Cutter Rigs

[Konrad]

Has anyone here actually done one?

[Ken_Potts]

Yes, But I can't remember who it was.

Well that was entirely unhelpful, wasn't it?

[capt jake]

I tried it, it didn't work too well.  You had to be on a very precise heading and the wind could not change at all in order for it to work.  I did, however, keep the smaller jib up front, on roller furling gear.  It's original intent was that of a storm jib anyway.  I have both my lapper and smaller storm jib on roller furling.  Simply use whichever one suits the conditions.  The lapper is so large, that I needed a way to reduce sail area and this one works well.

[Fintan Murphy]

yes, I did a cutter rig as well, but didn't use it as, although it looked good, it was a nightmare to tack, as the jib couldn't easily get around the staysail. 

To be honest, not worth the trouble, unless you can increase the gap between the two sails, so the jib will tack easily.

On be on the Vacationer as you could be easy, but on the Weekender I would have to make a longer bowsprit and run the risk of creating lee helm.

[PAR]

A few have attempted this. Craig's boat (which is for sale) used a longer sprit, longer mast and also carried a top mast (before it broke) and flew a topsail. The topsail was a work horse in light air, but the double headsail rig on a small boat is just a contrivance for the most part. As I mentioned previously, the roller furled overlapping jib on the end of the sprit, is the sail you'll use in light to moderate wind strengths, with the staysail used (after rolling up the jib) as winds get stiffer. This is a very handy arrangement, offering sail area options with the yank of a line. Many big boat cruisers use this setup on sloops. On cutters there is enough room to pass a sail to the new windward side (the mast is much further aft then a sloop) and most often you'll see each rigged for roller furling.