Tacking a Cutter Rig

O

Old Bumbulum

Well-Known Member
Joined
11 May 2018
Messages
1,112
Visit site
My new (to me) cutter rigged boat is proving a right handful to tack.

On passing through the wind the jib (Yankee) backs both fore an aft of the stays'l stay and sticks there refusing to pass forward of it to enable the tack to complete. I can haul hard on the lazy sheet to drag the balooning clew forward to the stays'l stay but there it sticks because of the knot (even though it's just a lark's head) and is clearly doing a lot of heavy friction to all parts. As a solo sailer (I nearly said singlehander) this is all very unwelcome as I only have two hands, not four.

It also makes heaving-to an inelegant friction fest. Furl jib and heave-to under stays'l perhaps?

What's the trick?
 
Last edited:
I have a cutter rig and love it. When tacking in light winds, I set the staysail and make it as tight as possible. This fills the gap and the yankee blows through. IOnce tacked, I furl the starysail again

In stronger winds, I do not want to put out yet more sail so I furl the yankee to at least the first if not second reef. Once tacked I undfurl again

TudorSailor
.
 
Mine does as yours in light winds but is better as the wind picks up. Having the staysail set also improves matters.

Often wonder if tweeking design of yankee might help - ie maximise luff, and a bit less at the clew end.

Heaving to - you have options, but find yankee and main work best. I only heave to by tacking and not releasing sheet, so no grinding required.

If self tacking staysail, try just winding it in hard and putting the helm down. Hopefully she will not have enough way to tack so will heave to without the foresail on the windward side.
 
Last edited:
I'm assuming i'ts a true Yankee cut about 125% with a high clew and not simply a standard jib? Might it be that the inner stay is positioned too far forward - if it's been added to a sloop rig you may want to get some advice to see it's positioned correctly; it probably wouldn't be a major job to move it although that would be a last resort.
 
Last edited:
Old Bumbulum said:
My new (to me) cutter rigged boat is proving a right handful to tack.

On passing through the wind the jib (Yankee) backs both fore an aft of the stays'l stay and sticks there refusing to pass forward of it to enable the tack to complete. I can haul hard on the lazy sheet to drag the balooning clew forward to the stays'l stay but there it sticks because of the knot (even though it's just a lark's head) and is clearly doing a lot of heavy friction to all parts. As a solo sailer (I nearly said singlehander) this is all very unwelcome as I only have two hands, not four.

It also makes heaving-to an inelegant friction fest. Furl jib and heave-to under stays'l perhaps?

What's the trick?
Click to expand...

Sounds like your two stays are just too close together for the size of jib. Do you have a photo so we can see? Yes, I would roll up the jib before heaving to.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
If the staysail is on a furler it is best to have it in use. The foil will offer far less friction than a rolled in staysail. We used small bowlines-the sheets did have big ugly ones which I re-tied.

With our previous boat, an Island Packet 350, this was the only reliable way to tack.

The staysail was self tacking, on a Hoyt boom system. The gap was small between the staysail and Genoa. By turning through the tack and allowing the genoa to back, carefull slacking of the live sheet would allow me to take the slack out of the new live sheet as the Genoa passed quetly through the gap. This would NOT happen with a furled staysail.

It became much easier when we deep sixed the 135% Genoa for a 100% high cut yankee.

Keep practicing-it is a well known fact that the first ten years are the worst.................................
 
Roll in the yankee a bit first then tack works for me. And some dyneema spliced to the sheet then into a soft shackle at the clew end of the yankee sheet so little friction and no knots to catch.

Or as a cruising boat just wait for some nice wind so no tacking required ;)
 
To avoid the sheets catching, you could do what many dinghies do for their asy kite sheets.
Splice the sheets into a 'y' with a tail to tie to the sail.
The sheet then has no knot which is able to catch on the stay.
There are several ways of achieving this.
One is to splice a thin dyneema tail into the middle of the sheet.
 
hi, I was interested in your post as I had more or less the same problem when I first bought my present boat. You don't say what your boat is and I assume that they are all going to have somewhat different handling characteristics. With the Vancouver 28 I found that in order to get through the tack reliably I first had to release the staysail and let it flap, it's not that big and this doesn't seem to cause any problems. Then keep the yankee sheeted in until well through the wind, i.e. so the sail is effectively backed, holding on until the boat is more or less on the new course before releasing it and sheeting home on the new tack. The wind pressure on the backed sail seems to whip it round the inner forestay without a problem. Now this is just what I've worked out for myself, I would be very interested in any other or better ways of doing this. Obviously, the above assumes sufficient boat speed to complete the manoeuvre.
 
I have a Vancouver 27 and I find the best way way to tack is to keep the staysail set, put the helm down and do not release the Yankee sheets until you are through the wind , when you release the yankee its slides over the set Staysail, as soon as it is through I release the staysail. I have a high cut yankee, I did have more problems tacking with a lower cut Yankee and the staysail.

David MH
 
Thanks all, some very useful comments here.

I'll try the stays'l set and tack 'til backed technique but do need to manage with no stays'l set so the dyneema tail sounds like a good idea if that dosn't do the job.

The sail is a high-cut 100% ish Yankee and the gap is not huge but bigger than some, a 35footer with the stays'l mounted at the bow and a 1.5m bowsprit (steel gantry) carrying the Yankee.
 
Cutter rig here (Moody 54).

I would suggest, first of all, getting rid of the knots at the ends of your sheets. I spliced loops into the ends of mine and then attach to the clew with dyneema soft shackles. Makes a big difference -- eliminates snags.

Second, timing of the tack is very important. In my experience, you can pop the clew through the slot without too much difficulty so long as the jib is fully depowered and not backed. So try blowing the sheet instantly as soon as the jib starts to collapse, as you bring the bow around, and pull it through smartly with the other sheet. It works very well for us -- this cutter, despite the huge size of the headsail, is no more difficult to tack than our previous sloop.

Lastly -- what kind of sun strip do you have on the staysail? Some of them have a lot of friction and will make tacking difficult. You can get a slippery Sunbrella for this which works great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top