Self Tacking Jibs Can They Be Reefed?

[knuterikt]

That's a very interesting system you have there.

I have often thought that an interesting rig for a cruising boat might be a double headsail arrangement with the outer headsail a conventional 110-130% genoa with conventional sheeting arrangement, and an inner headsail as a self-tacking, reefable, solent/staysail/stormjib. For the inner headsail to work as an efficient self-tacking upwind sail it would need to be cut like a solent with a transverse track just ahead of the mast. For it to work as a decent staysail, it would need a barber hauler so that it could be trimmed off wind, and in extremes also backed in order to heave-to. For it to work as a stormjib it would need all the same, plus a forward transverse track (as on Dehler 41DS) so that it could be reefed and still self-tack efficiently.

Such an arrangement would be a compromise as in any other sail-plane, but I would certainly like to experiment with such an arrangement.

The rigging arrangement on our boat is made by us based on the way we sail/use the boat.
Lots of inshore/coastal sailing in Southern Norway/Swedish west coast.
We prefer sailing to motoring "headwinds are made for sailing"

My headsail is masthead with one standing batten so it's close to 100% it works better upwind than my old genoa (135%) in most cases as i can sail closer to the wind with the ST.
The boat is fitted with a bowsprit - have two sail I can set.
-Code 0 on furler for light wind conditions, can do 40° AWA with this, the nice thing with this sail is that it works fine downwind also, sets better downwind than the old genoa. The Code 0 is a much more versatile sail than I expected.
-Gennaker on furler for downwind sailing.

 

[misterg]

2) going downwind i can pull the ring all the way out so the sheet gets pulled down and out getting a better angle for the sheet.

Very clever.

 

[Daydream believer]

Think i will stay with the lines fixed to the clew
There are for's & against