jimmie
N/A
Why do some boats have two instead of one? Is it a macho thing with their saucy owners playing ketchup?
Jemmy
Jemmy
How many sticky up things
- Thread starter jimmie
- Start date
Col
New member
Well I\'ve got three...........
................Aerials !!
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/colspics> Cols Picture Album</A>
................Aerials !!
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.arweb.co.uk/argallery/colspics> Cols Picture Album</A>
LadyInBed
Well-known member
More things to play with!
jimmie
N/A
Seriously, though, what's the rationale? It must adversely affect the stability and windage of your craft? Anybody any good with a spare file and capable of baking a cake?
Jems
Jems
vyv_cox
Well-known member
Usual rationale is that it divides sail area into two smaller, and therefore more handleable areas. Big advantages there for older/more infirm/more shorthanded crews. Gives a little more flexibility as regards where sail area is distributed. For reaching - broad reaching - running there may be a slight improvement in the sail area that can be flown without blanketing. The converse is that ketches generally don't go upwind so well as sloops, but to many this is not all that important.
There's an old saying that nobody ever buys a second ketch - seems that many negative points, like maintenance, wear, replacing rigging, are doubled but the improvement is hardly noticeable to non-existent.
There's an old saying that nobody ever buys a second ketch - seems that many negative points, like maintenance, wear, replacing rigging, are doubled but the improvement is hardly noticeable to non-existent.
jamesjermain
Active member
Apart from hanging out the washing and possibly spreading the bimini over, there is nothing a ketch rig can do better than a sloop given modern rigs and sail handling kit. On older boats it was a bit different There were some advantages in keeping individual sail areas small and spars short.
If a friend had just bought a ketch and I had to find something nice to say, I might opine that a ketch was easier to set up to be well balanced in a gale. But even then, if I was running out of sea room and needed to work to windward, I'd dump the mizzen mast and all its windage like a shot and set a storm jib and triple reefed main. I might also say that it is quite a nice rig off the wind in lightish conditions when he can set a mizzen staysail and spinnaker and look quite pretty. Some quite recent, big, Whitbread-type yachts did this to good effect, knowing they would spend most of the time reaching, but for most normal boats the advantages are negligible in return for all the extra rigging and windage. Even on very large, superyacht cruisers, the rig is falling out of use.
JJ
If a friend had just bought a ketch and I had to find something nice to say, I might opine that a ketch was easier to set up to be well balanced in a gale. But even then, if I was running out of sea room and needed to work to windward, I'd dump the mizzen mast and all its windage like a shot and set a storm jib and triple reefed main. I might also say that it is quite a nice rig off the wind in lightish conditions when he can set a mizzen staysail and spinnaker and look quite pretty. Some quite recent, big, Whitbread-type yachts did this to good effect, knowing they would spend most of the time reaching, but for most normal boats the advantages are negligible in return for all the extra rigging and windage. Even on very large, superyacht cruisers, the rig is falling out of use.
JJ
bigmart
New member
I sail large ketches quite regularly. They are good off the wind. ie. wind on the beam or aft otherwise drop the mizzen and sail like a sloop. The Mizzen can make the boat apig to steer into the wind. Last summer we crossed Channel from Alderney to the Solent at 11-12 knots in a force 3-4 on the beam (Cracking Sailing).
The main advantage is that they give you lots more to play with and therefore keep the crew occupied/amused. On a Cutter Rigged Ketch you have the Jib, the Staysail, the Mainsail & the Mizzen plus for extra fun you may also have a Mizzen Staysail & possibly a Spinnaker. All this lot & its consequential string give plenty for the crew to do.
Great for Sail Training but you may have different views as a cruiser.
Regards
Martin
The main advantage is that they give you lots more to play with and therefore keep the crew occupied/amused. On a Cutter Rigged Ketch you have the Jib, the Staysail, the Mainsail & the Mizzen plus for extra fun you may also have a Mizzen Staysail & possibly a Spinnaker. All this lot & its consequential string give plenty for the crew to do.
Great for Sail Training but you may have different views as a cruiser.
Regards
Martin
Chris_Robb
Well-known member
Vyv - as the owner of a Ketch, I find the mizzen usful for:
Mounting the Radar - but could have gone on a pole
Setting a survival rig (Storm Jib and Mizzen)
hanging up washing and Sun awning - but waste of time in England as no sun.
Oh and setting a Mizzen Staysail - along with a spinnaker - frankly - now I have a spinnaker, I don't use the staysail
Anyone want a mizzen mast??
IF I was buying another boat, it would be a cutter rig.
Mounting the Radar - but could have gone on a pole
Setting a survival rig (Storm Jib and Mizzen)
hanging up washing and Sun awning - but waste of time in England as no sun.
Oh and setting a Mizzen Staysail - along with a spinnaker - frankly - now I have a spinnaker, I don't use the staysail
Anyone want a mizzen mast??
IF I was buying another boat, it would be a cutter rig.
Chris_Robb
Well-known member
As a Ketch owner I agree with your sentiments entirely - I hardly ever set the mizzen now. Cutter rig would be my choice.
jimmie
N/A
Chris,are you married? If you want I'll help you. I've got a bit of a loose end at the moment (so to speak) and will help you to chop one of the sticky up things off. I do have a bit of experience in that area. Why did you buy it in the first place, or did you inherit your boat like me? I'd always looked at these ketchie things and thought they might be more comfortable to sail with a lower and further back CE from the main and mizzen than the equivalent sloop rig where presumably the mast is a bit higher. Presumably the ketchs have a bowsprit to put the CE on the genoa further forward, thus increasing the width of the slot and decreasing the rig efficiency?
PS I really like older men!
Jems
PS I really like older men!
Jems
Chris_Robb
Well-known member
Hi Jemima - yup - married - but lets not let that stand in the way. Not sure that I really want to cut off the sticky up thing before Christmas but perhaps we'll have a go later. /forums/images/icons/wink.gif
LadyInBed
Well-known member
Re: nobody ever buys a second ketch . . .
. . . because they are so happy with the one they've got!
I got mine for all the reasons you give - older/more infirm/shorthanded
and the mizzen is a very convenient place to hang the wind gen and radar.
. . . because they are so happy with the one they've got!
I got mine for all the reasons you give - older/more infirm/shorthanded
and the mizzen is a very convenient place to hang the wind gen and radar.