Tag Archives: single handed sailing

Double-handed and Single-handed races for 2014

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This is my first draft of a calendar for races with either solo or double-handed classes. Largely in the north east. I am doing another won for other regions and for over seas too.

Hurmph: Well it did not format exactly the way I thought or wanted, but you get the idea. Guess I gotta read up on Word Press and excel into PDF’s between now and the next update. Make sure you double check the dates. Some races are not published for 2014 tonight-early Feb. so make sure you do your due diligence.

DATE RACE NAME HOST CLUB Web site
18-May-14 Spring Sprint Indian Hbr Yacht Club Indian HarborYC.com
10-May-14 Edelu Larchmont www.larchmontyc.org
23-May-14 Block Is. Race Storm Trysail www.stormtrysail.org
1-Jun-14 Lake Ontario 300 L. Ontario Offshore Racing http://loor.ca/
1-Jun-14 SYC DH regatta Stamford YC www.stamfordyc.com
20-Jun-14 Newport -Bermuda CCA-RBYC http://bermudarace.com/
28-Jun-14 Single handed transpac Singlehanded Sailing Society www.sfbayss.org
11-Jul-14 Offshore 160 Newport Yacht Club http://www.newportyachtclub.org/
25-Jul-14 NE Solo Twin Npt YC www.newportyachtclub.org
25-Jul-14 Corinthians Ocean Race The Corinthians http://www.thecorinthiansoceanrace.com/
25-Jul-14 GOM-Solo Twin Rockland YC http://rocklandyachtclub.org/
26-Jul-14 Round the Island Race Edgartown YC http://www.edgartownyc.org/
31-Jul-14 Around LI Race Seacliff YC www.alir.org
15-Aug-14 Ida Lewis Distance Race Ida Lewis YC www.ilyc.org
16-Aug-14 Lobster DH* Kittery Pont YC Date is from 13-Not updated as of this writing
29-Aug-14 Vineyard Race Stamford YC www.stamfordyc.com
6-Sep-14 Kittery Single Handed* Kittery Pont YC Date is from 13-Not updated as of this writing
12-Sep-14 Maine Rocks Race Rockland YC http://rocklandyachtclub.org/
4-Oct-14 Brooklyn Ocean Challenge Cup Chinese YC, Greenport NY http://chineseyachtclub.com/
12-Oct-14 Gear Buster Indian Hbr Yacht Club www.indianharboryc.com
AUGUST ’14 Mudnight Madness Mystic River Mudheads http://mudhead.org
AUGUST ’14 Stamford overnight Stamford YC www.stamfordyc.com
JULY ’14 Lloyd Hbr Distance race Lloyd Hbr YC www.lhyc.org
JULY’14 Mohegan Is Race Portland YC www.monheganrace.org
JUNE ’14 Bristol Overnight Bristol YC RI www.overnightrace.com
JUNE ’14 DH racing on Narragansett Bay NBYA/various http://www.nbya.org/big_boat/index.htm
JUNE ’14 Stratford Shoal Overnight Riverside YC, CT http://www.riversideyc.org/Club/Scripts/Home/home.asp

 

Full Length Battens-4: The Hardware.

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I hope the earlier essays have covered the issues surrounding the full batten question from the sail performance, efficiency & speed perspective.

The ease, or lack of it, with which a FB mainsail can be operated during the various maneuvers a crew must make while at sea full battens offer these advantages:

On boats with aft sweep to the spreaders, it is important to have the area where the batten pocket bears on the rigging to be reinforced with sacrificial chafe protection.

On boats with aft sweep to the spreaders, it is important to have the area where the batten pocket bears on the rigging to be reinforced with sacrificial chafe protection. This image shows just such protection on the pocket of a Deerfoot 60 mainsail Hood built. While chafe protection is a good detail to have on your sail when going of into the open ocean, it is more important on FLB sails due to the grinding effect the batten imparts on the stays, or anything else the batten and sail are bearing on.

 

  • The mainsail is much quieter when flogging the battens reduce the frequency at which the sail flaps-This is because the stiffness and mass of the batten resists the wind force more than a mere “cloth.”
  • The effect of the batten separating-pushing the luff from the leech makes it easier to get a hand full of sail and to some degree put it where you want it, particularly if there is some kind of boom bag for the sail to settle in.
  • Full battens are more effective at keeping the sail constrained between lazy jacks, even more so if the lazy jacks are located with respect to where the reef points and the batten’s leech ends are.

The real trick that makes ALL of this work as an integrated system is to mate the hardware to the boat, the sail and the intended use of the boat. This requires a combination of learning about the pluses and minuses of each version plus some other contemplation: Much of this information can be supplied by the sail makers and or rigger, but as with any business, they most likely have their own favorite hardware, mainly because they are used to in.

In no particular order some of the details to decide or to think about before even picking up the phone are:

  • Track or no track and
  • Ball bearings or no ball bearings.
  • Number of battens
  • Will the battens be installed from the Leech OR the luff
  • How the batten pockets will made to will resist chafe
  • How the sail is to be captured when it falls down
  • What you are realistically going to do with the boat/sails/battens–The further offshore you go, the higher value the most friction free gear you can get will be.
  • Stack height
  • Reefing details
Making sure the reefing system is coordinated with, in particular, the placement of the battens and cars is one of the important details to get right.

