Riding sails

BigART

BigART

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We've spent most of the past year in various anchorages, and have only seen a couple of yachts using riding sails. Are these no longer fashionable, or are they unnecessary for the modern designs of cruising yacht? Are there specific conditions when they become indispensible?

Before I spend time and £££ making one, I'm trying to figure out if I need one!

Thanks for your feedback.

Ruth R-T

www.doitcruise.info
 
I hank a stormsail onto the backstay, upside down, and hoist aloft with the main halyard. It takes a bit of tweaking to find the right height for both weathercocking the boat and damping rolling. (Don't forget that the sail hoisted as high as possible can settle things quite a lot in a rolly windless anchorage).

I have only done it a couple of times, when the bow paying off and the swell combined to make things too much of a pain, and fore-and-aft anchors couldn't be used.And no extra cost /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Hi,

They don't seem to be so popular nowadays but as I understand it they are needed more with modern hull shapes than older ones. This is because of the higher topsides and associated windage plus the fin keels which allow the hull to 'tack' at anchorage much more as the head gets blown off by the wind.

We finally invested in one a couple of years ago. We don't use it in light wind but have found it a wonderul thing to have as the wind gets up and snatch loads increase.

At one windy anchorage when the winds were 40 to 49 knots for 2 days I wondered whether the extra windage of the ridng sail outweighed it's benefit and took it down. Suffice it to say that I put it back up 10 mins later.

So, to answer one of your questions I would say the riding sail becomes essential when the wind is very strong.

Cheers,

Bob
 
This is another vote for riding sails. We have a small custom made one (smaller than the storm jib. Hoisted on the backsay it is cut completly flat and sheeted in hard. Fantastic, the stronger the wind the more the difference between ourselves and other boats. At the risk of starting another anchor thread I would forego one the boat's 4 anchors before the riding sail.
 
Interesting, I reached the same conclusion that a riding sail would be good and have just finished planning it. Mine will be a 50sqft flat cut gaff sail on a 4m mast deck stepped on the aft deck as I also want to use it for the radar scannar, arials and to use the boom as a crane for MOB and lifting dingy engine. Decided it would work better and look better than a stern arch as the boat is very traditional.
 
A couple of ways to do it.
either all out, OR reefed.

you often sheet to one side, depending on wind and tide if any.. but yes, flat is good.

we have one reef in the mizzen. it works well on that in a blow, in 'normal' conditions the full sail is fine.

best advice is to experiment with it, see how you go on.
 
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