Junior sailing opportunities aboard “Big Boats”

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For Junior Sailors, at least in the North East, there are a variety of options for participating in “Big Boat” activities in July and August 2012.

The six seminars, three distance races and one day regatta outlined below are presented to foster the instruction & development of an experience base for Junior Sailors aboard “Big Boats”, as distinct from the dinghies they usually sail.

Juniors in command of the J-111 Fleetwing

Junior sailors aboard J-111 Fleetwing steering and trimming during the 2011 Jr. SAS Seminar in Newport

Storm Trysail Foundation Junior Safety at Sea seminars.

The Foundation’s Junior SAS Seminars introduce High School sailors to the arts and sciences of sailing on a Big Boat. The one day course includes land based instruction combined with on the water practice. Seasoned offshore instructor/volunteers cover the major skills needed to participate as a crew on a big boat: Some of the primary topics of instruction include handling of lines with particular regard to use of winches, reefing and sail changing, safety related issues, basic operation of a VHF, including Mayday drills, Spinnaker operations, different crew positions and the skills required in these positions & MOB issues & drills.

In nearly 15 years of presenting these seminars the Storm Trysail Club and more recently it’s Foundation have instructed over 2,000 teenagers in the issues of Safety At Sea and Big Boat sailing. In 1996 such training led to a USSA documented recovery of a Man Overboard in a Junior race, for which the crew were awarded the Hansen Medal.

  • Friday 20 July at Larchmont YC
  • Thursday 26 July at Raritan Yacht Club, NJ
  • Thursday 2 August at Sail Newport, RI
  • Friday 3 August at Stonington CT. This seminar is co-sponsored by N.E.S.S. and Fishers Is. YC
  • Saturday 3 August at Boston Community Boating, MA
  • Wednesday 22 August Annapolis YC

Contact info and registration particulars here: http://www.stormtrysailfoundation.org

Click on Safety at Sea seminars on the left toolbar

Then there are three distance races & a day regatta in Big Boats for Junior’s

Kite on J 40 with Kids

Jr.SAS Seminars introduce Junior Sailors to the nuances of sailing under spinnaker sen here during the 2011 seminar in Newport,RI

Fishers Is. YC Overnight race:
10 August. Block Is. Sound. This race is a new event specifically created to provide a practical application of the skills that the graduates of the Jr. Safety at Sea seminar on the 3rd have learned. Participation in a Jr. SAS seminar is required.

Dorade Trophy and Beach Point Overnight
13, 14, & 15 August: These are 2 separate events for juniors in big boats on Long Is. Sound. The Dorade Trophy (yes THAT Dorade) is a day regatta organized by Stamford YC. Sound. The Beach Point Overnight is organized by Beach Point YC.  Info can be found Junior Sailing Association of Long Is. Sound website calendar by clicking on the link above. Participation in a JR. SAS seminar is required.

Ida Lewis Distance Race:
17 August: This race features a selection of courses around Rhode Island Sound. The Youth Challenge Class was created for boats where there are two adults (minimum) and at least 40% of the crew is comprised of sailors between 14 and 20. High School sailing teams are invited to mount a campaign incorporating members of their school sailing team. Junior sailors falling outside this age group are welcome to participate but are not counted in the boats 40% number, so yes the younger sibling can come too…

Junior Junior aboard Falcon 2000

Falcon 2000, a N/M, Cookson 80 foot IMS maxi, now de-tuned, was a center piece at the 2011 Jr. SAS seminar in Newport

Participation in a Junior SAS seminar is recommended but not required for the Ida Lewis Distance Race.
For more information please contact me, Joe Cooper @:

401 965 6006
Cooper-ndn@cox.net

Sails-Mainsail: The “P” dimension, defination and measurement of.