Making sure the reefing system is coordinated with, in particular, the placement of the battens and cars is one of the important details to get right.

This installment will begin to cover the available hardware for making the most of the benefits of the full batten sail which are to my mind “ease of handling”. It should be noted that the bulk of the following information pertains to the hardware I have seen and or had experience with in the US.  Regardless of hardware the principles are the same.

First off a definition is in order for the idea of “ease of handling”

For this discussion ease of handling includes:

  • Any hardware-Tracks cars batten boxes etc.
  • Or sub-system-Lazy jacks boom bags etc.
  • Or technique, practice skill in handling the boat during sail handling activities

OR

  • That which makes the manhandling of the mainsail on the boom easier and/or less stressful, and/or safer, whether hoisting, lowering, reefing or unreefing.

Reefing in a seaway is potentially one of the most hazardous parts of sailing a boat. The crew is, often out of the cockpit, it is blowing, often quite hard, there is a sea running perhaps quite large and there is the personal  stress factor, both on the part of the crew member doing the work and the master worrying about his crew….

wx map 13 April 13

When your weather map looks like this you better be sure that all the gear, especially the sail handling gear, on your boat works 100%, is easy to work, fast,simple and tested.

Traditionally one of the hardest parts of dealing with a mainsail is the friction generated mainly by the slides operating in the track. This is closely followed with what to do with the bunt of the sail after the reef is secured. On modest sized boats this is not so much a problem. If the “Depth” of the reef is say 4,5,6,7 feet- and boat that has three reefs at 7 feet apart might have a rig close to 45-50+ high feet, so perhaps a 40 footer. Depending on all manner of variables it may be sufficient to let the bunt flap to leeward, although personally I would roll it up and tie it off. Boats with a larger gap between reefs of course get progressively larger; the size of everything goes up as do the loads and the weight of everything. The requirements, desirability and the cost (all equaling value) of using low(er) friction luff sliders increases with the size of the boat, the sail and owner’s horizons.

As if this writing, I identify the following categories of luff slide hardware-And yes all of it can be used with a conventional sail with just leech battens too. These categories are:

CARS/SLIDES: With ball bearings and without.

This is a Harken ball bearing car for the batten box to attach to. Originally the red dummy track was used to keep the balls in the car. This has been improved on now so that the balls are held captive in the cars, minimizing one of the great arguments against ball bearing cars.

This is a Harken ball bearing car for the batten box to attach to. Originally the red dummy track was used to keep the balls in the car. This has been improved on now so that the balls are held captive in the cars, minimizing one of the great arguments against ball bearing cars.

Antal track slider & Toggle with Antal leech loading batten box.

This is Antal track slider & Toggle with Antal leech loading batten box.

TRACK: Those that employ a dedicated track that needs to be installed into the existing mast groove with track. AND NO (dedicated) TRACK-Those systems whose sliders operate in the mast’s groove.

Dedicated track requiring attachment to the spar is a hallmark of a high end ball bearing system

Dedicated track requiring attachment to the spar is a hallmark of a high end ball bearing system

BATTEN BOXES: Those that are adjustable, to tension the batten in the sail and those that merely accept the batten and the batten tension is applied elsewhere, usually from a lashing or Velcro arrangement on the leech.

Batten boxes come in almost as many flavors as the systems themselves. Top two items, L-R: Antal slider with leech load box, Tides Marine slider with their leech loading box. Bottom three, L-R Sailman box and slider from Bainbridge, Rutgertson box and slider and a Battslide brand box with toggle.

Batten boxes come in almost as many flavors as the systems themselves.
Top two items, L-R: Antal slider with leech load box, Tides Marine slider with their leech loading box.
Bottom three, L-R
Sailman box and slider from Bainbridge. A Rutgertson box and slider
and a Battslide brand box with toggle. This toggle would fit into the Harken batten car, shown above, in the red dummy track and all of the others reference here except Dutchman.  Not shown is another box called PNP, roughly similar to the bottom three.

 

This detail shows a leech loading batten pocket tensioning mechanism. BUT not only should the leech tensioning method tension the batten, it needs to be engineered in a way that makes it really hard to loose the batten out the end, as when flogging the sail in hard wind while reefing or attending to some drama aboard. This is a good reason for the luff loading battens with adjustable boxes. Adjusting the tension on the batten is a lot easier too-You do not need to be scrambling around up on the boom to get to the leech of the sail, rather you can stand at the mast and use typically a hex socket or sometimes a screwdriver.

This detail shows a leech loading batten pocket tensioning mechanism. Not only should the leech tensioning method tension the batten, it needs to be engineered in a way that makes it really hard to loose the batten out the end, as when flogging the sail in hard wind while reefing or attending to some drama aboard. This is a good reason for the luff loading battens with adjustable boxes. Adjusting the tension on the batten is a lot easier too-You do not need to be scrambling around up on the boom to get to the leech of the sail, rather you can stand at the mast and use typically a hex socket or sometimes a screwdriver. In this image you can see a length of light spectra lashing , far right, secured through the batten end and around the webbing strap. The batten is tensioned by a lashing (not installed yet) passing through the webbing and the grommet on the flap, to the left.

