The Best Small-Boat Rig
In search of the best small-boat sail setups Article by SCA Editors — Illustrations by Rick Myers
our needs, where we sail, and possibly other considerations. The kind of sailing you do obviously matters as well. Are
M
you a casual cruiser who values simplicity and ease-of-handling above all else, or a racer who looks to maximize performance with every tack? Do you carry an outboard motor or rely on sail and oars only? Do you typically sail with crew or mostly singlehanded? Where we sail is a factor as well. Exploring the windy San
Francisco Bay might have you thinking about sails more easily reefed, where cruising on the light summer winds of South Puget Sound will convince you that any rig ought to start with plenty of sail area. Negotiating shallow water and 30-knot gusts during a Texas 200 will give you new appreciation for the yawl, as you watch boats with these rigs peacefully weathercocked on a sheeted mizzen while you struggle to heave-to. Tere are other factors too, like aesthetics or a sailor’s skill
level. Tere some especially handsome traditional rigs with topsails, and running backstays, or little boats with schooner rigs, for example, but with each mast, sail, or new string to pull comes another learning curve. Same goes for racing rigs with lots of fine adjustments and tweakability—while some sailors demand these options, others wouldn’t know what to do with them. Although we’ve established that “best rig” is subjective, is
it possible there are a particular few small-boat rig types that seem to do better generally? Or rigs that consistently get higher marks from their owners? With this is mind we sent out an e-mail survey to thousands
of you asking about your small-boat rig, what you’d consider its strengths and weaknesses, and what you’d choose if you could do it over. What follows are the results of this survey along with any conclusions we were able to draw. We should also point out: A sailing rig is only one part of the performance equation—the same rig on a different hull shape or underbody is obviously going to perform differently. —Eds
What Are You Sailing? As eclectic as the group of you are, the ubiquitous sloop rig remains the most common—with 36% of you sailing one type of sloop or another. A catboat or other single-sailed rig comes in second at 23%, and the Cat Ketch just edged out the Yawl at 9% and 8% respectively. In case you’re worried we small-boat
20
ost of us know sailing rigs are, much like boats them- selves, a series of tradeoffs. What any of us considers the “best” rig is really just the best for us, based on
sailors have “gone mainstream,” you’ll be happy to know that several of you claim to fly a Square Rig. Cat Yawls, Ketches, and Schooners all came in under 3%,
but we also included an “other” category where respondents could fill in the blank. “Cutter Rig” was maybe the most common rig cited of the ones we’d not included in our first question’s partial list.
Rig Details In terms of the types of sails specifically, the high-aspect Bermudan sail was the most popular at 41%, but another sail, the Balance Lug, seemed better represented than expected, with 24% of you sporting this sail that employs a yard and boom, both of which extend past the mast on the same side. Almost 18% of respondents have gaff-rigged boats, 13%
fly sprit rigs, and nearly 7% set Standing Lugs (similar to bal- ance lug except that boom or foot doesn’t extend past mast). Lateens/Crabclaws and Junk Rigs also made an appearance at 2% each.
Sail Details With our third question we asked about other features of your rig or sails. 76% of you have reef points—we’re not sure what the rest of you do when the wind comes to blow, maybe most of you are Sea Pearl sailors rolling up sail on your masts. A surprising 42% of those who responded have freestand-
ing rigs (i.e. no shrouds or stays). 21% of you have roller-furl- ers and 21% have fully battened sails. 14% have a spinnaker or gennaker in their arsenal. 11% sail without a boom, and a few respondents mentioned having a brailing line (allows a boomless sail to be quickly doused and gathered against the mast.) Surprisingly few of you (4%) are using modern so-called
“fathead” or square-top sails, which have more upper sail area or roach.
Materials We were shocked to learn that fully half of you have wooden spars—more even than those who have aluminum (48%). Te rest of you have ultralight carbon fiber spars. In the “other” category, the most common spar material
mentioned was “fiberglass.” Tere were also a few readers with spars made of bamboo. One respondent said his spars were made from that rarest of elements, “unicorn dust.” As for the sails themselves, the vast majority are flying
SMALL CRAFT ADVISOR
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84