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One of the things that gives most sailmakers gray hair is confirming the dimensions and details of fit for the sails they make. This selection of articles discusses the things sailmakers need to know and what the definitions are so the consumer can provide the correct information. There is nothing worse than getting down to the boat on that lovely Spring Saturday morning with the new sail only to find out the luff slides just don’t quite fit the track. Read on to find out how to help eliminate such frustrations.

Virtually all boats have their “rig plan” defined by four dimensions. These are called the I, the J, the P, and the E. The I & J define the headsail and the P & E the mainsails. There are some other subcategories but let’s start with these four first and we will start with the mainsail and what the P & E dimensions are NOT.

  • The P is NOT the luff length of the actual sail.
  • And it is NOT the maximum available hoist on the mast.
  • The P dimension is NOT anything but this:

The distance up the mast (from the top of the boom) that the designer has calculated as the maximum luff length that a sailmaker might build a sail to (which, in conjunction with the other dimensions, I, J, E) will give the boat the sail area the designer wants it to have.

In plain English, “P” is in the first place a mathematical construct. In practice on most boats, especially those sold with “racer” in the name, the P is measured “from the UPPER edge of a contrasting color band at the gooseneck UP to the LOWER edge of a contrasting color band at the mast head.” This (is an approximate, but close) quote taken from most sail boat rating handicapping rules, like for instance PHRF, IRC and ORR. Any class or make of boat that desires to limit or control the mainsail area will make some definition similar to this. An example of what this (commonly called the black band for obvious reasons) looks like is this on a Hallberg Rassey 31 footer.

Selden Spars black band

The Black Band is located at the tack and P dimensions are taken from the top of the band to the underside of a similar band near the masthead.

Now the observant amongst you will say, “But the tack of the sail is a couple of inches above the upper edge of the black band!” Go to the top of the class- this is the nub of this article. That detail is called the tack set up and we will get to that detail. Another version of the black band is here.

Black band at tak Cal 36

Another view of the Black Band

And if the mast is black-Carbon or anodized-the band is white.

"Black Band" in White, on a Carbon spar

"Black Band" in White, on a Carbon spar

This “contrasting colored band” is at the gooseneck (so the lower) end of the P dimension.

The top end is of course at the masthead, more or less. There are a few variables related to the positioning of the Upper Band of P. One fairly important one is the length of the backstay crane. This is the structure at the top of the mast to which the backstay is attached. The design and installation of the backstay crane varies over  time and boat design and intended use. In the case of older boats, and in particular boats with wooden masts, there is for practical purposes no backstay crane. So backstay crane’s come in all manner of configurations. The one of most interest to the sail makers is the length, I.E. the extent to which the crane and in particular, the attachment of the backstay to the crane is aft of the aft face of the mast.

The detail I am thinking about when measuring  this boat is making sure the sail does not foul the backstay when set to full hoist.

1. The height (length) of the luff of the mainsail is determined first by knowing the boat’s “P” dimension.

Mainsail crane clearance on 33 foot cuising boat.

The mainsail headboard needs to be able to clear the backstay at full hoist.

On many boats, especially “cruising” boats, like this Alajuela 33 pictured above there is no black band. Quite often the P is determined by consultation with any of the various compendiums of sail boat data sailmakers have at their disposal.The sailmakers must ensure that the mainsail headboard will not foul the backstay when the sail is at full hoist. The sail in the picture is actually at the “correct” height for the boat’s stated “P” dimensions (even though it looks “short”). This was confirmed, (reconciled really with data I had researched on the class of boat)  in advance of the new sail being made by measurement (by me) of the spar. If on the other hand the sail was built to full hoist, right up underneath the crane, it is most likely that the headboard would foul the backstay.

TIP: measure the spar fore and aft at your eyeball level standing on deck. Then eyeball the crane and visualize how long the crane is compared to the spar thickness. So if you reckon the mast is 8 inches long, fore and aft, and the crane is about 50% of the size of the spar, then a good estimate is the crane is 4″.