TOGGLES: These are usually metal devices that connect the batten box to the luff car. They are superior to merely webbing the batten pocket to the car because they maintain a separate specified rigid distance between the sails edge and the car. For the batten box to slider connection a more or less standard M10 and M12 threads on the studs entering into a matching female on the box. The boxes in the image above the one of the leech loading pocket detail, are all connected to their respective slides by the toggle.

Virtually all toggles are a variation of this version on a Rutgereson roller slide.

Virtually all toggles are a variation of this version on a Rutgereson roller slide. Most batten boxes have a matching M10 or M12 female into which the stud threads. This slider BTW is one of the crossovers in that the ball bearings are in the wheels, which bear on the outside of the mast tunnel-No dedicated track required.

CROSS OVERS: There are at least a couple of products that offer in-mast sliders that require no dedicated track and have ball bearings or some kind of roller on the slider.

This is one of the most elegant cross-overs-The Ronstan Ballslide. They come in two sizes a 6 and an 8

This is one of the most elegant cross-overs-The Ronstan Ballslide. They come in two sizes a 6 and an 8. You can see the “feet” held in place by the screw, on the left of the image and the balls in their cavity. If memory serves the numbers refer to the diameter of the balls.

 

 

Ronstan ball slides on a Sabre 30. Perhaps a tad over kill for some, but the owner wanted to be able to reef the main from the cockpit. He reports being able to exactly that. In order to achieve this for him I had to rework a chunk of the reefing system on the boat. All done remotely-He In Michigan & me in Newport.

Ronstan ball slides on a Sabre 30. Perhaps a tad over kill for some, but the owner wanted to be able to reef the main from the cockpit. In order to do that, incorporating all the inherent friction from such a reefing arrangement he needed a low friction solution at the luff. In order to achieve this for him I had to rework a chunk of the reefing system on the boat. All done remotely-He In Michigan & me in Newport. A particular advantage of the Ballslide system is the ability to simply remove the sail from the mast with out worrying about the carriage carriers. In fairness most of the Ball bearing systems with track now do this too but not having to install a track is something many find attractive.

 

 

This image does not do justice to the Selden system. On the other hand since you need a new spar tube, it is not the most marketable system. The cars operate INSIDE the spar in a cavity extruded into the spar and are introduced through the black fitting seen here.

This image does not do justice to the Selden system. On the other hand since you need a new spar tube, it is not the most marketable system. The cars operate INSIDE the spar in a cavity extruded into the spar and are introduced through the black fitting seen here.

CARS/SLIDES: WITH ball bearings:

HARKEN: It will be no surprise that most people’s first thoughts turn to Harken, at least in the US, when the phrases “boat gear” and “ball bearings” are used in the same sentence. The brothers Harken have cars and sliders, ball bearing and not, plus the required track for every size of boat from small, like a J-32 to 90 feet and/or 140 sq. meters, about 1500 sq. feet.

A very typical combination of Harken ball bearing car with a Battslide box.

A very typical combination of Harken ball bearing car with a Battslide box. The Battslide box shown here has been superseded by a later generation with improvements on how to get the batten in and tensioning details. Battslide boxes are manufactured by Schaefer.

RONSTAN: In some quarters, perhaps expats, like me, familiar with Australian sailing equipment, recognize the Ronstan name too. Like Harken, Ronstan has track and car systems for boats as as small as 40 FEET up to 45 METERS.To be fair to Harken, they too offer custom solutions for boats over 90 feet

This is a one combination of the Ronstan equipment

This is a one combination of the Ronstan equipment. The sticker says Frederickson because that was the name of the company before Ronstan purchased them a few years ago.

FACNOR: Followers of French boats would recognize the Facnor name in reference to headsail roller furling and not associate them with roller bearing mainsail luff track hardware. The Facnor equipment is nicely made and revolves around one track size, with the cars getting progressively bigger for larger sail/boat applications. They offer systems suitable for sails up to 130 square meters.or roughly 1,400 square feet.

Facnor track car toggle/Stud with a Sailman box.

Facnor track car toggle/Stud with a Sailman box. The track size stays the same but the cars get progressively bigger for bigger loads.

 

SELDEN: offers a hybrid in their MDS system. This however requires a new spar tube since the Selden cars run inside a special cavity extruded into the tube, so rather impractical unless you are getting a new mast or boat as in fact this owner was doing-A Saga 43 in this case. Selden also has a track and ball bearing system called RCB in two sizes. Selden calibrates the correct equipment based on the boat’s displacement. This system is interesting because it has a novel way of easily disconnecting the sail from the cars, the latter thus stay on the spar.

These four all use a dedicated track.

TRACK ATTACHMENT: There are four ways to attach the track to the spar. Either fasten the track to the spar with the appropriate sized metal thread fasteners. Use the connection slugs offered by the equipment maker, slide the tack into the mast groove-Tides and Dutchman or glue it on, for Carbon  spar applications

RONSTAN: has a cross over product called a Ballslide that has recirculating ball bearings in the car and a variety of screw-in shapes they call “feet” that will, at least in my experience, fit any mast groove one is likely to find. This is one of the hybrid products.

