Self Tacking headsail

[jonathansykes]

Hi Everybody,
I have just had what probably amounts to the worst continuous weather for a weeks sailing in the UK I can remember. If it wasn't too windy it was too rainy.
Only here in England can you have days of flooding combined with an official water shortage!
As I sail mostly single handed it would be nice to fit a self tacking head-sail. I think there is just enough room to fit a track between the mast and the fore-hatch, but this would mean cutting the head-sail back quite a bit so there will be no overlap and a fair reduction in square footage.
Does anybody have any experience of fitting one to an 8m or 26?

Cheers
Jonathan

[petrel]

Johnathan,

I have pondered a self tacking headsail for many years for the same reasons as yours. But for my boat it requires removing the baby stay and modifying the standing rigging to keep the mast in column.

In my opinion the best and most ingenious self tacking headsail is Dave Bierig's Camber Spar Jib which keeps the sail shape at any point of sail including "wing on wing" and does not require a track. It is a very clever design where a curved spar enclosed in a pocket in the sail and flips over on each tack keeping the sail shape and draft optimized.

Here is a photo of one on Freedom 40:http://www.haarsticksailmakers.com/sail_type.asp?id=fs

The downside is having a potentially dangerous swinging boom on the foredeck, it cannot be roller furled, and has less sail area than a genoa foresail. But a camber spar sail leach does have some mast overlap to get a good slot between it and the mainsail.

Dave Bierig does not have a website preferring to work his own way. But do not let that deter you. He is an excellent sailmaker with a very good understanding of sails for multihulls originally translating their criteria from iceboat sailing.

Good luck
Geoffrey

[jonathansykes]

Thanks for that info Geoffrey,
I have not heard of that type of sail over here. It makes for some interesting reading.
The baby stay on my vessel has been removed and the mast stiffened by the addition of three diamond stays, one on the front and the others to the side of the mast so it would probably work for me. However I really want to keep to a furling head-sail. My policy is not to go on deck unless I really have to.
Cheers
Jonathan.

[petrel]

Johnathan,

Not having a baby stay must make tacking a large foresail so much easier. You have prompted me to reconsider doing it on my boat.

For you it is sounds like the curved track you described in you first email is the best option. Having both a roller furling foresail and it be self tacking could be the best of both worlds. And you get to stay in the cockpit!

Please keep us posted on any developments and good luck with the project.
Geoffrey

[ajaxpc]

After a few seasons with a big overlapping genoa, I got a new headsail made that sheets inside the shrouds to the inner tracks on the coachroof.

I didn't notice any significant diminution in performance, and it is a lot easier to tack.

The boat may be closer winded as well, with the narrower sheeting angle and closer 'slot'.

[petrel]

ajaxpc,

My experience also. I stopped using my genoa - in part because it was made from too heavy a cloth. But mainly because the smaller jib sheeted to the cabin top tracks in close points of sail outperformed the Genoa and it was easier to tack around the Baby Stay. When the air got light I would hank on a lightweight drifter. From this experience I think an ideal sail combination for my sailing conditions is a similar small jib on a roller sheeted to the cabin top tracks for moderate to heavy air. And a larger light air sail tacked forward of the jib on a sprit and sheeted to the deck tracks for lighter air.

Alternately, another Telstar owner on the Chesapeake Bay said he had a lot of success having a Genoa that sheeted to the outer tracks in light air. And in heavy air partially rolled it up and sheeted it to the cabin top tracks effectively making it a "working jib". This was many years ago but apparently he won a lot of races so it must have worked OK.

So many ideas. So little time!

Geoffrey

[ajaxpc]

Geoffrey -

Indeed!

My old genoa could be partly rolled up and sheeted to the inner tracks - the boat pointed higher like this, and worked better in a breeze, but the sail didn't set all that well. I decided to scrap the extra area for a sail that set well under the conditions I was most likely to find.

I'm saving up for a genniker ...

Alex.

[petrel]

Alex,

I am curious about your genniker plans. Would you please share the details of the sail and how you intend to attach the head and tack and sheet it to the boat.

Thanks
Geoffrey

[ajaxpc]

Genniker may be the wrong term.

I used sheet the large genoa to a block on the mid-point cleat, when I was on a very broad reach or going straight down wind. I could sheet a large light weather sail in a similar way. I'd probably put it on a bowsprit and hoist it with the spinnaker halyard.

I used to have (well, still have, but it's somewhat past usable ...) a symmetrical spinnaker that set to the ama bows - it had a sheet and a tack on each corner, and you just had to pull one rope and let the other go on each side to gybe it. It was hard to get it to set if you were much off a dead run.

Alex.

[petrel]

Alex,

It is uncanny, our experiences with sails are almost identical. Even down to the old blown out spinnaker set from the bows. I am in the process of installing a bowsprit for a future light air upwind sail which I intend to sheet to the blocks on the deck tracks. My boat is fractionally rigged and when the mast was down I added another set of hounds for this sail about a third way between the existing forestay and masthead. I also installed a block for its halyard. This setup should allow me to use the smaller roller furling jib on the existing forestay for moderate to heavy air, the light air sail for light air, and a spinnaker if I need to go dead downwind.

The only thing missing is a self tacking headsail which is still not entirely out of the question. But I need to put some miles under the hulls to find out how the new system works first.

Cheers
Geoffrey