Crazy downwind sail idea?

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shamrock

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www.tydewi.co.uk
So I'm rigging the boat with twin poles to run downwind in the trades under twin headsails, stowed main and staysail. (she's a cutter rigged sloop)

We currently have a yankee on a furler with two grooves and I'd plan to hoist both headsails together and roll them away together for reefing.

So I'm looking for the second headsail. First thoughts were a similar size / weight yankee cut to match the current jib. However, this is big and heavy and would take up a lot of storage space when not in use.

Remembering my racing days, running with a 1.5oz bulletproof spinnaker, I wonder if a nylon sail might work - sort of like a yankee made from spinnaker material. Should be strong enough and take up much less stowage space.

Does that make sense?

Nick
 
We found that it is better to sail on a broad reach (on about 140 apparent) and tack downwind, rather than sailing directly downwind - you cover much more distance through the water, but it is much more comfortable (considerably less rolling), and because you are going faster, the net speed towards the destination is the same or better than sailing dead downwind.

If you do this, then you could boom out the yankee to windward, and the larger sail to leeward, perhaps even using the end of the mainsail boom, if you do not have a 2nd pole.
 
On our first crossing (yes, it's a bit of a pose) I thought about 2 sails on one furler but wondered about the implications if I had a furler problem. A later trip did in fact break one of the supporting strips. We went with a poled out headsail hanked on to an inner forestay and as Bajan mentioned, used the boom to pole out the furling genoa, This always needed a few rolls in it to flatten it a bit to counter rolloing. It was simple to put a few more rolls in if needed, and the hanked on sail dropped really easily under the weight of the hanks. That sail I was given when it was already elderly but it has done another crossing since! The cruising chute came out of its bag once. The inner forestay cost a lot less than a second pole.

On another couple of crossings (big pose) I had a bigger boat and crew that allowed the use of a spinnaker, but we did try a good bit with a chute of a reasonable weight, Burst it. The problem I've found is you end up with a good bit of lighter airs, or at least light apparent. As the sails continuously flap and bang as they fill and spill in the swell, lighter stuff just gives up. Oh, on that trip the boom gooseneck broke as well.
So, a very long winded reply of being suspicious of light sails!
Last top tip though, we used all my old (washed) sailing socks tied all around guardrails and rigging as chafe protection. It works!!
Hope this helps.
 
Have you considered a Twistle rig? Uses twin foresails on common foil with hinged twin booms which 'float' on uphaul and downhaul in the fore triangle. As well as being easy to use and reef, it's claimed largely eliminate downhill rolling.
 
absolutely - our design allows for the poles to be either on the mast or used together as a twistle.

The question is what to use as the second foresail that won't take up half the stowage space below when not in use.
 
This does not seam at all crazy, what you sugest is just a small cruising shoot/code 0 but with a bolt rope for the furling lugh groove. Using a small C shoot with a yankee on the other side sounds good but you may have problems furling the two together. While furling two IDENTICAL sails together is quite established I suspect that if you try it with materials with different streach patterns (dacron/nylon) you are asking for birds nest of a stow!! Might be simpler to fly a small shoot loose with the furler to windward and just adjust area on that side.
 
rigging the two sails on seperate stays provides a slot between the sails which seems to add to the stability of the rig. It is also simpler, and easier to remove one sail, or even to reef one sail
 
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