In this image, below, of an older wooden spar, there is no crane and no black band. Fortunately there is no backstay either. The line passing through the block is the topping lift.

Wooden mast with no backstay crane or backstay

Wooden mast with no backstay crane or backstay

 

2. The size (how long fore and aft) of the headboard and so how far aft the corner of the headboard may extend (including with all the luff hardware attached) aft of the aft face of the spar. The sail pictured below has a special headboard included with this luff hardware. On this boat the entire sail is about 1.5 inches further aft from the mast than it would be if the sail merely had “normal” slug slides.

Luff hardware has an impact on how far aft the headboard will extend

Luff hardware has an impact on how far aft the headboard will extend

3. The position of the backstay attachment to the crane.

On some racing oriented boats, like this Pearson Flyer, pictured below, the “P” is literally at the bottom of the main halyard sheave. Indicated in this instance with a white band on the blue spar. The crane is fairly long, for a 30 foot boat. The backstay is led through a, so called, “backstay flicker”, so that in light air the backstay can be eased to let the roach of the sail pass thru. Refer to more information on this in the Full Batten posts.

Race boats have the band very close to the top of the spar

Race boats have the band very close to the top of the spar

This absence of backstay crane is the main reason why there is often upwards of 18″ difference between the upper P measurement point and the “top of the mast” as is seen, below, on this wooden mast.

Headboard clears the backstay

The shorter the backstay crane is (or if absent completely) the lower down the sail must be

When you lower your old mainsail examine the anodized aluminum headboard for scarring on the after corner and if it is so marked almost for sure the sail has stretched to the point where it is fouling the backstay.
On some boats there is a backstay crane yet the band is still a ways down from the “max hoist” distance, as here.

Black band position on Olsen 34

Close up of black band on Olsen 34 masthead. The black track is a Tides Marine Strong Track

You will observe that in this picture I am measuring the backstay crane so as to make sure what even headboard we select it will clear the backstay. How we figure that angle will be discussed in greater detail further on in this series, but basically we take a dimension from the gooseneck aft to where the backstay passes the end of the boom.

A common default measurement sailmakers use for determining the size of the headboard, stems from racing rules and that is 4% of the boats E dimension. So for a boat with a 12 foot E, then the default headboard would be 5.76, or basically a 6 inch headboard. Unless the boat is racing, and this is a detail of the transaction though the headboard would be shorter, for all the reasons discussed above.

So, to recap, the “P” is “the distance between the top of the lower band and the bottom of the upper band.”
It is not the luff length, the max hoist or anything else.
The “P” dimension and the “E” dimension, discussed in the next article, are the two pieces of information the sail maker will need to have to even begin to think about figuring out all the things he needs to consult with you on a new sail. Subsequent articles will discuss the detailing at the corners, tack set back, tack set up, reef set back and clew set up battens roach and a few other details pertinent to buying a new mainsail.

 

Junior sailing and “Big Boats”

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High school sailors put to sea aboard Selkie during the 2011 Jr. Safety at Sea seminar

The McCurdy & Rhodes 38' Selkie gives some local RI high school sailors their first exposure to sailing on a Big Boat.

For the casual observer watching a yacht race is not a particularly exciting pastime. Typically there are several boats with pretty colored sails moving slowly across, hopefully, sparkling blue seas water with a scenic backdrop in the background, at least around Narragansett Bay.

Zoom in to the activities on the boat though and one will discover a steady buzz of activity both intellectual and physical that rivals the teamwork, planning, skills co-ordination and knowledge base of any team sport or activity. Sailing generally, and successful sail boat racing in a yacht, as distinct from a dinghy requires particularly a pretty good working knowledge of about a dozen disciplines. The best teams and individuals on a successful program have skills in several sciences including weather, oceanography, mathematics, aero-dynamics, and hydrodynamics, mechanical engineering-Further there are skills in project management, leadership, instruction, human relations and safety procedures as well as knowing “how to sail”. What has typically been missing from most “big boat” racing programs for the past 30 years or so are junior sailors, I.E. young sailors of high school age.

