Easiest to sail ~30ft boat

Your friend sounds like he's going to have a difficult time with whatever he selects. I can only think of one rig that can get by, with the equipment he's suggested is all that is necessary and this rig isn't available on any production 30' sailor that I'm aware of. Naturally, there's more than one line on this rig, so he's crap out of luck.

Control lines aren't "racer nonsense" and the experienced cruiser finds they use them frequently. Certainly not as much as an around the buoys boat, but enough to get the most potential out of the wind available and the effort they want to spend sailing.

It sounds like your friend wants to be accepted by traditionalist sailors, but is looking for an unconventional approuch, in terms of design and rig. Anything unconventional will be resisted by the folks he'd like to be accepted by.

Ask him how he'll hoist sails with only one line? Reefing at sea is a real issue and does require a practiced and controllable reefing system, which will have multiple lines to work. He sounds way inexperienced in the practicalities of deep water sailing.

 

Not sure I understand what you mean PAR. What is unconventional about the three rigs that I mentioned in my OP and why would those rigs be resisted/derided by the club members?

 

Interesting about the Beneteau rig but other builders have different stories. Maltese Falcon's performance is subject to dispute as far as I know. Some of the world's most popular boats are unstayed cat rigs (Lasers, Optis, etc) and many of the highly popular boats have 'unconventional' rigs (ie Hobies) so it's probably a just a case where hundreds of thousands of us know unstayed cat rigs intimately and are very used to them, but feel that we prefer sloops when it comes to yachts. I own a bunch of unconventional rigs but find that the fractional sloop works better given the required characteristics of a normal cruiser/racer - it's not conservatism but experience and awareness of the lift/drag ratios and other performance characteristics of sloops v cat rigs.

Amaryllis was NOT banned - it's a myth, and it's also weird that people would think a (non existent) ban in New York would affect the whole world. Her story is a classic example of people falsely claiming that sailors were conservative - the Herreshoff cats were welcomed but they had fatal flaws given the technology of the day. There are many other myths about "conservatives" banning radical types (catboats, etc) that modern document databases are allowing us to explode.

The funny thing is how firmly some supposedly innovative people cling to some stories about conservatives discriminating against innovative boats. If people were actually open minded, they wouldn't cling so stubbornly to these old myths such as the claim that Amaryllis was banned.

Yes, it's a sidetrack but surely when someone brings up a point one can reply to it?

 

Just tell your friend there is no rig with just one line outside of dinghy territory. If he wants easy operation he can look at the junk rig. Has a ton of lines but after initial set up it's the closest it comes to "one line operation". Performance is lower of course, even for the most advanced junk, but junk rig boats should be cheap so he can afford a good motor and the fuel needed.
For bragging rights and traditionalist acceptance he could buy a Nigel Irens Roxane Roxane - Nigel Irens Design http://www.nigelirens.com/boats/sail-boats/roxane/ but I don't know if there is even one in the US.

 

Nico noted his friend is looking for bragging rights for self taught sailing. If he's after a felluca type boat (less rigging & lines) he might have a tough time achieving that. I would be happy with one though provided it achieved my mission. Simplicity an reliability go hand in hand.