Solent sail?

[haydude]

Reading the Vendee Globe reports I came across references to the "Solent" sail.
What type of sail is this? I thought that the "Solent" rig was "mainsail only with engine on".

 

[nathanlee]

Very good.

I thought it was the sail on the inner forestay, as part of a solent rig, which is a temporary/undoable cutter rig.

I maybe mistaken though.

 

[marklucas]

Very good.

I thought it was the sail on the inner forestay, as part of a solent rig, which is a temporary/undoable cutter rig.

I maybe mistaken though.

... and generally has a high foot enabling one to see under it and to avoid greenies over the bow catching it and causing damage.

 

[Goldie]

What type of sail is this? I thought that the "Solent" rig was "mainsail only with engine on".

That's the Solent 'up wind' rig, the 'down wind' rig is headsail only with engine on.

A (Moody owning) friend reckons that Moody with both sails up in the solent is signalling engine failure

 

[sailorman]

... and generally has a high foot enabling one to see under it and to avoid greenies over the bow catching it and causing damage.

Solent jib - full hoist short foot ( blade sail )

 

[bbg]

Solent jib - full hoist short foot ( blade sail )

Correct. It does not have a high clew - normally a deck-sweeping sail.

 

[sailorman]

Correct. It does not have a high clew - normally a deck-sweeping sail.

Did I say that

Im not a Yankee

 

[l'escargot]

Correct. It does not have a high clew - normally a deck-sweeping sail.

I always understood it to have a high clew and to not be deck sweeping to avoid the Solent chop catching it on the foredeck - on an inner forestry if you have one?

 

[bbg]

I always understood it to have a high clew and to not be deck sweeping to avoid the Solent chop catching it on the foredeck - on an inner forestry if you have one?

I don't know where the name comes from but seems to be much used in France, at least in racing circles, and when I raced there was adopted by the anglophones to mean a 100% (approx) jib. Clew on deck. I suspect the reports from the Vendee are either the French using the term this way, or maybe this usage adopted by the anglophones.

A Yankee has a high clew. A solent doesn't, at least for me.

@ sailorman no you did not say high clew. Marklucas did, and I was responding to him.

There are other peculiarities between English and French sailing vocabulary. To the French "gennak" is a rolled genoa-like sail set flying on a bowsprit using a furler. English would call that a Code 0, whereas a gennaker typically refers to a flatish cruising spinnaker.

Edit I should add I don't know the particular vocabulary for the 60s. Some of the boats look like they have three permanently rigged forestays. I'm not sure which sail they would refer to as the Solent.