Riding Sail to prevent yawing when at anchor

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CJ13

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We have a Bav39 which sails around its anchor in any breeze.
Can anyone suggest a design for a riding sail hoisted on the backstay/ topping lift, to help counter this problem?

Thanks,
John
 
Proposal I had from my sailmaker for my B37 was for a simple 25 sq ft or so sail on hanks from the split of the backstay to one quarter and sheeted to the midships cleats. Have not had it made yet, but assures me it will work. Suspect it will need experimentation to get it at the right height, angle and tautness depending on conditions.

Think in reality you have to accept your boat (like mine) will move around a lot at anchor because of the windage, lack of underwater resistance and shallow forefoot. Not unlike many other similar boats. The riding sail may reduce the yaw, but in this situation there is no substitute for a lot of underwater area, lots of lead and low freeboard!
 
I used a 8 sq ft triangular sail made of Sunbrella which hanked on to the topping lift (attached to the end of the boom). It worked well, but I suspect the double sail .... the V shaped one that sarabande talks about is more stable and hopefully doesn't flap.

Unfortunately riding sails do tend to cast shadows over solar panels. You may be able to control the yaw adequately by putting the helm over to one side instead.
 
I own a Rival 41C and they have high bows and yaw about their anchor's when the wind is up. As an alternative to the riding sail, I anchor by the stern. After anchoring conventionally I hook up the snubbing line but rigged from the stern. I then let out more anchor chain until she hangs from the stern by the snubbing line. It has obvious disadvantages: weather down the companionway, slap on the stern; it does work though. Food for thought.
 
You could also anchor by the bow but tie of a line some 20' down the anchor line and bring that back to a winch in the cockpit .... so you sit at an angle to the wind ... and it's adjustable.
 
Tranona said:
Think in reality you have to accept your boat (like mine) will move around a lot at anchor because of the windage, lack of underwater resistance and shallow forefoot. Not unlike many other similar boats. The riding sail may reduce the yaw, but in this situation there is no substitute for a lot of underwater area, lots of lead and low freeboard!
Click to expand...

We have a full long keel and displace 14 tonnes and twisted around our anchor today like an inebriated ballet dancer. Raising half the mizzen had no effect, maybe a v sail will help, maybe 25knots of wind up the stern and a 3 knots tide on the nose will do that no matter what.
 
Having even a very small flat sail aft can cause a collision during a tide change with the effects of wind over tide, the 'V' shape sail would be an improvement over a flat sail.

Good luck and fair winds. :)
 
We're in the Med, so tides aren't an issue. Generally our Spade anchor holds very well, but we dragged in Syracusa last Oct, in 50knot ++ winds. I' sure that the yawing was a major factor in this, hence the need to improve things.
I see ready made riding sails are available in US- does anyone have a source in UK/ Europe?

John
 
We would agree that your yawing was a major, or the, factor in your dragging. Try dropping your spare anchor off the bow such that it just drags on the bottom (I'd call it a friction brake) - it needs to just 'catch' but not set. If you have room - 2 anchors in a 'V' configuration work exceptionally well (but in the Med being lonely might not be a possibility). Another option is to use twin snubbers, a bridle. One down each side-deck. You need to feed them such that they are attached to a common chain hook, again in 'v' formation. This is basically what multi owners do to tame yawing. Wherever the bridle 'rubs' you need chafe protection - use nylon, it has elasticity.

Someone will say - dropping an anchor off the bow is inconvenient, so is a riding sail (and I'm guessing you have a spare anchor - could be the cheaper option?)

The best option would have been to have bought a cat anyway (and there are so many other advantages) but too late now:)

Jonathan
 
JFowler said:
We're in the Med, so tides aren't an issue. Generally our Spade anchor holds very well, but we dragged in Syracusa last Oct, in 50knot ++ winds. I' sure that the yawing was a major factor in this, hence the need to improve things.
I see ready made riding sails are available in US- does anyone have a source in UK/ Europe?

John
Click to expand...

Nothing clever about them. Any sailmaker can make you one. The demand is probably not big enough to justify making them for stock. Kemp Sails quoted me, but guess that any of the well known UK sailmakers would make you one.
 
We anchor throughout the year and use a 'v-sail' to help stop the sailing at anchor. We've found that it has a significant effect on reducing our dancing around. We made it ourselves from an old sail and hoist it from the deck using the main halyard, with the foot secured to three cleats.
 
Most keen dinghy racers have a selection of old jibs that they can't be bothered to throw away - I know I used to have a couple and I wasn'y keen! Maybe you could get a couple of matching ones to try a vee-sail configuration? Just thinking, a couple of Enterprise sails would match the blue strakes on Mojo...

Rob.
 
I have a Finnsailor 38 ketch and I have found that she rides fairly steadily to an anchor anyway--possible an unsung advantage of the old ketch rig, which you used to see a lot more of. However, I have tried utilizing some of the mizzen as a riding sail, and it doesn't really do enough to make it worthwhile, in my opinion. When the wind is light, it helps a bit, but you really need it when the wind is high, and I found that unless the wind is unusually steady having any sail up is an issue. Even though mine is fully battened it still rattles around quite a bit, and I'm not sure it aids in steadiness because the wind tends to gust from different directions. I've never tried it in winds of more than maybe 25 knots because of this. One thing I have found useful is a bow eye mounted down near the waterline. I attach a nylon snubber line there, and run it to the chain. The bow eye both lowers the angle on the anchor chain, and helps the boat ride much steadier. I just have a spliced loop on the snubber that I put through the eye and cow hitch the line on, so there is no shackle, and therefore no noise either. Makes it much quieter below when it is blowing. I too very occasionally have used the second anchor off the bow on very short scope so that it acts as a drag, and I often use two anchors in a V on another configuration to limit ranging about at anchor.
 
We used a V shaped sail tied to the topping lift of a Mizzen mast. With a sloop tie it to the backstay and and the lines to a port and starboard stanchion. It cuts down swinging and thus snatch load about 30% and is well worth using. We never had a collision problem with other boats swinging because we swung less so increaased the distance from the other boats.
 
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