The Sails, Rigging and Canvas adorning SV Unladen Swallow
SV Unladen Swallow is rigged as a Solent. That doesn't mean much so a quick tutorial:
4 primary rigs for smaller sailing yachts
Sloop - most common - 2 primary working sails - mainsail and a headsail (typically a Genoa) but on smaller boats, the headsail may be "hankon" and therefore interchangeable with other sized headsails.
Cutter - More common in larger yachts. Now we are working with 3 primary working sails. The Cutter’s forward stays are parallel to each other so the smaller sail is just a smaller size (same shape) as the larger sail. The smaller sail is often referred to as a Stay Sail and sometimes that stay can be fitted with a storm sail. Both of the head sails can be and are often flown at the same time to increase sail area.
Solent - Uncommon - The Solent rig is different in that the inner sail is a different shape then the front sail. The inner sail is referred to as a Jib and it’s purpose is to sail with power very close to the wind especially if you are going to be tacking back and forth to move up wind. The big Genny is the wrong shape and not rigged to allow for much tacking.
Ketch - Common in larger yachts, esp 45' and up. This is the 2 masted sailboat with the aft mast being the smaller of the 2. The Ketch can be rigged with a single or cutter style headsails.
Genoa
I think I need to spend a few words describing each of these sails. First the Genoa is a head sail that is bigger than the front triangle of the boat. If you take the triangle formed by the mast, deck forward of the mast and the wire that holds the mast up connected from the bow, that’s called the front triangle. A sail that is larger than that area and is flown using that wire as a anchor point is called a Genoa. They are generally described in terms of percentage of the triangle. Our boat is rigged with a 140 Genoa.
Our “Genny” is our power sail under most conditions. It provides the power to drive us through the water. It works in balance with the mainsail. It is made of pretty heavy material and has a protective cover sewn to the out 18 inches or so, so that when it’s rolled up when not in use, that cover takes the brunt of the UV Rays. That cover gets replaced about every 5 years.
Jib
A jib is a sail that is the size of or smaller than the front triangle. There are 3 predominant types of Sloop (Mainsail & Headsail) rigs: Sloop, Cutter and Solent. Both a Cutter and a Solent have 2 head sails, but they are different shapes.
Along with the 3 primary working sails (always rigged), we also carry 2 light wind sails - a Code Zero and an Asymmetric Spinnaker.
Code Zero
A code zero is something of a cross between a huge Genny and a Spinnaker. It’s used in lighter winds, but is still anchored to the bow sprit of the boat. In light winds, (less then 12 Knots) it can be flown to catch a large amount of wind to keep the boat speed up when working with wind that is on the beam or further forward. It is made of very lightweight material and is rigged on a continuous roller furler (another piece of gear we are not fond of) It generally doesn’t have a UV Sacrificial layer on it because the sail is much lighter weight material.
Asymmetric Spinnaker
The Asymmetric spinnaker is our downwind sail ( behind the beam). An asymmetric spinnaker is flown with one of the lower corners "Tacked" to a pole or the bow. Where a Symmetric spinnaker is flown with both lower corners on their own sheets. The Asymmetric is useful in more wind angles but looses effectiveness if going straight downwind, where the symmetric spinnaker is the most useful. These types of sails are generally kept in a sock that once ready to expose to the wind, the sock is pulled up allowing the sail to fill with wind.
Both lightwind sails are very large and as such when they are being used, the crew must take care to watch wind speed and direction as a gust of wind that is unplanned can easily overpower the sail and cause the boat to tip over - this is called a broach - (this is foreshadowing)
Precision Sails – British Columbia, Canada
Stack Pack
A stack pack is a real convenient way to collect and manage the mainsail when it’s lowered. There are guidelines (Lazy Jacks) that help guide the sail into a “folded” pile on the boom. Racers will then just tie and cover the sail because they don’t want the wind interference created by a permanent bag attached to the length of the boom.
After fighting with that arrangement for several months, I wanted something easier to manage.
Besides the sails, the boat has canvas work around the cockpit to provide shelter in inclement conditions and covers for the cabin area behind and ahead of the mast.
Sails 2021
Genoa
We knew the Genoa needed a new UV Cover once we got out and sailed a bit. What we didn’t know was how much damage there was to the sail canvas underneath. We got several quotes after the local sail loft told us it was not worth repairing and went with Precision Sails – they are heavily marketing to the full time sailing community via You-Tube sailing channels as they have provided sails to most of the top 10 channels.
Jib
Because the Jib doesn’t get as much use on a Solent, ours is still serviceable, it just needed a new UV cover to help maintain that serviceability.
Code Zero
The previous owner used his so much it had disintegrated by the time he sold the boat. He did provide us with all the rigging related to it though. As of this writing – Oct 2022 we’ve used it now several times in lighter winds and it’s larger size and lighter weight really enabled us to keep the speed up when the Genny just couldn’t collect enough wind energy.