RUTGERSON: Another hybrid slider with ball bearings, albeit really small ones, is from a long established Swedish sailing hardware firm called Rutgerson. Their products are distributed in the US by Challenge Sail cloth, another supplier of sail making bits and pieces to the trade. The Rutgerson cars/sliders look like a beach or moon buggy and the bearings are in the wheels of the buggy.

DUTCHMAN SYSTEMS: From the folks who brought you The Dutchman flaking system, is their entry in the luff track stakes. The Dutchman has two versions. A dedicated track option and a track-less roller bearing cars option. The later has a similar “Beach Buggy” looking batten slider, see below.

CARS/SLIDES WITHOUT ball bearings:

BAINBRIDGE- ALLSLIP: At the simple end of the spectrum there are “regular” luff slides that can operate in the masts own luff groove and do not need a dedicated track. The most common slides one step up from merely using the slide the sailmaker would use regardless of whether the sail had FLB or not, are called Allslip Slides. They are marketed in the US through Bainbridge, one of the main suppliers to sailmakers of the nuts and bolts of every-day sail making as well sailcloth. Allslip slides are made from a low friction plastic, not nylon as the bulk of the rest of the luff slides are.

A Bainbridge Allslip slide with a stud to a PNP batten box.

A Bainbridge Allslip slide with a stud to a PNP batten box. When using Allslips, there needs a toggle with a slightly different front end, where it connects to the handle on the slider.Regardless of the connection to the slider the box connection will use an M10 or M12 thread.

Bainbridge also offers their own integrated FB line they call Sailman. Sailman consists of a range of slides, toggles and boxes for three varying sizes of boat or sail area.  The toggles they use in the Sailman can also be used with the Allslip slides. This feature works particularly well with Selden spars whose luff groove profiles are unique to their mast sections.

TIDES TRACK: A company based in Florida called Tides Marine, that is in the slippery plastic business, offers a high value product.  This is an extruded low friction plastic that comes rolled up in a spool, like a garden hose thus minimizing shipping costs. The requisite number and type of slides go to the sail maker. The track mates to your existing mast track, particulars of which are determined by a set of templates they send you or their dealers have. Propriety stainless steel slides that work only in their track (and others slides do not…) are available in three sizes of height: Intermediate, batten or reef slides and head slides. They are roughly 1”, 2” and 3” tall respectively.  Tides offer their own batten “boxes” aka receptacles but these are leech loading only.

DUTCHMAN SYSTEMS: The ever enterprising Martin Van Breems is also in this arena with two products. One is similar to the Ronstan Ball slide and the other is a track system product similar to Tides System using a low friction plastic proprietary extruded track and dedicated sliders. The Ball slide version incorporates small SS balls in wheels that run on the outside of the spar’s groove to accept the compression from the FLB and look largely like the Rutgerson moon buggy design.

The main difference between the Dutchman dedicated track version and Tides product is the Tides slides run INSIDE their track and the Dutchman system runs on the OUTSIDE of their track. The second important difference is the Dutchman track system hardware is unique to Dutchman.Thus no other cars or sliders will fit on the track and they do not have the ability to use third party toggles or batten boxes.

ANTAL: is a prominent Italian manufacturer of all sorts of sailboat hardware hardware. They have a dedicated track with slider system. These sliders have a low friction fiber composite insert. Antal also has roller bearing cars at the upper end of their range. They too come in a variety of sizes suitable for smaller boats up to 100 feet. They offer their own propriety batten boxes. Their batten sliders come with the virtual industry standard 10 mm and 12 mm threaded studs.

SCHAEFER MARINE: also has an offering in this non-ball bearing field. They have a selection of “normal” sliders, toggle connectors and the very widely used original Battslide batten boxes. They also have a dedicated track one can install but I have never seen the advantage of this unless the spars extruded track is damaged in some way. They offer a wide cross section of sliders to fit probably all mast sections built in the US in the past 50 years, With and with out “rigid” toggles, but attached by shackles to the slider. Thus their products is frequently seen on smaller boats where the proportional cost of Full Length battens and related hardware is a bigger percentage than on a larger boat.

 

Next up: The Battens followed by “all the things you didn”t know, you didn’t know…

 

 

 

 

Full Length Battens-3: Square Head mainsails

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The Square Head Mainsail–on to advantage side of the equation:

The Square Head mainsail is the default style for the Class 40 short handed offshore race boats.

The Square Head mainsail is the default style for the Class 40 short handed offshore race boats. Don Miller Photography image

The previous few essays have focused on the limiting issues surrounding full length battens including, for the vast majority of the normal boats that most of us sail, the backstay.

Briefly I have proposed that:

  • There is not really solid empirical evidence that one sail with FLB is faster than the SAME sail with leech battens on the same class of boat and assuming that both boats are prepared to be as identical as possible.
  • The Cost of FLB may outweigh the Value a lot of the time
  • I will get to the “sail handling” aspect of FLB further along in the series. This area is in fact one of the areas that does offer increased value for the owner via ease of handling the sail: Hoisting lowering reefing.

