Sail area a person can handle

[Wckoek]

Reading Uffa Fox's "Sailing, Seamanship and Yacht Construction" he mention on a line that 500 sq ft of main sail is about the amount a person can handle in any weather.
Of course he is talking in the era of wooden spars, gaff rig and heavy sails.

I wondered with modern rigging, sails and electric assisted winches what is the ball park of sail area a person can handle in any weather in you guys experience?

[maxingout]

500 Square feet is as big as I want to handle on the mainsail. I don't have electric winches, and with two speed mast winches, 500 is enough for me.

Bigger sails are heavier to carry and harder to store as well.

I am into no bruising cruising, so I carry about 1000 square feet combined on my 39 foot catamaran. 500 in the head sail, and 500 in the main.

If I was going to go larger on sail area, I personally would put it into some type of headsail on a roller fuller.

[Training Wheels]

My main is about 660 sf., and with my 2:1 halyard I can pull it up by hand to within a foot or two of my masthead. Personally, that's about the biggest I would want to go without powered winches. I think with laminate sails, full battens, and lazy jacks, handling sails larger than 500 sf is very doable.

[TJ D]

We are running a heavily roached main of just shy of 900 square feet. This is a carbon laminate sail with a dacron taffeta, heavily built. We have an external track, lazy jacks, a 2:1 halyard and a small electric winch to manage hoisting and reefing. The electric winch is not a necessity, but I REALLY like it.

Our jib is 600 ft2, code zero around 1000, and chutes up to about 2200. We manage this with just one person on watch with no trouble. But, we reef the main early when we're shorthanded, and typically have the staysail hoisted long before we need to ditch the jib. Advance planning is key. We don't push the envelope while just two of us are on board.

[Wckoek]

Originally Posted by TJ D

We are running a heavily roached main of just shy of 900 square feet. This is a carbon laminate sail with a dacron taffeta, heavily built. We have an external track, lazy jacks, a 2:1 halyard and a small electric winch to manage hoisting and reefing. The electric winch is not a necessity, but I REALLY like it.

Our jib is 600 ft2, code zero around 1000, and chutes up to about 2200. We manage this with just one person on watch with no trouble. But, we reef the main early when we're shorthanded, and typically have the staysail hoisted long before we need to ditch the jib. Advance planning is key. We don't push the envelope while just two of us are on board.

I've just seen your website, and Rocket Science is very impressive, a lot of thought, time and money must have been put into the boat. It would quite possibly that most average mortals couldn't afford the sort of setup you guys have, maybe with modern off the shelf stuff probably most people can handle less than 900 sq ft?

I have heard that in the age of sail, often times only the captain and a boy is left managing a large schooner while the men go out to hunt whales or to fish and to say of the heavy Bristol Channel cutters which are often singlehanded, they must be quite athletic or have their own way dealing with it.

[Jman]

An IMOCA 60 has nearly 7,000 square feet of total sail area. No electric winches. So I guess we have to define the one person...

[Wckoek]

Originally Posted by Jman

An IMOCA 60 has nearly 7,000 square feet of total sail area. No electric winches. So I guess we have to define the one person...

Ok, I mean a regular but experienced person in a cruising situation, and in most if not all weather.
I shouldn't brought up the age of sail to stir this topic, I just want to see how much more we can handle today if it's any different from Uffa Fox's day with modern sails, electric assistance, things that would be reasonably available rather than some high tech custom set-ups.

[TJ D]

Originally Posted by Wckoek

I've just seen your website, and Rocket Science is very impressive, a lot of thought, time and money must have been put into the boat. It would quite possibly that most average mortals couldn't afford the sort of setup you guys have, maybe with modern off the shelf stuff probably most people can handle less than 900 sq ft?

Well, our sailhandling equipment really is 'off the shelf', just normal Harken gear with Antal for the luff hardware. Nothing out of the ordinary at all. Heck, we even reef at the mast!