RI salors at the Newport Junior Safety at sea seminar August 2011

A crew of Junior sailors sailing the J 111 Fleetwing

Next time you watch a sail boat race or are out sailing in your weekend yacht club race or Wednesday night beer can race, try this exercise. Do a head count of how many young sailors (read High school) you see, on your boat and on the competition. Chances are it might look like this: a couple of youngsters sitting in the back more or less watching with perhaps the owner’s son on the bow….Who is doing the mast, sewer, trimming, mainsheet, navigating? Steering even…..Probably not a 15 year old. For those of us who pay attention to these things there is a dearth of young sailors present on yachts.  Nick Hayes’ book and the stories he tells in it not withstanding this situation is common across the country. It is undergoing a widespread and increasingly rapid change though.

From my perch in Newport R, I have been involved with no less than 5 activities of greater or lesser formality that focus on introducing high school sailors to the art, science, adventure, seamanship and related skills necessary to be competent around a big boat.

The baseline assumption is that the guys of my age, late 50’s that grew up hanging around big boats and sailing on same with their dads and so absorbed “Seamanship” at an early age, are a declining cohort of sailors. This condition: A family activity with learning by osmosis– exists for far fewer kids these days. In my own case I had several mentors in my youth and by age 18 I appeared sufficiently competent to the skipper of a Half Tonner ( a now obsolete rating rule class, about 30 feet LOA) to be invited to sail with him in the infamous Sydney to Hobart race. An adventure I can still recall with great memories including being scared to death for about 20 minutes the first time I saw 60 knots of wind and 25 foot cresting seas in Bass Straight.

Jr. SAS participants aboard the J 40 Nepenthe

Jr SAS participants receiving instruction aboard the J-40 Nepenthe

I took on the role of High School Sailing Coach when our son entered High School in 2010. One thing that puzzled me is that, in the North East at any rate, High School sailing lasts about 10 weeks from Mid march to Memorial Day, and then stops. This struck me as a supreme misuse of resources and energy. In the summer following my first year I made it a point to keep in touch with my team members and their parents, sending emails to them regarding appropriate sailing schools and programs to buff up their skills, interesting regattas and other events to keep sailing in the forefront for longer than 10 weeks. In the summer of 2010 I was also involved in either the creation, organizing and promotion (sometimes all three)  of the following three events.

Storm Trysail Club & Foundation Junior Safety at sea Seminars: 

15 years ago Rich DuMoulin, a prominent & successful Long Is Sound sailor developed the idea of a one day seminar to train juniors in the basic skills necessary for safe handling and crewing on a “Big Boat”. Since then this seminar has become the default program for such training and is required for any youth sailors competing on any of the Big Boat events dedicated to teen sailors on Long Island Sound. Junior Safety at Sea Seminars are now held in Annapolis, Raritan, NJ, and Newport, RI. For 2012 there are two more: Shelter Island Yacht Club and a combined effort between Fishers Is. Yacht Club & New England Sailing and Science–N.E.S.S.– foundation in Stonington, CT.

The meat and potatoes of the day begins with a morning of instruction on just what to look for and, more importantly how to think about being on a bigger boat. Take for instance a simple mechanical task like how to operate a winch. This instruction is basic and is a seemingly simple task for the experienced sailor but if you have not done it before….? (and reflect for a moment if you will, just how did you learn to handle a line on a winch?)  The correct, and safe, method of putting a the line around the winch and then how to remove it; a discussion of the load’s generated on the lines that the winch controls, how to deal with the removable handle and so on. Skill and dexterity in this task is akin to mastering the serve in tennis-The most basic of basic skills, with out which one will never be able to play ball, but a lot more hazardous to one’s fingers if in adequately performed. The whole day is similarly dedicated to a personal and up close inspection of the mechanics of several different types and sizes of boats, including the location of safety gear, firefighting equipment and procedures, thru hull valves, pertinent navigation equipment, the equipment layout on deck, MOB protocols and drills,

MOB drill on Nepenthe

MOB drill on Nepenthe

E.P.I.R.B’s   the correct way to operate a VHF radio, reefing, heaving too, life jacket and safety line use and techniques and related seamanship skills.  The greater portion of the day is execution of the morning’s instruction aboard the boats that are supplied by willing owners in the region and are under the command of volunteer instructors all of whom are highly skilled in the arts and sciences of operating a big boat.