For now I am going to concentrate on the most obvious advantage and a much lesser known aspect of full battens in general and the Square Top mainsail in particular.

In my experience virtually all discussions with sailors regarding sail shape is one sided, in that it revolves around the sail’s shape and so the implied concept is aerodynamic lift. I cannot immediately recall any discussion where the other side of the lift equation is even mentioned let alone discussed: DRAG.

Drag is everywhere on a sail boat:

Someone with more time on their hands than me could calculate the amount of drag on this boat

Someone with more time on their hands than me could calculate the amount of drag on this boat

The actual hull topsides

Cabin profile

Rigging

The sail’s surface

The width of the roller furler or furled headsail when sailing with a staysail

The furling drum

The anchor

Rails, life lines stanchions

The dinghy stowed on the bow or in Davits

Cruising boats carry lots of kit and it is all drag.

Cruising boats carry lots of kit and it is all drag.

Halyards

Dodger

Life raft on the cabin top

Bimini

People standing up- This is why most good race boats have the guys all sitting together in breeze or laying low in light air.

Radar either tower astern or on mast

Radar reflectors…..You get the picture.

What is missing from this list?

It is one of the reasons why the square head sail has emerged over the past few years.

We have discussed the usual limiting factor for the size of the roach on most boats is the backstay, closely followed by adherence to a handicap racing rule.

Enter the “open” class boats, in particular the solo offshore race boats. This cohort encompasses the Mini 650 class, the older open 40’s and the much more successful, as a class, Class 40’s, the open 50 and 60 foot mono-hulls and their multi-hulled cousins and in some parts of the world open class skiffs like the Aussie 18 footers.

None of these classes (I am not 100% certain about the 18’s) have any restrictions of sail size or shape, only number and type depending on the individual class and the race.

If Bigger (more area) is Better, so the square top sail is born.

The one element missing in this discussion so far is the mast.

The mast, the square top sail and full length battens are all interconnected.

 The Twitter version:

The mast is drag

The square top sail minimizes that drag

The ST cannot work without full length battens

ESPECIALLY in this case, the FLB need a low friction track because of the great compression generated by the ST sail.

The NPR version:

Because it is sticking up in the air, the mast is 100% drag, at least for the purposes of this essay-Ignore the wing masts and wing sails please.

Over the span (the fore and aft width of the sail-the girth.) the drag from the mast is reduced because the air is smoothed out by flowing across the sail.

As the sail ascends into the air on 99% of boats it gets narrower, again almost universally due to tradition as manifest in the backstay.

This image gives a good visual of the issue at hand-Namely the top 3-4 feet of mainisail-on a 40 footer-is not contributing to reducing the drag from the mast.

This image gives a good visual of the issue at hand-Namely the top 3-4 feet of mainsail-on a 40 footer-is not contributing to reducing the drag from the mast.

At a point that varies for all sorts of reasons this reduction in drag is reduced. The drag from the mast starts to increase.

The point is that usually within a few feet of the top of the spar and for a rule of thumb it can be where the girth of the sail is less than about 4 or 5 times the local for and aft length of the mast, the amount of drag over comes the amount of lift generated by the sail.

For instance, let’s say the mast is 6 inches fore and aft. 4 or 5 times 6 inches is 24-30 inches. So in this example the drag starts to increase, dramatically, at that point on the sail where the girth is less than 24-30 inches wide fore and aft because there is not enough girth in the sail to smooth out the turbulence created by the wind hitting the mast.

This image shows the ration of the mast for and aft length to the width (girth) of the sail as the sail approaches the mast head. 4 or 5 to 1 puts the equal girth n this main at a little lower than half the distance between the mail head and the top batten. I enlarged the image and used a metric rule against the screen to determine this.

This beam on image shows the ratio of the mast’s fore and aft length to the width (girth) of the sail. This is obviously a conventional mainsail and was built to comply with local racing handicaps. As on almost all conventional yachts, as the sail approaches the mast head the position of the girth on the sail diminishes. On this Sabre’s main the girth equal to 4-5 times the masts span is a little lower than half the distance between the mainsail head and the top batten. Functionally then the (mast) drag starts to increase dramatically somewhere above the top batten is. I enlarged the image and used a metric rule against the screen to determine this.

Enter the Square Head sail. This sail profile minimizes the drag from the spar as well as being much more sail area.

I do not have many images close up of the relationship between the mast width and the sail girth as for the one of the Sabre above, but I think you get the idea.

I do not have many close up images of the relationship between the mast width and the sail girth as for the one of the Sabre above this image, but I think you get the idea. This image courtesy of Don Miller.

BUT

It is functionally impractical for any boat with a backstay. Unless of course you want to lower the mainsail every time you tack which may sound like a pain but again find out what the customer is trying to do with his boat sail goals plans etc. I did do two offshore cruising boat sails that were exactly that big roach that would not clear the standing backstay. In one case, the image below, it was a bit difficult to get through in light air although he reefed in about 14 knots of wind, so the roach was easier to deal with the first reef in. I did another offshore cruising mainsail where the owner specified that he would sail with the first reef in if lots of tacking was going to be involved. The roach in this sail was even more aggressive than the first one.

