Slutter Rig

[tomboy352]

I am soon to fit a detachable, roller-reefing inner forestay to our HR352 tall rig cruising yacht. The foil would be attached about 18ins below the masthead, also just behind the roller forestay at deck level and use a rachet device for tensioning. The detachable inner foil would run close to and approximately parallel to the forward furling gear and would be rigged during passagemaking, on receipt of a deteriorating forecast. The result should enable our light crew to reef easily in a full windrange to 40 kts. After that, to change down on the inner foil to storm canvas. Has anyone experience of problems like windage aloft, disturbed air flow from the roled genoa or thrashing, roled forestays interfering with the set inner sail due to tension comming off the forestay? Any helpful experiences? Thanks

 

[pvb]

Where are you thinking of stowing this roller-reefing inner forestay when it's not needed?

 

[ParaHandy]

I have a cutter rig (which is a slutter rig in all but name) where the staysail is hanked on (piston hanks). The staysail has reefing points and is made from heavy enough canvas to perform as a storm jib. It is also forces a yankee jib on you although an overlapping genoa is possible. The yankee, having a relatively small area, is good for "light crew".

What you are planning sounds awfully complex (v. popular with scandanavians tho & they know a thing or two about this lark but I don't think they use roller reef). There should be no problem with windage aloft except I'd get the "main" jib below if I knew 40kn was on its way. Because a partially furled headsail is aerodynamically awful (tacking angle + leeway >120 degrees), the jib gets furled completely and the staysail works really well. Keeping a clean slot between the sails with wind forward of the beam is tricky but you learn. Downwind would be far better with your arrangement (no main, no gybes) and sounds like fun. The sheet tracks might be difficult?

Good luck!

 

[Guest]

I considered this solution on my HR36 but settled for a inner forestay (kept at the mast) and hank on storm sails.
Interesting idea although.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Seen a lot on Island Packets and Vancouvers, except the inner is permanently rigged.

You might look at a few to see how they do it.

As to having it removable - do you intend to have a foil/torque tube on the stay? Because if so, how will you stow it when it's not flying? Wire is OK fixed to a shroud and won't do itself any harm, but a foil tied off somewhere is likely to batter itself to death in short order.

 

[tomboy352]

A Selden agent suggested that I should use the same rachet tensioning device which tacks the foil to the foredeck to tighten the foil to the lower fwd shroud when not in use and gip it up so it didnt come to any harm. The big Genny is not much use at around 30kts across the deck. The working jib reefs well up to near gale conditions (depends on sea state and direction). I'm trying to avoid foredeck work in deteriorating conditions . A shorter, removable stay didnt appeal to me as it wouldnt have the range of uses that the extra foller would. Ease of sail handling up to F8 ,a stay on which to set a storm sail and down wind uses.

 

[pvb]

Ahh...

I'm not sure that would work. If the new roller stay is short enough to ratchet down at the forward lower shroud fitting, it's probably going to be too short to fit properly at the bows. Bear in mind that a roller needs a fairly secure fitting at the bows (not a strop) if it's going to furl properly. You can check the measurements easily with a halyard, before you spend too much time on this.

Another consideration is whether you'd want a roller system (with a sail already on and furled) stowed with the foot at the lower forward shroud fitting. What about chafe on the spreaders?

You'll have seen the factory-option removable forestay on other 352s. It's a good, secure system. Might be worth retro-fitting something similar.

 

[Abaker]

Re: Ahh...

We sail a 1989 Crealock 34 which Pacific Seacraft sold as sloop or cutter (14.5 ft J in both). We chose cutter with detachable inner stay (slutter if you prefer) and hanked on sails. Staysail sheets go to tracks on coach roof, then back to stoppers and halyard winches. Recently added furler to forestay and replaced Genoa with new 120% cut rather like a Yankee by local Doyle loft. Did not put furler on inner stay for reasons mentioned in earlier posts. The hanked on staysail (115 sq ft) is easy to use in all conditions we have encountered (including Force 8). In moderate to heavy weather the staysail and reefed main are often all we need. The staysail easily heaves to without chafing its sheets. When daysailing in lighter weather the inner stay is quick and easy to detach (lever fitting at deck) permitting easier tacking of the 120. It's a great cruising rig.

 

[tomboy352]

Re: Ahh...Ahh

Plan A was to use a piece of fabbed s/s bar on the foredeck to lengthen the foil, which would have to be set to length at the lower forwards. Also, when the foil was tacked down at the lower forward shroud, the working jib wouldnt be attached . You're right in saying that I will have to check the various lengths involved using a Halyard, so as to get an idea of feasability. We will be aboard this w/e and will look seriously at the lay of things. I have very little experience of piston hanked,cutter rig and didnt fancy the idea of extra sheeting tracks on board if there was another solution.

 

[Twister_Ken]

Jib sheeting

This might be a bit tweaky, and involves some extra string but it works for me.

When required I set a blade jib from a detachable inner forestay. Given the cut of the sail it should sheet inside the shrouds to somewhere halfway between the gunwhale and the cabin trunk. But in the boat's structure there's nothing very beefy to take the load at that point.

So I've drilled the mast step (relatively, a massive casting) P & S, and shackled blocks on. Through these I run lines terminating at the forward end in snatch blocks. These are clipped over the jib sheets, and hauled in and down until the sheet lead looks right. The sheet runs via this snatch block to the normal sheet track, turning block and winch.

It's a bit like a giant version of the dinghy sailor's barbour hauler.

Trust that makes sense - ask for more details if it doesn't.