schooner episode

[wwbaginski]

This summer I took BRS17 to Finland again to join the archipelago small open boats cruise called Raid Finland. There were all kinds of weather including a front from the west passing over us with a short squall which catched us underway. It took about 1/2 hour since we noticed small dark line on the horizont to be hit by strong blow and rain from big dark low cloud with a rugged edge.

That /2 hour I decided to use full sails heading to the coming front to get away as far as possible from a lee rocky shore of the big island we were passing along. Wearing rain clothes , fixing gear etc.

Few minutes before the big blow we fixed mizzen to keep the bow facing the wind, pulled down the main to reef it. Next... it was too late to try to reef the mizzen. We started to continue sailing having a schooner rig. It was really nice and efficient sailing, rewarding enough to ignore heavy rain. We have had good drive to be really safe from the lee shore. After another 1/2 hour the squall was over.

No photos of that episode, but I have found old photo of Doppio being rigged for the first time , still on the trailer, I called it "parking cruise", and it was the schooner configuration tried unintentionally. It is attached, hopefully. You can see tha main/mizzen ratio .

Well, what do you think about above story? About using a schooner rig in emergency (as I had no idea and even no intention to think how to reef the mizzen that time).

[wkisting]

Interesting story. I've always reefed both sails equally, which seems to preserve the same balance and handling characteristics from full sail all the way to double reefed. In fact, I don't notice any performance difference except less heeling.

In your case, I think the important thing is that you managed to reef the main. The mizzen exerts far less heeling pressure on the boat in my experience, so it seems you made the most important reduction to the most important sail. Even if it isn't technically ideal to only reef one sail, as long as the boat sailed well and safely, I'd say it sounds like you found a perfectly acceptable solution. My only concern would be the potential stresses on the mizzen mast. If it blew hard enough, I suspect the mizzen mast or the mast step could fail before you noticed how great the stresses had become. What alerts most people (certainly me) that too much sail is flying is the boat's tendency to start heeling beyond the normal maximum angle of comfort. However, your schooner reefing arrangement might alleviate the boat's heeling just enough to give you false confidence that the unreefed mizzen is not under excessive pressure. I don't know if that's a valid concern or not, but it is one reason that I've always been careful to evenly reef both the main and mizzen.

[Scott Dunsworth]

I have sailed my Belhaven some with one reef in the main and full mizzen. It was when say the wind was steady at 15 to 20 but the gusts were much higher, say 30. I wouldn't need to be on my toes as much with the main sheet in hand. Sometimes I would pull the board up about half way and re-balance the boat.

[Peter HK]

Interestingly, I have used the other option...sailing as a Cat yawl (ie a reef in the mizzen only) rather than a Cat ketch (or a schooner as noted above)... and even planned for it when I built my CS17. I had always intended to have reefable sails on tracks and had considered the possibilities.

As Wes has said he always reefs both sails at the same time but I had wondered if there might be conditions where only a smaller sail reduction was needed ie reefing one sail only. My thinking was that if sailing in stronger conditions, particularly single handed, then having the larger area of sail under the control of the sheet in my hand would be preferable. That would be the main, not the mizzen, as easing the main and rounding up to windward is the safer option to easing the mizzen and falling off.

With this in mind I made sure that I could lower the centreboard to the maximum possible degree by setting the centreboard downhaul as high as possible on the centreboard arm and cutting the slot in the centreboard case cap as long as possible.

This means that when I am sailing with the full rig, to optimise balance, I have the centreboard not as far down as possible.

When I sail the boat as a Cat yawl, with the board down all the way, I have the slightest weather helm.

I find it sails very well this way in the right conditions...about 15-20 knots single handed...as I have the most efficient sail (the main) driving the boat and the reefed mizzen just doing the balancing and if a gust comes then easing the larger main is the ideal option.

Ps With respect to the original posting...these boats have a large rudder area and with a centreboard are remarkably controllable with almost any combination of main and mizzen. I usually sail into the ramp with mizzen only and it will even go to windward quite well, so any amount of main and mizzen will be quite good. The important thing when confronted by a squall is to get some/any sail off.

My 2c worth

Cheers

Peter HK

[Howard]

There are squalls, and then there are SQUALLS. What little I know about the cat ketch rig and these boats, if not for the rocky lee shore issue, my first inclination would be to use what time I had to get the main down entirely and secured, and reef the mizzen as far as it would go, with the intent of riding out the blow while hove to. The issue is in not knowing what was coming. 30 knots might be doable with a full mizzen and reefed main, but what about 60 or 80?

I can think of two recent events.......one sailing the Chesapeake last summer during a race. A similar squall blew up and we got hit with 60 knots plus of straight line wind that lasted for the better part of 10 to 15 minutes. Two foot seas became eight to ten foot seas in a matter of moments. Some thirty and forty foot boats who tried to run with sails up broached. We came through it fine (albeit with tested pucker factor), as we had all sails down and the D-sail fired up and running wide open to keep our bow pointing into the wind.

Second issue came up a few months ago while driving down an interstate on a clear sunny day. One single thunderstorm popped up out of nothing and when I drove into it, I hit a wall of water I couldn't see through and pulled over. While on the shoulder, the downdraft winds from the storm started rocking my truck and eventually ripped the hard cover right off the bed. I watched it fly away like that screen door in the Wizard of Oz.

Imagine being on the water in an open, un-ballasted boat in those conditions. Best chance to come through it, in my mind, would be hove to with minimal sail up, but all sail area aft with the mizzen sail weathercocking the bow into the wind and waves and riding it like a duck. My only concern would be the sails surviving it. If the reefs tore out, and the sail started flogging, you would have no way of getting it under control.

[wwbaginski]

I've just received the precise description of that squall, sent to me by another sailor sailing there aboard another small open boat. He is a navy pro, (US) so it's absolutely most precise description.

"I called it a black squall---leading edge of a frontal system, solid line of black fast moving clouds, short, intense, gone in 15 minutes, max winds somewhere around 35 knots, maybe as high as 40. "

We were lucky it was no a SQUALL, Howard! We were 3 onboard , by the way.

[Brent]

wwbaginski,

I have done exactly the same thing! I find the boat sails very well in schooner mode.

My CS20 drives powerfully in schooner mode and can be readily controlled even in high winds and rough seas. I prefer ample power in these situations to keep the boat in command of the situation.

Earlier this summer I was in the same situation you describe. As the storm rolled in it was necessary to take a reef to keep the boat in control and moving steadily. Using the schooner configuration the boat was able to handle the rapidly escalating wind and large seas. The boat was moving very fast but not in full plane in the large confused sea. However the speed was ample to get off the open ocean and behind the jetties in good form. Once in the protection of the jetties the boat speed increased further as the sea state settled somewhat and I was able run out from under the storm.

By the way my friend Norm was in Raid Finland again this year, and sends his regards.

[wwbaginski]

Thank you, Brent, regards to Norm! Well there was another rig I thought about while drying Doppio after getting safe to the harbour finally . Chesapeake people know it well I suppose. I thought about stick-up skiff described at R.L.Parker book and website:

http://www.parker-marine.com/sharpie16page.htm

Same principle?

By the way identical rig was in use at the Kuronian lagoon (south Baltic seaside) at the first half of XX century, but over round planked hulls. Norm probably knows it