2011 Junior SAS, Newport TI

CCA commodore Sheila McCurdy presents a module to STC Jr. SAS seminar, Newport 2011

During the course of the day there typically is a demonstration of the inflation of a life raft, techniques for entering and righting it in the event it is upside down and proper procedures for living on one, should the need arise. Another session covers the different types, and uses of, various smoke flares. During the 2011 seminar the local Newport, RI, USCG station, Castle Hill, made a 45 footer available and discussed the Coast Guard role in S.A.R. and related activities with the participants.

Safety at sea participants hear about the USCG role in safety at sea

USCG station Castle Hill crew at the 2011 STF Junior Safety at sea seminar in Newport

The final event of the day is a speaker, typically someone with pretty salty boots, discussing their experiences in the field. For the 2011 seminar we were fortunate to have Jamestown resident and experienced multi-hull sailor Philip Steggall.

Jr. Sas participants hear from noted offshore sailor Phil Steggal

Jr. SAS participants hear from noted offshore sailor Phil Steggall

Steggall brought with him a cross section of the personal safety equipment he has accumulated in a 40 year offshore sailing career and discussed the mindset that the best offshore yacht sailor’s use-In short, sailing a big boat is a bit like a chess game in that the crew must always be thinking several moves ahead.

Life raft drill in the 2011 Junior Safety at sea seminar

SAS participants get up close and personal with a life raft.

Ida Lewis Distance Race:

In 2010 the Ida Lewis Yacht Club introduced in the Youth Club Challenge Class into their annual Distance Race. The idea was to offer a class that encouraged the mustering of a high school crew so as to generate a body of young sailors with overnight yacht sailing/racing/seamanship experience. The basic parameters for entry were: PHRF ratings & more than 50% of the crew to be between 14-19 years of age. The balance of the crew to be made up of adults with the basic theme (although not incorporated in any formal race documentation) that the kids do the work and the adults mentor. The boa’s sailed the 150 mile course zigging and zagging around Block Island Sound with the longest leg being perhaps 30 miles, so basically an overnight passage, with lots of navigation and sail handling.

Jr. SAS sailors aboard the J 40 Nepenthe

Junior Safety at sea participants receive instruction aboard the J 40 Nepenthe

In the 2011 edition of the event, one 70 footer, “Gracie”, took 12 juniors for the race and they basically ran the boat with the adults supervising. The boat’s Professional Captain Skip Wood was very impressed with the speed with which the juniors absorbed the multitude of information and skills needed to operate a yacht of this size. In an email following the race Capt. Wood remarked:  “The kids deserve plenty of credit and did as well as any adult crew given the fact they were new to the boat and had an average weight of 140 pounds!”

One young lady who left her call to Gracie too late ended up as the lone junior on a 4 man crew aboard the Class 40 Toothface and was still glowing 3 days later when I interviewed her.

Sail for Hope:

The third regatta was the Sail for Pride regatta, a regular fixture on the NBYA calendar since the first event was held in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. For this 20 mile race around Jamestown Island I gathered, in 2010, 12 of my high school sailing team members and loaded them aboard the 80 footer “Falcon 2000”. With a dozen high school sailors and half a dozen adults in the leadership roles in each part of the boat, again the kids were instructed in the tasks for each position and the adults supervised.

By the end of this race most of the kids had performed in at least a couple of positions and anyone who wanted to, had the opportunity to steer.

