Cost. You’d need to make it in carbon, cos theres only one set of stays, no spreaders. You can have diamonds of course but they get in the way of the jib. Many drawbacks when you scale up a rig like that. You can get away with more if you have a nice wide shroud base like us, but even then it’s Expensive, capital E. That’s why ours doesn’t have one.
As others have pointed out, on a decent cutter rig you don't sail with a big hard to manage Genoa. My foresail is a Yankee, high cut at the foot so really good forward visibility and probably a bit less than 100% so it is no problem to tack it around the staysail stay unless the wind is very very light. Another advantage of the smaller sail is you can generally sheet it in by hand with just a final tightening by winch and that is certainly the case for the staysail. I often short tack when singlehanded with both sails, yankee first then staysail.
Most roller reefed jibs adopt a very inefficient shape when reefed ? If I'm being lazy I may not rig the hanked on staysail, and the boat will sail well under just jib and main. Other than hankin on the staysail I can't say it's any more work. I've also changed to a stackpack main system as I often sail single handed and it makes it all much easier.
You are perhaps using the wrong sail cloth, sail cut and/or sailmaker. Our North tri-radial jib with foam luff sets quite well when reefed.
It’s certainly possible to make a jib that sets when roller reefed. I look at other boats with reefed jibs and see a horrible baggy mess, from time to time. You can’t see the sailmakers logo, but you can bet your boots it won’t be North, Hood, Sanders, Ullman, or any number of good sailmakers, unless the thing is 30 years old
Skimping on sails results in poorer performance, what can we say. Some folks are quite happy just to be out there, some folks can’t afford decent sails. Personally I’d buy a boat I can afford to run properly.My jib sets reasonably when slightly reefed, but my staysail is a very powerful sail, and I prefer to lose the jib completely if I need to. My sails are in very good condition. Where I think a sloop rig really scores over cutter is downwind. The stay sail flaps about when goose winged, and it's best to take it down. I've been meaning to make a small pole so I can do a three sail run, as the jib also needs to be poled out to be really effective on a dead run. On the Vic 800 when beating a reef in the main is usually my first option.
I agree, though I'm not familiar with the efficiency of foam luffed jibs ? The cutter rig and its immense flexibility works for me.It’s certainly possible to make a jib that sets when roller reefed. I look at other boats with reefed jibs and see a horrible baggy mess, from time to time. You can’t see the sailmakers logo, but you can bet your boots it won’t be North, Hood, Sanders, Ullman, or any number of good sailmakers, unless the thing is 30 years old
Did Ivan dirty his hands that much
I remember him well on one occasion when someone had made an error in a sail I had ordered his retort was I shall find out who is responsible, take him round the back and have him shot. he posted a new sail to me a week later. A charming man and a pleasure to hand over your beer tokens to.
I believe my jib might be a yankee.. it furls reasonably well, just prefer to get rid of it and use the staysail. I had new sails from Hyde and they made an excellent job, in cream. I've just had the UV strip replaced and some stitching sorted on the two foresails. Sent them back to Hyde who farmed it out to GP Sails, who have done an excellent job.
Just needs a wind vane self steering gear for quiet, trouble free, single handing.
You could certainly do a hellava lot worse. OK, the styling, especially below, isn't exactly the latest thing, but you won't find a more bomb-proof boat SHe'll just keep plugging on long after you you've stopped wishing you'd taken up golf instead and you're now wishing the damned thing would sink and put you out of your misery
The Essex smacks carried an overlapping staysail cut low on the foot which was known as the tow staysail, because it gave the drive needed to tow the trawling gear. A non-overlapping working staysail with a higher clew was also carried.
Possible that the crews and sailmakers of working boats knew the advantages of headsails overlapping the mast before the genoa was adopted by yachts.
They certainly knew how to hang every possible inch of sail area on any given set of spars.
