Submitted
on October 16, 2006 by Simon Calderbank
Question: While sailing in
35-40 knots of wind in the Solent this weekend on a 43ft Bowman we had
great fun (and were challenged) changing to our Storm Jib from our #3.
The question is how would we go about fitting a smaller sail to replace
the mainsail? We would not easily be able to reach the luff of the main
to replace the slides in the mast, or would we fly the sail with a loose
foot and luff? Having experienced this much wind deliberately the answer
is to avoid any strong wind in open waters or worse still lee shores!
This is when I would really need to use the main to enable me to go upwind.
Incidentally, the reason we changed the #3 was that we had a small tear appearing. How would I go about pricing a replacement heavier weight #3 sail?
Regards,
Simon Calderbank
Answer:
It sure was a windy weekend, and old Mother Nature reminded us that it
much more difficult to sail when it's windy.
Once you have reefed the main to it's maximum then the next sail is to
set a Trysail. This sets above the mainsail that should be lashed to the
top of the boom and the boom lashed in place so it's not flying around.
A Trysail is a loose footed sail, but attaches to the mast with either
bolt rope or slides. Depending on the mast design you may have a Trysail
track or a gate above the main stack of mainsail slides that allows the
Trysail slides to be inserted.
The Trysail is normally around half the area of the mainsail, but this
is a little dependant on the sail plan of the boat.
If you can contact North
Sails UK, we will happily quote you a price.
Regards
Neil Mackley
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