This is the roach profile of the first boat I mentioned in the paragraph aobove.

This is the roach profile of the first boat I mentioned in the paragraph above. Many thanks to the owner for providing the image. www.mccubbin.ca/boat

 

This particular boat was built with two configurations-One with this large roach and NO backstay at all for coastal cruising in and around New England. The spar was of course so designed. And a smaller main WITH backstay for going in the ocean. This is one way to do it...

This particular boat that I did the working sails for was built with two configurations-One with this large roach and NO backstay at all for coastal cruising in and around New England. The two light lines you see on the sail are more conventional runners for headstay tension, but are not really required to keep the rig in the boat. The spar was of course so designed. And a smaller main WITH backstay for going in the ocean. This is one way to do it. Boat was a custom Bruce King design.

For boats with such sails, very large roach OR square head, enter the twin topmast running backstays, generally referred to as “the runners”.

As the name implies, they are running backstays that attach to the masthead and are adjusted by a two or three part purchase led to a winch.

This image gives a bit of an idea on the twin running backstays idea. Yes, this is a race boat, a single handed forty footer from the 2009 O.S.T.A.R

This image gives a bit of an idea on the twin running backstays idea. Yes, this is a race boat, a single handed forty footer from the 2009 O.S.T.A.R. The two padeyes with blocks on the transom are part of the three part purchase this boat has. The blue cordage crossing forward of the starboard stern rail is the last fall prior going to the winch through a clutch at the very edge of the image. The pair of blocks adjacent to the base of radar plinth are for the mainsheet.

Upon contemplation it will be seen that this is not something to be undertaken lightly. Many things need to be contemplated, not the least of which, in no particular order are:

Boat & Deck hardware lay out

Mast strength

Standing rigging configuration

The degree of sweep of the spreaders

The skill of the operators and

Their willingness to put up with this added task when tacking

All these factors contribute to the reason why most “cruising” boats do not have square head sails.

Next up running backstays, batten compression and hardware for the battens.

Our first sail late in the afternoon. Scott Bradford assisting and checking the spar.

This is my mini-650 on her first sail late in the afternoon in August 1995. Scott Bradford assisting and checking the spar. This was the first 5 minutes of sailing after her launch. At the time this roach profile was considered to be huge. If you look at the luff you will see the luff sliders I used-NOT ball-bearing at all, but the best available option on the day. I was more interested in keeping the sail on the boat during handling.

 

Full Length Battens-1: What they do, don’t do and why

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A very common opinion regarding Full Length Battens is that they improve performance. Let’s look at that theory for a moment.

The square head main provides more area but something more too-Read on.

The square head main provides more area but something more too-Read on.

A mainsail with FLB has either has been refitted with Full Length Battens (FLB) or it is built from scratch as a new sail  with FLB’s. There are a couple of things that happen in these two scenarios that lead to the “better performance” theory.

If an old main is retro-fit with FLB, one assumes there is a reason for it and it is usually to “improve the shape” often in conjunction with the owner’s desire to get another couple of seasons out of an old sail. We know that a sail’s shape degrades over time/use. Typically the original designed-in shape migrates to the aft part of the sail,or aft of where one would like it to be for optimum performance. The of course happens over time and so more or less creeps up on you. The observant owner will note that the shape IS migrating but more commonly he/she sees boats he used to be able to beat, sail past him, either racing or “not racing” if such a condition does in fact exist with two boats within sight of each other….. After the FLB retro fit, ideally done in such a way to “push” the shaping back towards where it needs to be, commonly the sail is now “faster” than before. After all that is what the owner spent a not small amount of money on.

Most sail boats are constrained either by the backstay or a rating rule or often both

Most sail boats are constrained either by the backstay or a rating rule or often both. This Sabre 38 main just overlaps the backstay at the top batten by about 4 inches. See the profile  picture below

Thus there is a connection in the owners mind that FLB are faster than Non-FLB…

So the meme is that FLB are faster. Well kind of.

What happens if a new sail is ordered WITH full length battens? A few things:

Today there is a much greater likelihood that the roach on a mainsail designed within the past 10 years or so is going to larger than one from before that time. Sail making design uses lots of input from “racing” sails even when designing non-race sails and it is my experience that when an owner comes to replacing a sail for the same boat, and with Hood it might have been a fifteen or twenty year old sail, that the roach on the new sail is significantly greater than the old sail. More sail area never hurt any boat in the search for speed.

This sail has full length battens but could easily support the roach with "regular" battens

This sail has full length battens but could easily support the roach with “regular” battens

Second, simply having a new sail you are going to be faster than with an old sail-Just ask any one design sailor. Connected to this is the improvement in sail making materials, both Dacron and the rest of the fibers and manufacturing techniques for laminated sails.

Third, the above cited “improvements” in shaping ideas (and more powerful and detailed sail design software) can also come from a sail designer with a greater or different, skill, experience, attitude to designing a sail.

Another way to look at this question is to study for instance the J-105’s. They are a very competitive one design class with fleets all over the place. If one postulates that FLB ARE faster, then in theory all J-105’s would have full length battens. BUT even though the batten length is not restricted, or even mentioned in this class at least according to the class rules of 12 Feb 2012, section 6 to 6.4.1 Mainsails, if FLB WERE faster, then one would expect to see, in such a close racing fleet as the 105’s, all boats using FLB. But they are not. So what does this say about the performance of FPB?  Are the FLB really “faster”?