This series of 3 Big Boat training opportunities was repeated in Newport in 2011 with the addition of an extra opportunity. Several of the Falcon Crew from 2011 expressed interest in doing more big boat sailing so I emailed a collection of the sailors I knew locally and offered to provide a youth sailor for the crew if they would accept the responsibility of mentoring them. Several on the locals stepped up to the plate and I was able to place 3-4 of the high school kids on local boats.

Separately American Yacht Club allows the addition of one crew up to 14 years old in a boat’s roster in their fall regatta with NO (handicap) penalty for head count or weight. I know of one J-105 already taking a junior in this very competitive class.

Into the future

Behind the scenes the management at the Storm Trysail Club, and its Foundation, have been developing a program to make it easy for other yacht clubs to host Junior Safety at Sea seminars in their local regions. This was promulgated in Chicago during the USSA Yacht Club Symposium May 2011. The upshot of this exposure is that the STC Jr SAS is now supported by United States Sailing Association, the governing body of sail boat racing and related activities in the US. Further, planning is underway to develop a 4 year curriculum for Jr. SAS participants so they can start as freshman with the safety at sea seminar and progress thru a 200, 300 and 400 level course. The goal is to have a Hig School senior sufficiently skilled so that he or she could be competent to be the skipper (Person in Charge) of a 35 footer for an overnight race.

Mentoring of junior sailors need not only happen in a racing environment. In fact it is possible that a superior experience may come from more low key activities. Deliveries  are a great way for the novice to get to do a bit of everything, there are less crew and there is often more time for instruction and mentoring than in the heat of a race which of course we all want to win so instruction is secondary.

One of the repeat issues sailors discuss amongst themselves around the bar after a race is the difficulty of finding reliable competent crew with which to man ones club racer. If such sailors were to cast their eyes about and offer to take some of the juniors out, the son of a crew member, kids from the local High School sailing team, local community sailing program, then they would have a hand in solving the problem they are discussing. They are likely to give the kids a huge experience that, in my case had a life changing impact on them. The kids might even have the skills to get on a boat for the Bermuda Race and be scared to death for 20 minutes as the boat enters the Gulfstream in 60 knots of wind.

It's never too soon

It's never too soon

 

Short–handed sailing: The Solent Stay

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In an earlier post I proposed a second stay, called a Solent Stay as a way to be able to deploy the correct sail for the conditions, without struggling with lowering the regular roller furling headsail. In this post I elaborate on the details of the stay and its component parts. It is worthwhile noting that some of the French boats, Beneteau and Jeanneau in particular offer much of the required hardware for a Solent set up on the spar and deck with the basic spar package.

The components of a Solent stay are:

  • The stay
  • Attachment of stay to the mast
  • Attachment of the stay to the deck
  • A mechanism for tensioning the stay
  • A halyard sheave
  • Halyard exit in the mast, leading to a winch
  • A halyard
  • Possibly a turning block and related pad eye
  • Possibly another rope clutch. This depends on how your boat has the rest of the lines laid out.
  • Sheeting positions for the sails.

I will look at each item in detail below.

The Stay
Until recently standing rigging on boats was either wire or rod. The development of synthetic standing rigging (coming largely from the Open solo classes) has become normalized to the point where I have consulted on half a dozen installations of synthetic stays for boats.
The preferred material for a Solent stay is Spectra fiber, ideally the latest version, (and there are several and it is always being upgraded). The latest is a product called Dynex Dux which is a heat set Dyneema, (European name for Spectra) for this Solent stay application Dynex Dux is excellent because of its mechanical properties, being:
•    High strength
•    Light weight
•    High resistance to UV
•    High resistance to Chafe
•    Ability to coil up and so stow in a small space
•    Ease of splicing
•    Relatively low cost &high value for a complete stay

It is a bit stiff and one rigger I know refers to it as Fiber Wire, but that is about the only down side I have seen.

