Schooner Sail Handeling

[Jim Young]

I have sailed sloops (from racing lasers and cats to my present 30' cruser)now for several years and am filimilar with sail trim and sailing in general but have fallen in love with a 35' schooner and am about to buy her. My problem is, I've never sailed one except in my dreams. Can anyone recommend any rigging and handling information that might be availible?

Thanks.

[D'ARTOIS]

Jim, let's start to say that the schooner is a ver efficient rig that is easy to handle for a single person. I have sailed a 65'and a 100' only for the latter one, I needed a crewmember to help met to set up the sails. In open sea, I could have done it alone.
Normally, a schooner flies a host of sails: the big schooner sail, the fisherman, the main on the cruisemast and the two or three fore-triangles. If she got her full wardrobe on, you fly 6 or 7 sails.
That means that you can play a lot and that you may tune your sails up to the conditions of the weather you are in.
Al in all, I think very positive about the schooner rig and I like it a lot. Efficient, easy to handle and gives good speed, better than a ketch-rig.
This is of course my personal opinion.

[Jim Young]

D'ARTOIS
Thanks for the reply, most of my Sloop friends are telling me that a schooner is more work than necessary but I enjoy the setting and triming of sails when I go sailing and have always longed to own one. I realy need to study up on the rigging (both standing and running) however. Still looking for any suggestions on literature that deals specfically with schooner rigs.

[PAR]

There are several variations of schooner rig, each having it's own peculiarities.

All sailboats can be setup to be easily handled with a small crew or solo. Rigging arrangement will come naturally to you as you learn to run the boat. Don't be tempted to drag all the lines back to the cockpit, it's a rat's nest enough with the sheets.

The schooner is only at a disadvantage when close hauled, once freed up, they come alive and usually kick sloop, ketch and yawl butt readily. It certainly has the heart's of America.

Which rig is on this boat?

[FAST FRED]

As with most boats a Schooner has the sails set from Aft foward , and struck from foward to aft.

Handy when off the wind but otherwise a load of rigging & work in the small sizes.

They are EYE CANDY , so if thats your desire , you won't be sad when a handy cutter rig of the same size eats you alive to weather.

Get a big reliable diesel for windward work.

FAST FRED

[Jim Young]

Par,
To answer your question.... I'm not sure, perhaps you can tell me. Starting from the aft mast; She flies a sail similar to the mainsail on my sloop (not gaff rigged) the forward sails are similar to a cutter rig with the staysail on a self-tending boom. The center two sails are the ones that I’m not sure of; (I have only seen her fully rigged in a picture, we haven’t had the opportunity to do a full-sail sea trial yet) the lower seems to fly with the triangle in a “reversed” looking position and the upper sail has the head and tack on the forward mast and the clew at the top of the aft mast?

[Seafarer24]

That is what is referred to as a "Stay-sail Schooner". This is a handier configuration for going upwind, but the windage of the added mast and associated rigging is still a problem. Perhaps you would like the looks and performance of the Freedom or Offshore "cat ketches" which seem to have identicaly sized masts fore and aft (which in my mind makes them schooners).

[PAR]

There are a lot of folks that think the schooner is under a large handicap compared to other rigs, it's just not the case and usually will chew up the local boats, once the sheets area eased. It's no more difficult to handle then a ketch or yawl and has no additional rigging that wouldn't be carried on similarly sized, double stick craft.

The staysail schooner was an attempt to keep the schooner rig in favor on the big ocean race courses, where it once dominated. Ultimately it was forced to give way to the lofty sloop and cutter rigs so common today. There have been some successes recently with this rig winning races against the more typical arrangements.

If you have your heart set on it, take her for a sail and see what you think. The staysail version is very simple to manage, no more difficult than any divided Bermudian rig. This rig can easily be single-handed.

[futabachan]

I sail a Bolger "His and Her" Schooner, with the controls for all three sails led back to me in the aft cockpit. The boat is simpler to sail than many racing sloops I've sailed. I don't have enough arms to make a pretty tactical rounding of a leeward mark, for example -- major course changes involve adjusting one sail at a time -- but you get much finer control over your helm balance than you do on a sloop or catboat, and you can set the boat up to sail herself.

There are a couple of places where sloop instincts can serve you poorly on a schooner. For instance, if the boat starts to heel over as you go to windward, *don't* dump the main as you would on a sloop, dump the foresail instead! In general, sailing a schooner requires you to understand helm balance and the factors that influence it, but if you've been racing a Laser, you presumably already understand that.

My next project: Bolger design #666, the Insolent 60, a 60' folding schooner....