Peppermint
New member
Met a German yacht skipper who had the spars on board he were considering one for a tradewind sail.
Anyone sailed with a Square Sail?
- Thread starter Peppermint
- Start date
Viking
New member
We have a museum here, which has a few traditional 'Viking' style boats, both large and small. They still use the traditional square rig sail. And quite effective they are even up wind, by tightening the luff making it a straight as you possible. Much has you would using a reaching spinnaker or cruising chute I'd guess.
But how you would rig one to, I guess not a modern style yacht mast. I would not know?
But how you would rig one to, I guess not a modern style yacht mast. I would not know?
ccscott49
Active member
They are quite easy to rig and are quite effective in a modern yacht, but they do induce roll, so you need a stiff boat and rig the main fore and aft and tighten it down, to try and reduce the rolling. A sail is dead easy to make, so not expensive, the rigging fairly simple aswell, try rigging one topsail and see how you get on. You can bring the sail right down, from about the spreaders to almost on deck, it produces a gigantic sail!
peterk
New member
hi,
I sailed on a hermaphrodite brig once, two squaresails ,
no undue rolling.
Tom Steele(Bluewater medal) used a squaresail on his two circumnavs -
he said it actually steadied 'Adios' , his fat 30 foot Tahiti ketch.
I built a 'gun mount' - sort of a squaresail upside down.
It too steadies the boat in the trades even though 'Tehani' is
a narrow beam boat, 34x9.
...peter, www.juprowa.com/kittel
I sailed on a hermaphrodite brig once, two squaresails ,
no undue rolling.
Tom Steele(Bluewater medal) used a squaresail on his two circumnavs -
he said it actually steadied 'Adios' , his fat 30 foot Tahiti ketch.
I built a 'gun mount' - sort of a squaresail upside down.
It too steadies the boat in the trades even though 'Tehani' is
a narrow beam boat, 34x9.
...peter, www.juprowa.com/kittel
alex_rogers
New member
I've helped rig and sailed with a square sail on a 50ft gaff cutter. Claud Worth was a great advocate of them for trade wind sailing and the owner being a fan of Claud Worth decided he wanted one.
The yard hangs from a saddle which sits over the forestay and is raised with the staysail halyard. We rigged it with braces and sheets but no buntline as we'd just drop the yard with the sail full. The normal rig would be to keep the main and possibly topsail, drop the head sails and then raise the squaresail. In a couple of races we got this down to about ninety seconds and I think the surprise of the other crews as we rounded the windward mark and raised a squaresail worked in our favour.
The sail worked right round to a beam reach by swinging it around on the braces. I've got a couple of photos which I can scan if you're interested.
The sail was used on a trade winds crossing and worked very well. The only real problem was chafe as the sail rubbed against the forestay continually. Even with sacrificial patches on the sail it was a bit worrying. You also lost a little manouverability and a few times we ended up sailing backwards in very changable light airs.
I've often thought about rigging one for my boat - a Vancouver 28. I think with a more modern rig you'd need to have the yard in front of the forestay, thus avoiding most of the chafe problems.
Alex Rogers
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.YachtsAtSea.com> www.YachtsAtSea.com </A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by alex_rogers on 04/11/2002 09:19 (server time).</FONT></P>
The yard hangs from a saddle which sits over the forestay and is raised with the staysail halyard. We rigged it with braces and sheets but no buntline as we'd just drop the yard with the sail full. The normal rig would be to keep the main and possibly topsail, drop the head sails and then raise the squaresail. In a couple of races we got this down to about ninety seconds and I think the surprise of the other crews as we rounded the windward mark and raised a squaresail worked in our favour.
The sail worked right round to a beam reach by swinging it around on the braces. I've got a couple of photos which I can scan if you're interested.
The sail was used on a trade winds crossing and worked very well. The only real problem was chafe as the sail rubbed against the forestay continually. Even with sacrificial patches on the sail it was a bit worrying. You also lost a little manouverability and a few times we ended up sailing backwards in very changable light airs.
I've often thought about rigging one for my boat - a Vancouver 28. I think with a more modern rig you'd need to have the yard in front of the forestay, thus avoiding most of the chafe problems.
Alex Rogers
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.YachtsAtSea.com> www.YachtsAtSea.com </A><P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by alex_rogers on 04/11/2002 09:19 (server time).</FONT></P>