Also the high resistance to chafe means, to me, that one can use conventional bronze hanks rather than the more expensive soft hanks. I do not think there is a need for “soft hanks” in this arrangement for most sailors. The value: Cost versus utility, is low in my opinion.

Bronze hanks over a Dynux Dux composite stay on a Baltic 38

Spectra stay with Bronze hanks

Spectra cordage stays permits use of regular bronze hanks

 

Attachment of stay to the mast and halyard options.
Generally speaking the upper end of the Solent stay will attach to the spar within 12 inches of the bottom of the Genoa halyard sheave box. Much of this detail depends on the particulars of the mast in question. Issues to contemplate are:
Age of the mast: This is not so much for mechanical issues but more due to obsolete hardware and design details on the spar.
The simplest and easiest way to attach a stay to a spar is with a Gibb T fitting.
Depending on the spar details you may need to install a sheave box under the stay attachment
OR
I have done a couple of boats where the halyard runs above the stay connection to the spar, via a dead dye and into the sheave box for the Genoa, using the spare Genoa halyard sheave. This works when there are two sheaves in the box. Charleston Spars has some boxes where the second sheave is below the Genoa sheave and this works too.
If your spar does not have this kind of arrangement, you will have to cut into the spar and install a sheave box.
Because the stay attaches to the top of the spar, running backstays are not required. This detail highlights a particular advantage of this stay layout over a traditional “cutter” stay.

The above image, taken from the deck, shows the head of the solent Jib and stay. Just under where the stay attaches to the spar,can be seen a Harken halyard deflector, leading the halyard around the stay and into a second Genoa sheave box.

Attachment of the stay to the deck and tensioning of the stay.

Historically second stays inside the fore-triangle have been tensioned with either a Highfield lever or more recently some kind of screw adjustment device. While this is an OK solution, this hardware is heavy and expensive, compared to a tackle as a way to tension the Solent (or any other inside stay for that matter).

A superior technique for tensioning a Solent stay is to install a multi part, I usually use 4:1, tackle with the tail leading aft where it can be readily led to a winch. This method has several advantages over a mechanical adjuster.

Detail of the 4:1 adjustment tackle n a Baltic 38

Solent stay adjustment tackle

The above image shows the detail on the Baltic 38 used for tensioning the Solent.

Metal thimble used as part of the purchase in J-105 solent installation

Solent stay details on J-105

This image shows part of the same idea on a J-105 that I sail on in many double-handed races.

Solent stay tensioning set up on a competitor in the 2011 OSTAR

Solent stay tensioning system

The above picture is a version of tensioning. This taken from a 40 foot competitor in the O.S.T.A.R 2011

Solent stay tension tackle

Solent stay tensioning arrangement on a 40 foot Pogo Class 40

This image is of a Solent stay tensioning arrangement on a single handed Class 40.
The sail can be hanked onto the stay while the stay is restrained aft against the mast, thus the Solent sail can be close to all rigged and ready to go, before it is needed. The tackle helps pull the sail forward, so if there are two people on watch, the aft crew member can tail the fall of the tackle and the crew on the bow can help it stay clear of obstacles like mooring cleats, hatches, vents etc on the deck. The biggest advantage to my mind though is that the stay can be re-tensioned after a few hours of sailing. Typically when sailing in hard air, the inside stays (well all stays do actually) tends to stretch out a bit and so the sail lays off to leeward, affecting the boats performance. With the tackle led to a winch, the stay can be re-tensioned any time. Further, say the Solent is lowered yet still deployed forward, in anticipation of re- use shortly, but one finds a great need to tack in a hurry, (remember the stay sets right up against the back of the furler so there is no room to tack the Genoa thru that space, unless you roll up the Genoa), it is a simple and fast drill to open the clutch and pull the solent aft Versus trying to cast off a Screw thread turn buckle type adjuster or carry a sail and Highfield lever back aft, out of  the way.
I prefer to have the load if the deck part of the tension mechanism spread across the deck as seen here:

Tackle for tensioning Solent stay

Tensioning tackle for Solent Stay on Baltic 38

This installation uses a double pad eye on center line, the aft part of which is used for the tack on the sail and a single, to port. The dead end is on the forward part of the double pad eye. The dead end has a snap shackle so as to minimize the amount of line one needs to pull around.

