Trident Voyager 40 rig change

[Guest]

I wish to change the current Bermudan sloop rig to a Cutter rig with self tacking Staysail but am unable to get any details of whether it will work (Tridents not trading anymore and Northshore advising me to contact the original designer). I know the Warrior 40 (which is similar) comes with this rig layout but does the Staysail and Mainsail have enough power to enable tacking without the Genoa/Yankee?

The Mainsail size is 206 sq ft and the Staysail will be 108 sq ft.

Thanks in anticipation of the flood of replies,

Mike.

 

[jeanne]

I had a Self tacking staysail on my home built 33ft cutter, but after trying three different sheeting systems, I went back to normal sheets, which have more power and less snags. The snags were these: when you ease sheets the sail lifts, instead of going out; on a run or reach the free boom makes the foredeck dangerous, and it also makes a noise right over the off-watch crews sleeping heads. There is also the loss of sail area and efficiency due to the staysail not overlapping the main. It worked fine to windward, and balanced the main perfectly when the 2nd reef was in, at other times she needed some jib unrolled. My boat has a 6 ft bowsprit, so there was plenty of separation between the sails, which may be a problem for you to achieve. If I were you, I would buy a cheap jib [from Sea-teach ?] and experiment with it before making firm plans, and this would be easier to do if you start with conventional sheets. I'm a big fan of cutter rig, tho'. There is no great problem tacking with two sheets to handle, even single handed.

 

[ccscott49]

I never use my staysail, on a boom, when the wind is less than 10 degrees forward of the beam. Thats just my way of doing things. IMHO

 

[charles_reed]

Unfortunately, for you, Angus Primrose is enjoying sailing in the afterlife, together with Tabarly and many other sailing heroes.

Fitting a twin headsail rig is a fairly major task - you have two alternatives:

1. Reposition the mast further back.

2. Fit a bowsprit for the foresail.

Both require fairly careful calculation and #2 is requires a less major rebuild of the boat.

Bill Dixon can probably help - but you'd be out of order expecting it to be done for free.
Unless you undertake the work yourself the cost will probably be more than the boat is worth.

 

[jamesjermain]

I think Charles is being over pessimistic about the changes needed to convert to a self-tacking cutter rig.

The Warrior 38, with is to all intents the same boat, has a club-footed, self-tacking staysail and a jib/genoa tacked to the stembead. Bill Dixon, successor to Angus Primrose, will have the sail plan but may well extract a fee for it. However, assuming your mast has double spreaders, if you take the inner forestay from just below the upper set to a point on the foredeck such that the two stays are roughly parallel, this would be about right. You may well find that there is a strong point or reinforcement there already to take the loads. If not, you will have to reinforce that area of foredeck and, ideally, tie it into a bulkhead or similar structure. Any competent yard should be able to advise on this.

The comments below about sheeting a self-tacking headsail are valid, but a club boom does help to keep the foot down. An alternative is to sheet the sail to a curved horse which helps keep the shape, at least to windward and on a close reach. If you are really keel to keep the sail at optimum shape with the wind further aft, you could use a barber hauler. Most cruising yachtsmen would coinsider this an over-refinement.

You should have no difficulty tacking with this rig except, possibly, in very light airs, when you will probably have the big genoa up as well.

JJ