted by robert sailor

SparrowHawk1 you mentioned that your staysail was mounted at the spreaders which is normal but then you mentioned that you did not need running backs. If you have a substantial sweep in the spreaders and a real heavy mast section then you might be fine but if you have straight spreaders and neither fixed or running back stays you should probably have a rigger look at it.

A little confused by that. my aft lower shrouds counteract the forward pull of my staysail stay. Also known as a baby stay. On my current boat my mast is extremely robust. on my last boat, that had the same arrangement ,I could totally tweake my mast and the baby stay seemed to add more strength (for lack of a better word) than my forward shrouds. It is normal to mount the staysail stay above the spreaders necessitating running backstays

[robert sailor]

Sparrowhawk...OK I understand what you have. You've told me you have a baby stay and you do not need support for that stay other than your lowers which is spot on however your baby stay is not a stay sail stay. Baby stays are for tweaking the shape in your main sail by pulling the mast forward and flattening the lower portion of the main which you might do beating to windward in a good breeze. These stays are not meant to fly a sail on.

[cal40john]

Tall boys and reaching staysails for close reaching

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[robert sailor]

We used one years ago when racing a frac rig trying to make up for the smaller chute. Not sure just how effective it was but you never see them used these days or not in the crowd I sail with anyways, kinda a blast from the past!