What Sailplan would you choose?

Question: What sail rig style would you prefer for single handed offshore voyages of two to three day duration, with 2-3 hour helmsman changeover?
Please state your sailing grounds of choice. Monohulls if you prefer, but I would also want to hear from the multihull crowd. A LOA of 9 and 13 meters is what I am most interested to hear about, but I'll leave that up to you.

Some suggestions, but this is for single handed/ or short handed crewing.
1. A balanced helm; and under what prevailing wind and/or wave conditons short of the Perfect Storm. Be it beating upwind, on a downwind run, variable winds, confused seas, etc.
2. Ease of de-powering/ reefing/ and ultimately reducing to bare poles.
3. Resistance to catastrophic failure of the system of rigging; and complete or near complete loss of sail management.
4. Top race sail performance in the hands a skilled helmsman, if the sailplan falls within acceptable seakeeping standards for single handing, ex: an overpowered but common race sail area.
5. Criteria of your choice not mentioned here.

I would like to get your thoughts regarding seakindliness and the single handed or short handed sailor.

 

Sailplans.

 

I cruise BC , Mec xico and the South Pacific singlehanded in my 31 ft twin keel steel sloop. I prefer the sloop rig with slab reefing for the main and roller furling for the genoa. I can put a reef in the main in less than a minute.
Directional stability is a function of hull balance , at least as much as sail plan. Excessively beamy sterns combined with super lean bows destroy directional stability. A boat should take any angle of heel without changing it's for and aft trim , or without raising it's stern and dropping its bow. If it's fore and aft trim changes drastically when heeled, it will have no directional stability and will be a battle to get her to self steer, or in some cases to steer her manually.
Brent

 

Hello Brent,
Singlehanded the South Pacific! Do you have any threads I can search (so as to not get off topic) where you describe what that was like for you? The Coconut Milk Run is not something I would do myself alone, although I'ld be game for cruising the islands surrounding Fiji. The first leg of that journey would be by Continental or AirMicronesia (think they're one in the same). But I have a better shot at Caribbean in my not too distant future.

I'm in the process of building a 9 meter trailerable fast coastal cruising cat. 4.2 m beam on centers w/ a narrow 3.66 m (for canals?) option. It will be my first boat build from a set of plans. The N/A specifies a fractional rig. I plan to sail her mostly at local lakes, but the Apostle Islands in Lake Superior would be a good island navigation (inside a weekend) training ground for me. In the future some parts of the Intracoastal Waterway beckons, so I'm contemplating the narrow option if its deemed necessary there. So, I'm just interested to know what people consider a favorable rig for their neck of the wood and curious as to why.

I've heard favourable comments in the context of safety regarding boomless mainsail rigs and heard mention that on catamarans they benefit greatly from semicircular slide track mainsheet traveler instead of the common straight track. But you still have to dodge the mainsheet block. Shout "HEADACHE" and duck!

Can someone tell me more about'em?

Thanks for sharing.



Bob

 

Hang on Bob, single handed of multiple crew, either way, no boom... That is partially why I prefer a multihull (cat) and would recommend the rig developed by John Hitch (hitchhiker rig) with 2 genoas one leading to each bow, and a small slab sail (self-tacking jib) on the midships line.... Easy to work, no hassles to furl (dont reef - pull the whole sail in - windward side first)... If you are sail hungry, a second pair on stays from the outer hull sides just forward of the mast (so they will roll up effectively) and deploy only the leeward one...

Simplicity & easy to reef/adjust is the key for sailing light crewed...

 

I'll have to do a search on this rig. Thank you, Masalai.

Bob

 

These images are on one of the threads, but I cannot find it now... This should give you an idea...

 

Cutter