Self tacking head sail

[Danny_Labrador]

Self tacking head sail.

I had the benefits of - the incorporation of it and then later the lack of it - on a cruising yacht explained to me at Southampton – (if that’s mutually possible ?)

For it, say the its gives increased ease of handling with any drawbacks.

Against it, say that the sail area has to be much reduced due to the mast being in the way.

What do the team think ?

 

[twisterkai]

Not much good for an easy heave-to.

 

[ccscott49]

Normally you have a self tacking staysail, with a normal genny or yankee forward of it, (cutter). A self tacking headsail would be tiny in comparison to a normal overlap genny or yankee. As has been said, how do you heave to?

 

[Lakesailor]

Never used one, but I do use my headsail to help push the bow round in very light airs by backing it. It also helps to get the sheets past the shrouds as there is already some pressure on the sail when I haul in on the lee sheet.

 

[aluijten]

I have one on my boat. It's very usefull in situations were you need to tack frequently (inland waters) and when there is a decent breeze (F4 or more).
In other cases I just stick to my Genua headsail.

Tacking becomes almost boaring with a selftacker. But with many people in the cockpit it's very convenient.

In low wind conditions you loose too much speed because of the sailarea. In offshore situations you (most of the times) don't do a lot of tacking thus making the feature of selftacking a bit irrelevant.

Arno

 

[PIGLETSDREAM]

Boats like the MG346 have a self tacking headsail and a very large main, slow they are not. Very useful if you have a cockpit full of people or trying to tack your way up or down a narrow fairway.

 

[ditchcrawler]

I own a Hunter with a self tacking jib.
Pros
Easy to tack if you keep the sliders well lubricated.I use PTFE spray from the bike shop which is miles cheaper than the marine version.
Cons
Underpowered in light airs.I have a cruising chute which I use regularly in winds up to f4.On long reaches I sometimes take a separate sheet from the clew of the self tacker to a snatch block mounted on the aft end of the pushpit.This gives a better angle.
Heaving to is more difficult,but I just take a short line & tie off the sail to the rail before tacking so it cannot slide across
Overall it suits my sailing very well as I have a dodgy shoulder so can no longer cope with costant hauling of the genoa sheet & winching.
Short tacking is a dream,just push the helm away & it all happens.
Quite a few makers now fit these as standard Hanse,Hunter & Etap come to mind.
Like anything else it is a compromise but for shorthanded sailing it is well wothwhile.

 

[snowleopard]

The lack of area isn't a problem if the boat is designed for it.

You get rid of the winching when short tacking.

visibility is much better.

The traveller can crash backwards and forwards while head to wind.

You can heave to/back the jib but it requires additional lines.

the sheeting angle is controlled by attaching the sheet to different holes in the clew so there is no opportunity to fine tune sheeting angle while under way.

 

[AlexL]

I've got one on my Hanse 371 - fan-bloody-tastic. My boat is designed to only have a jib - i.e it is a mainsail driven rig and not an old IOR type tiny main / huge genny type rig, and has an impressive sail area / disp ratio even with just a jib.
Ease of handling is amazing - I can tack up the river incredibly fast - especially if i'm really lazy and leave the main traveller in the middle, just put the helm over and off you go at 7kts on the next tack with barely a hesitation. The polar diagrams for my boat show that a genoa is slightly faster with <6kts wind -but any benefit would be lost in the time taken to sheet in on each tack unless you've got a full racing crew onboard. The other pro is that the boat points, really, really high as the effective sheeting angle on the self tacker is very tight.
Another benefit is that as the wind gets up I do not have to put any rolls in the jib - I have sailed upwind into a strong F7 very happily with the full jib and 2 reefs in the main. And without the usuall bag of washing you get when you roll up the headsail it still points in very strong winds.
Cons are that the sail does not set very well on a reach, but I just clip on a couple of sheets and lead them through the genoa tracks and use these when we bear away. Also with these sheet on the sail, I can heave to if I wish.
All in all I would say for short handed sailing it is just about the best invention since the roller furling headsail.
The only thing is that as a retro fit it could be questionable as the boat may well have been designed for a huge genoa.

 

[Norman_E]

I think it might be a bad idea to fit one on a boat designed to be driven by a genoa that accounts for perhaps 2/3rds of the sail area, but as the Hanse owner confirms they can be excellent on the right boat. Compared to most other modern production boats of the same sizes the Hanse models have large battened mainsails which are the main power souce, hence they work well. A rig and sailplan needs to be designed as a whole and piecemeal changes may not be beneficial. On a cutter the self tacking staysail avoids the need to winch in both headsails in a tack. I believe that if a sloop is to be fitted with two sets of headsails arranged on separate furling gear so that only one will be used at any time there is a case to be made for a genoa and a heavy duty self tacking jib. In such a set up it will have to be accepted that to tack with the genoa it may have to be rolled away and redeployed.