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Submitted on December 6, 2002 by Nelson Fontoura
Question: Dear North
Sails Adviser,
I'm
constructing a 27' sail boat in Brazil and (maybe as all beginners) wondering
about the rigging system. Attached is a jpeg file (left) with a design
that makes sense to me. I am calling for instance "Modified Boomless Gaff
Cutter".
As advantages I see:
(1) Increased and balanced sail plan when compared to ordinary sloop;
(2) Ease deploying of sail area by rising the mizzen (if it could be called
like this);
(3) Short handed capability due to a sail plan divided into small elements;
(4) Self tacking.
Does it makes sense to you? Will be the windward performance good enough?
Best Regards, Nelson Fontoura
Answer:
Hi Nelson,
I am pretty confident you will
be better off with a conventional marconi rig. You could get nearly the
same sail area with a large roached, full batten mainsail and you will
have much better control over the sail shapes, sheeting angles and rig
with a conventional setup. Here are the basic problems that I see with
your rig:
- There is twice the weight in the rigs and it is up there all the time.
In rough sea conditions that will make the boat pitch more than a boat
with a single mast.
- The mast step will be a very difficult part to manufacture. All of the
rig components will be custom which means you will have to pay for a lot
of engineering time. Carbon construction would make the most sense for
this rig.
- A sailing rig with two slots will be tough to deal with on a small boat
like yours. At close winded angles the aft sail will have to be to windward
of centerline and will stall the sailplan.
- Double headstays are problematic. The lazy stay takes part of the rig
tension so the active stay is never tight enough for windward work. The
only way around this is to have significant adjustment in each stay so
you can slack the lazy stay; not a practical solution on a small boat.
- There is very little control of the sheet leads for either of the two
aft sails so you will not be able to control the leech tension or depth
of the sails for differant sailing angles.
- The rig will take a huge amount of time to sort out and to get the sail
shapes dialed in because no sailmakers will have any experiance base to
draw on when designing them. This will be an expensive process. It might
be better to spend your time enjoying the boat with a more conventional
rig.
Sorry to be a pessimist on this one. Good luck with your project.
Regards, Dan Neri
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