[contrail]

As has been said, planning ahead is key. My main is 923 square feet, dacron, with five full battens and a two part halyard. I raise it at the mast, with a Lewmar 44 winch. Actually, I generally raise it half way, hand over hand, and then put it on the winch. Most of the time I use a winch buddy 28 volt drill to complete the hoist, but it's no problem doing it manually, just tedious. I reef at the mast, as well, and it's all quite manageable, but I try not to get caught unawares. I won't say I reef prematurely, but I certainly try not to reef late! Bear in mind that all of this is on a 45 foot catamaran which has the room and stability to make this much more doable than on many other boats. My jib is 500 sq. feet on a roller furler. Sheet winches are Lewmar 54 manual winches and they are well sized for the job. Toughest job is the jib sheets when in heavy weather.

All this said, it bears asking what is meant by "handling", because while all of this is well under control, I am not saying I could easily drag that main around the deck, particularly underway in rough seas! Heck, dropping the jib and folding it up by myself takes a lot of to-ing and fro-ing. The main pretty much lives in its stack pak.

FWIW, I am five foot eleven, average build, and 68. My previous monohull had a 200 sq foot main and a 300 sq foot genoa and barely needed halyard winhes.

[sandy stone]

I would say 500 sq ft is about right for the average person on the average boat. Sure, with the right equipment and planning you can handle more, but when something goes wrong...

[Hasbeen]

It depends on your cruising ground. I spent a number of years with in 600 miles of the equator. Up there in the doldrums I set a 780 Sq. Ft. main, & often a 600 Ft drifter.


When heading for trade wind areas I would fit an old main cut down at the 3Rd reef, of 470 Sq. Ft, & a No. 3 genoa of 340 Sq. Ft.


I have crossed the Coral Sea 6 times, & each time did most of the passage under one sail only. I averaged between 7 & 7.7 knots on these passages, 3 under triple reefed main, about 220 Sq. Ft, or under a 160 Sq. Ft working jib. The Coral sea appears to not like me, & reserves it's strongest weather for me.


To my mind it is very important to select a boat that can be sailed under one sail, it makes life much easier to dispense with one, rather than change sails a lot.


I would never use roller furling gear if sailing in areas where you will have to ride out storms at anchor. I also had the boom on a slide that lowered it almost onto the cabin roof. The external track curved around to the side of the mast, & past the boom, dropping the sail to the cabin roof. When lashed down it caused very little windage.

[Elie]

I remember longtime ago, 300 ft was condidered as a maximum a single handler would deal with to be safe.
But now we have to consider 3 important modern variables:
1- Electric winches that augment the power seriously;
2- Furling mainsail systems that avoid the battle of a recalcitrant floging mainsail in a blow;
3- The new and much lighter sails made of new polymer materials.
My mainsail is 600 ft, and my in mast furler permits to control it in any wind without fuss...

[Kenomac]

I seem to do just fine with 1,650 total square ft of sail area by myself.

[Chuck Hawley]

Sir Francis Chichester had some thoughts on this in Gypsy Moth Circles the World back in 1966, I think. He wanted headsails no larger than 300 sq ft, as I recall, and ended up with some monster that he regretted. Actually, he ended up with a lot of stuff on GM IV that he didn't like, but managed to sail around the world as a 64-65 year old, singlehanded, nonetheless.

Chuck

[hellosailor]

Handle in any weather? Forget the power tools and hardware, I strongly suspect he meant "handle" as in MANHANDLE. Brute force, you versus the sail.

I find that one person can manhandle the main--on the boom and fighting both of them--on a 26' boat pretty well. On a 28...sure, but not in 30+ knots or any kind of seas. On a 32? Maybe the job, definitely not a 150 or chute with a breeze up.

I don't know how many square feet those are but I'm sure there are average correlations.

Once the boat gets big enough, you have to outsmart it, because you CAN'T fight it in a fair fight. It isn't just the size of the sail, but the wind force on that sail area is fighting against you. And once it gets strong enough to lift you off the deck, guess who wins?