Working with your sails, then and now
For the first real installment of Gear Talk I wanted to cover the topic
of
sails. How working with sails has changed on a typical sailboat with the
advent
of furling sails, electric winches and other things and in particular our
own
personal experience comparing sailing aboard a Morgan '42 Mark II racing
yacht
twenty-five years ago vs. O'Comillas today.
Some terminology:
- Furling sails: a sail that can roll on itself to
reduce
the surface exposed to the wind.
- Reefing: the process of reducing the main sail by
lowering
and reattaching it at a lower point on the boom. Thus exposing less
surface
to the wind.
- Trimming: the process of adjusting sail angle to the
wind.
As I explained in the weather info section, for any given wind direction,
wind
speed, and waves there is a corresponding combination of course, sails and
trimming
that is optimal and a range under which such a combination will operate
safely.
This premise has not changed in the last twenty-five years, what has
changed
is how easy it is to adjust how much sail to use at any given time.
So lets take a look back at sailing aboard Sagitta, a Morgan ’42
Mark
II racing yacht. This sailboat had multiple sizes of genoas and jibs and a
mainsail
that can be reefed. So basically in the front sail you had a selection of
sizes
and depending on the wind you would take one down and put a different one
up.
On the main sail you had four, perhaps five, reefing points. The winches
for
raising and lowering the sails where at the base of the mast while the
mechanical
winches for trimming the sails where on the cockpit.
O’Comillas has a furling genoa, a furling jib and a furling main.
Once
the sails have been raised, they stay up the whole time unless they need
to
be taken down for repairs. To reduce size, a sail is rolled or furled on
it’s
self. All of which can be accomplished from the cockpit without having to
move
to the base of the mast.
So lets put both boats through the simple scenario of going from light
winds
to heavy winds.
On the Sagitta, you may go through several reductions in the front sail.
This
entails going below deck picking a new sail and bringing it up. Then for
example,
you would lower the large genoa, tie it, and then raise a smaller genoa.
Both
of these tasks have to be done at the base of the mast. Then repeat the
operation
until you are using a smaller working jib. For the main sail, you may also
need
to reef twice or more. Each time, you need to go to the mast to partially
lower
the sail, reef it by hand since we didn't have one of those reefing
systems
that exist today, and then raise it again. All these operations can be
physically
demanding for a short handed crew.
On the O'Comillas, you will start with the genoa and the main fully
unrolled
and as the wind picks up, from the cockpit area you would roll up more of
the
sail to make it smaller. At some point it will be better to completely
roll-up
the genoa and then unroll the working jib but that operation is also easy
to
do from the cockpit area as well. No going below deck, no physically
changing
anything on the base of the mast. Easy. The electric winches are also a
huge
improvement. When talking about a large genoa with a surface area of 754
ft²
(70.1 m²) trimming with an electric winch is a cinch.
We do have extra sails such as a spinnaker, spares, and a storm main but
for
the most part everything can be done without having to move from the
cockpit
area. Furthermore, rolling a sail is much less challenging than raising
it.
All these changes make it possible to operate a 49-foot sailboat between
two
people very reasonable. A task that would have been impossible aboard
Sagitta.
1:47:31 PM 
|