Thus we now have a new sail with superior (compared to 10, 15, 20 years ago) shape holding properties. It is “bigger”, is almost certainly of a different design. AND it also has full length battens.

But which characteristic is making the sail faster? Is it the material, design(er), the extra roach, the newness of the sail and performance of the material or the battens?

Another detail to contemplate here is that the real advantage of FLB is the ability to support a bigger roach. This is doable in the majority of the boats on the market in the production arena but it is constrained by at least two things: Backstays and rating rules.

This Apogee 50 is used for cruising AND racing upgraded this older Hood Main. The new one was made to the largest possible "girths" and so is much bigger than this one

This Apogee 50 is used for cruising AND racing upgraded this older Hood Main which was about 12-13 years old and had seen lots ocean cruising miles. It was not designed with “girths” in mind. The new mainsail was made to the largest possible girths  (for DH racing) and so is bigger than the old one pictured above..

Rating rules: as anyone who races even casually is aware one needs a handicap rating for their boat. One of the items in a rating is of course how big the sails are. A mainsail is measured not only by the P and the E but by at least one and up to as many as four so called “girths”. Briefly a girth is a dimension from a specified point on the luff, at a minimum 50% of the luff length across the width of the sail to the corresponding position on the leech that is 50% between the head and clew. Boats that are raced regularly are measured at 25%, 50%, 75% and sometimes 87.5% locations, reading up from the foot. At each measurement point the mainsail cannot be wider than a percentage of the foot. The current versions of these width percentages are:

MGT: The 7/8 point– 0.22% of E

MGU:  next one down, ¾ points– 0.38% of E

MGM: Middle 50%–0.67% of E

MGL: the bottom ¼ points—0.89% of E.

Try this math on your own mainsail. There is a formula in the ORR rule for calculating the actual area including roach, if you have these measurements. Calculate the mainsail area: P x E x 0.5 which gives the basic triangle area. The inclusion of the girths gives the actual area. As a rule of thumb actual area is abut 20% more area than the basic triangle area.

The width of the mainsail on the majority of boats is constrained by either the backstay or a rating requirement. This mainsail for a Sabre 38 is built to the maximum girths permitted by the PHRF of New England. If you look carefully, the upper leech is just overlapping the backstay by an about 4 inches.

The width of the mainsail on the majority of boats is constrained by either the backstay or a rating requirement. This Sabre 38 mainsail  is built to the maximum girths permitted by the PHRF of New England. If you look carefully, the upper leech adjacent to the top batten, is just overlapping the backstay by about 4 inches.

Generally speaking these girth requirements constrain the width of the average mainsail to what we all commonly see on boats unless they are multi-hulls or open class offshore race boats, or high performance skiffs of the Sydney Harbor 18 footer type. That is a pretty basic triangle, like the one on the Sabre pictured above.

Backstays: The next item that constrains boats from having really big roaches is the backstay. Yes some boats come out of the box with provision for large roach mainsail and I am thinking of the Quest line of performance cruisers and race boats, designed by Rodger Martin and built by Holby Marine thru the 1990’s. They and others have girth restraints that allow for a wider main than those cited above, but the general rule for the vast majority of boats confirm to the cited percentages.

This cruising main has a very conservative roach, almost nothing. The owners commissioned a new sail and specified a much larger roach, so big in fact that when tacking they had to lower the mainsail a few feet.

This cruising main has a very conservative roach, almost nothing. The owners commissioned a new sail and specified a much larger roach, so big in fact that when tacking they had to lower the mainsail a few feet. Notice the backstay is very close to the end of the boom which limits the roach/upper girths if you do not want the roach to hit the backstay.

The interesting thing is these “regular” girths, from the formulas above, keep the roach of the mainsail on most boats to just about where the backstay is plus or minus a few inches usually.

A large roach mainsail for a cruising boat. The roach is so big the mainsail must be lowered to tack, this at the owners request.

A (new) large roach mainsail for the cruising boat pictured above. The roach is so big the mainsail must be lowered to tack, this at the owners request. The backstay is indicated by the red line that terminates in the bottom right hand corner of the image.

Some cruising boats, most prominently the Deerfoot range of fast offshore cruising boats pioneered by the Dashews have much larger roaches BUT their rig layout, allows for this. The backstay is a long way aft of the end of the boom, so the roach can be big without fouling the backstay.

So bearing in mind all the foregoing, as to the question as to when FLB’s “might” be faster, one has to get outside the scope of “normal” racing rules, PHRF, IRC, ORR and so on and look at open class boats and other high performance boats-Aussie and Kiwi skiffs, most performance multi-hulls and so on. Here we find a mainsail, that has FLB but most commonly another feature not seen on the usual production cruiser racer or plain cruising boats-Square head mainsails.

 

 

 

 

The yellow line leading from the head, at the bottom of the image, to the clew at the top, is the straight line leech. All the sail to the image left of this line is roach. This of course requires considerable detail (read cost) in making sure the sail will be robust enough for hard offshore work typical of Deer foot owners.