Depending on the construction detail of your boat, it may or may not be necessary to reinforce the deck in the way of the pad eyes. Again each boat will be unique in this detail.

Halyard, sheets and related & operating rigging issues
One of course needs a halyard on which to hoist this sail. This typically means either:
If you have had to cut a sheave box, then you will almost certainly have to cut an exit slit in the mast also.  Make sure you look around the spar before you start making holes. You do not what to place the holes to close to each other.
OR
If you have a second Genoa halyard sheave there is a good chance you will have a matching slot for the halyard, it may even be moused.
Depending on how the boat’s winches are laid out, you will need to install a turning block at the base of the mast and possibly another clutch.
Other thoughts on this arrangement
Depending on what you are planning for the boat, it is perfectly acceptable for me to have the halyard winch for this sail on the mast. The idea that all lines need to be in the cockpit does not make sense to me in reality. For instance it is preferable I think to have the halyard for the Spinnaker to be at the mast. That way as you pull the sock down over the sail, you are able to keep control of it as you lower the halyard. It is worth noting that many of the latest crop of single handed offshore race boats has reverted to having some of the halyards, like the kite and the halyard for the roller reaching sails operable at the mast. Also having halyards at the mast minimizes the need for more hardware in the deck to lead the halyards aft.

You should also be aware of how a sails sheeting position is determined and make sure you have the requisite hardware n place and that the sails are built in accordance with where the hardware is. It is possible for a competent sailmaker to make perfectly viable remarks about sheeting positions with a view to better performance of the sail in questions, so be open to adding proper hardware to allow the sail to set properly.

I will be writing on the entire topic of sail sheeting geometry shortly

Next: what types of sails you can deploy on your new stay.

And here is a link to the story on Solent Stays I wrote for SAIL magazine in the Jan 2013 edition

Short-Handed sailing: Techniques for using different headsails, easily

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Short-handed sailing: techniques for using different headsails, easily.

One of the great conundrums for short-handed sailors is what to do when the wind speed and your apparent wind angle are not right for the roller furling headsail you have on the furler.  The average boat’s general-use 130% size roller furling reefing headsail typically has a wind range, where it is properly effective, of about 10 knots true to about 18 knots true sailing close hauled. Some roller headsails are capable of being used partially rolled around the furler, but this has a limited application, especially if one is planning on being in the ocean for a while.

So the question for anyone who wants to get the most out of their boat in a wide range of conditions is, just like it has always been, a range of headsails for different wind speeds and directions.

With the expanding interest in Short-Handed racing, generally races where there are only two crew members aboard, the ability to have the “right “sail for the conditions becomes a bit more important. This kind of racing is growing particularly because it is how most boats on the water are set up today. It is a short trip from a cruising boat to a boat that can race short-handed since they share much of the same equipment. One of the most high value (cash coast to install versus the utility it provides) additions any cruising boat can make is the Solent Stay.

This a second head stay that runs roughly parallel with the forestay, attaches at the masthead sufficiently below the jib stay attachment point to avoid anything fouling the Genoa halyard swivel and it attached at the foredeck, as close as possible to the back of the roller furler drum. On a Solent stay one can deploy sails for use in lighter air and a smaller jib in conditions when the RF headsail is too big. It should be emphasized that the Solent IS NOT an inner forestay, such as is seen on cutter rigged boat. The Solent is its own stay running to the top of the spar.

Solent stay with sail on Baltic 38

I will address the particulars of the Solent stay in the following post.