Precision Sails – British Columbia, Canada
Stack Pack
Our boat's previous owner was a racer. They always chase the last ounce of energy available and a stackpack interfers withe the wind across the foot (bottom) of the headsail. So they are content to just tie and cover the sail to the boom. After fighting with that arrangement for several months, I wanted something easier to manage.
Our stackpack was made by Evolution Sails in Deltaville. They came to the boat measured it out and then built and installed it for us. It’s been much easier dealing with the sail as a result. My only issue is that the upper batten on the main sail has a habit of hanging up on the Lazy Jack if the mainsail is pushed one side or the other by the wind when raising. Something we will have to address with the design of the new mainsail at some point in our future.
Evolution Sails – Deltaville, VA
The attached picture shows the new stackpack, and the new UV cover on the Jib.
We had not received the new Genny at this point.
Sails - 2022
We have not mentioned the Asymmetric Spinnaker that came with the boat up to now other than a foreshadow hint.
The previous owner showed us how to rig it and the conditions he used to fly it in.
Well the first couple of tries ended up a bit over our heads, but we where able to recover without breaking anything. The tack is attached with a quick release snap shackle. Because of the line lead through the release trigger, that line can be extended with a non-stretch length of line back to the cockpit. If things get out of hand, the line can be pulled and the shackle will open, releasing the tack of the sail "blowing the sail" causing the sail to depower and allow the boat's natural ballast to right it.
Well at 2 AM in the morning on our way north 18 miles due East of St Augustine, FL I found myself having to use this quick release because we got hit with a gust and a wave at the same time and we went way over. This lead to a whole chain of events that ultimately cost us about $8K to undo. The largest expense was the sail itself that was wrapped around the mast and luffing badly in the wind. By the time we got everything under control - several hours later in St Augustine, the sail had ripped and had lots of stress "marks" on it. At a minimum, it was going to need a sail loft to patch it, and worst case it was going to need to be replaced. Worst case it was.
Once we made it to our destination in Jun, we sought out Potomac Sailmakers – Alexandria, VA to assess and ultimately order our new sail (new sail is pictured to the left). Along the way, we discovered that the sail we had been using was TOO big for the boat - the previous owner got it for nothing...
Once we got to Massachusetts and had to derig the working sails to unstep the mast, we took the opportunity to take them to a local sail loft for some TLC. Harding Sails – Marion, MA
Rigging
R&W Ropes – New Bedford, MA
The existing standing rigging (Stainless Steel Cables) was about 12 years old. That is approaching the limit of what insurance companies will insure so we opted to replace it.
We also wanted to make a few changes to make it easier to manage the boat … most notably the track for the spinnaker pole wasn’t long enough to store the pole vertically or move it side to side of the forestays without unhooking it.
The other change was to not reinstall the HF antenna. We have Iridium-go for offshore weather and we decided to retire the HF radio.
We also knew we needed running rigging ("Ropes" or lines used to manage sails) work to replace compromised lines. As part of that effort we also made some changes again to make the boat safer, less cluttered and easier to handle.
Changes included:
Half halyards for the 2 head sails. Basically once these sails r rigged and set, the line used to raise them just gets coiled and left hanging on the base of the mast for months until the next occasion to lower that sail. The new system is a 2 piece system that leaves a small pigtail on the mast with the rest of the line safely stored away.
New preventer system. The old system left a line run across the cockpit and didn’t provide a steep enough angle to keep the boom in place on a windy accidental jib. The new system is anchored to the back end of the boom and led through the bow cleat. We r still working our way through how we want to use it.
We had new headsail sheets made that are longer to allow them to run around the outside of the cockpit instead of through it. So far that is working well.
The lazy jack rigging is still a bit of a work in progress.. Still looking for the right geometry to allow the mainsail to raise cleanly while not pointed perfectly into the wind.
Notes in hind sight:
Half Halyards - We secured these using the Jammer Cleats. While this worked great to hold them in place, over time the line sleeves slipped and created a jam that prevented easily release. When we needed to secure the 2 head sails for Hurricane Beryl, this resulted in some very Tense moments while the head sail was fully unfurled trying to release the halyards through the jammers.
New Preventer System - We like to use a preventor on any point of sail. We've had enough issues with autopilots that having the preventer rigged all the time has prevented accidental jibs several times. While the concept for the new system was well conceived, it really only works when the boom is well outboard to get enough of an angle to run the line all the way to the bow cleat and have a sufficient angle to do any good. The geometry just isn't there. We still ended up using our previous system running down to a turning block amid ships when close reaching.
Running the head sail sheets around the cockpit worked well, but there was sufficient friction in the system to cause a bit of extra work to pull lines through
Restepping (Reinstalling) the Mast