The yellow line leading from the head, at the bottom of the image, to the clew at the top, is the straight line leech. All the sail to the image left of this line is roach. This of course requires considerable detail (read cost) in making sure the sail will be robust enough for hard offshore work typical of Deer foot owners. The blue line at the head is part of the tackle for the leech line which leads over the head of the sail so it can be adjusted at the tack.

The so called Square Head mainsail seen in the image at the top of this essay, takes advantage of the unrestricted nature of the sail area calculus of open class offshore boats and the various skiff classes’ by providing certainly more sail area, but also reducing drag at the top of the mast. This topic we will take up in Full Length Battens-3

Stability of offshore boats

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One of the many features of a Mini Transat boat that attracted me was the basic premise of the boat. That seamanship was to be to the fore and all the gadgets were secondary.

British Delivery skipper Bob Salamon saw that the only game in town then, the O.S.T.A.R was getting too far away from its original, inexpensive, “run what ya brung”roots with big campaigns,big boats and big budgets. He wanted to offer a race that went back to basics. He thought that there would be enough sailors who would be attracted by the idea of preparing your own small inexpensive boat for a 3500 mile ocean passage, creating your own weather forecasts from simple tools like a barometer, air and water temp. and clouds were the only ways available then of course, plus the the sailing, navigation-Sextant and the seamanship required to make the passage.

This idea struck a chord with a young Californian sailor named Norton Smith. He had, I think,participated in one of the, if not THE first Single-handed Trans-Pac in possibly 1977. Following the first Mini Transat, Smith researched the boats and the race and ultimately commissioned local San Francisco Bay sailor and designer Tom Wylie to design him a boat. Wylie also ran a boat building business and so the boat that became American Express was built by Wylie in his shop in, I recall, Alameda on the North side of San Francisco Bay.

American Express was the winner of the second Mini Transat in 1979

American Express was the winner of the second Mini Transat in 1979

15 or so years later when I was having Wylie build parts of my boat I learned a bit about Smith’s boat.

It was cold molded plywood. It was to have water ballast in it, for at the time the Mini Rules were a bit like the 18 foot skiff rules in Australia: “The boats are 18 feet long and the start is at 2:0 pm”. Well the minis were roughly the same for the boats themselves. “They gotta be 6.5 meters long and the start is in September”. There were a few regs for the sails and kit required, but nothing like today.

Well before the current crop of Mini's with their cabin tops and escape hatches, American Express sailed in at least two Mini Transats, winning the 1979 edition.

Well before the current crop of Mini’s with their cabin tops and escape hatches, American Express sailed in at least two Mini Transats, winning the 1979 edition.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The way Smith and Wylie calibrated the water ballast configuration was very practical and well before the now default standard 10 degree  rule. This 10 degree rule common virtually default rule in solo offshore races and boats today and requires that any device that impacts stability of the boat usually water ballast or canting keels is restricted to a maximum heel angle at the dock of 10 degrees.

Remember too that this is years before the BOC and all the races it has wrought. Really the only Name Brand solo race was the O.S.T.A.R.

Compare the very "nortmal" hull shape and keel with the inboard rudder in this picture of American Express from the early 1990's.

Compare the very “normal” hull shape and keel with the inboard rudder in this picture of American Express from the early 1990’s with the keel and shape below.

Coopers mini at Sail Newport in 2002

Coopers mini at Sail Newport in 2002

 

They build the boat and went sailing on SFO bay. They rigged up a kite pole with a large drum or water carrier of some sort on the outboard end. The sailed up wind and gradually put more weight on the kite pole that was rigged square to the boats centerline. When the boat recovered from its un-ballasted angle of heel to one they thought was right, and faster, they measured the amount of water and built the tanks inside the boat to that volume.

Another “quick and dirty” detail was the deck. The Moore 24’s were very popular at the time, well they still are, and so they somehow got a Moore 24 deck, placed it on the top of the Wylie Hull and trimmed it to fit the hull,  glued it on—Job Done!!!

American Express preparing for the 1993 Mini Transat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The fascinating thing about this boat is that it is still active and apparently sailed in the Mini Transat in 1993. Further as the first image will indicate, a mini is incredibly stable. The displacement of a mini is about 2200 lbs, mainly because they must carry about 1,000 of gear including the skipper. The “pull down” stability test described in an earlier post  is relatively new but if you look at the first image, on top of a guy up the mast on American Express, in the early 90’s or late ate 1980’s the boat is totally unperturbed by the say 170 pound bloke aloft. 170 over 2200 is close to 8%. We could all contemplate what might happen to our boats if 8% of the boat’s displacement was hoisted to the top of the mast…..

The flat deck was both easy and fast to build and install and lowers the CG of the boat. It works from a sailing the boat and rigging layout too

The flat deck was both easy and fast to build and install and lowers the CG of the boat. It works from a sailing the boat and rigging layout too

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If I ever act on one of my pet projects, to open a museum or similar institution dedicated to the sub species “Solo and DH sailing racing and cruising”, American Express will be one of the featured boats.

American Express at rest. Date unknown