Cutter rig advice

Dyflin

Dyflin

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We're looking at buying a Dockrell 27, not a classic as such, but a boat with good lineage! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

She has a cutter rig and I just wondered what are the pros and cons of this set up over a conventional sloop?

tn_4404248_5.jpg

(similar boat)
 
My boat can be sailed as a cutter and i do for a number of reasons,ease of handling,i dont need to winch the fore sails in they are small so not much effort needed,in a blow i can furl my outer jib and sail on the staysail,less heel,and she points closer,cutters look good,on the downside,you have two extra sheets to trip over in the cockpit,but you can use a jib boom on the staysail if you want allough i dont because these can cause problems when running,also if you have a large jib you will need to partialy furl it when tacking as it will foul the inner forestay,
Hope you can make sense of this and it helps,
Chris.
 
I agree with all the comments above.
We have what seems to be called a 'slutter' rig (basically a sloop with an inner forestay), and it works well - we have a roller furling genoa on the outer stay, and we can put the hank on stay sail and storm jib (never used in anger yet!) on the inner stay.

Altho' the inner stay is on a quick release tensioning lever, I keep it on all the time as it is nice to have the added security of two forestays, and it is not much hassle to roll up the genoa when tacking.

Piota on this forum has a cutter rig on his Pioneer, with a photo of her as his avatar here at http://www.ybw.com/forums/showprofile.php?Cat=0&User=16165&page=52&what=showmembers
 
Maybe a bit small for a cutter rig, I had a 44 cutter and it was excellent. Present 32 is not worth the hassle of changing from sloop rig.
But, you could find it useful if it balances well in strong winds with reefed main, staysail and yankee in bed.
 
Yes i agree,i used to have a big genoa and a hank on staysail,and i noticed when i furled the genoa in a bit to tack the boat seemed to sail better.so i sailed with a genoa 3/4 furled for a while,my boat came with lots of sail bags in the forepeak and on further investigation there were a small jib and a larger staysail,the small jib slid into the roller furling jib slot and the staysail hanked on,and she has stayed that way for two years,great fun to sail a lot faster and she seems to heel much less.
 
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