twizzle rig

[lornagrace]

could anyone kindly let me know what the lengths of the poles should be for this set up; is it the "J" measurement of the vessel on which the rig is to be used?
used to have a telephone number fore the guy that made the rig in the UK but can't seem to find it any where....doh!
thanks in advance for any help,

cheers Phil

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Not used twizzle myself, but with 2 headsails you can use the spinnaker pole on one side and the main boom (guyed out, mainsail stowed obviously) on the other. Maybe not as neat, but very serviceable.

 

[Pete7]

Phil, worth having a look at You tube, Swagman has done some serious ocean crossings and describes his set up.

Pete

 

[macd]

I had a Twistle on my last boat. Great rig in the Trades.
My set up was based on recommendations that each sail should be 110% of the foretriangle (but in effect rather less because they're cut high in the clew like a yankee); the poles should each be 80 to 95% of the greatest depth of the sail, perpendicular from the bolt rope to the clew. Shorter is easier to handle, longer perhaps more efficient, but you obviously do not want the hinge banging into the mast.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

Great link here about the Twizzel rig.

 

[KellysEye]

>Great link http://www.simetric.co.uk/twizzle_rig/index.htm about the Twizzel rig.

Loooking at the picture the poles are attached to the mast which doesn't cut down rolling. A Twistle rig is a free flying rig with a joint, uphaul and downhaul and does cut down rolling because the sails are not pushing the mast and vice versa. We had a Twistle rig and bought the joint and poles from Dennis Maidment, PM me I'll give you his telephone number. He can also advise on the sail size, Ratsey and Lapthorne make sails for Twistle rigs, if you only have one luff foil they sew the luffs together. Anything elase you need to know please le me know.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

Look again. Dip into the site and you will see there is a 'bridle' of sorts that flies forward of the mast, secured by uphaul and downhaul. The claim is that by allowing the poles to float to port and starboard, spilling wind from one sail to the other, it reduces rolling.
There's a few videos of the rig in action. It looks like a pretty neat rig for tradewind sailing capable of taking the wind over either quarter or dead astern.

>Great link http://www.simetric.co.uk/twizzle_rig/index.htm about the Twizzel rig.

Loooking at the picture the poles are attached to the mast which doesn't cut down rolling. A Twistle rig is a free flying rig with a joint, uphaul and downhaul and does cut down rolling because the sails are not pushing the mast and vice versa. We had a Twistle rig and bought the joint and poles from Dennis Maidment, PM me I'll give you his telephone number. He can also advise on the sail size, Ratsey and Lapthorne make sails for Twistle rigs, if you only have one luff foil they sew the luffs together. Anything elase you need to know please le me know.

 

[LadyInBed]

Length of poles has got to reflect size of sails.
My Spinaker pole is just over +1ft J and my light weight whisker Pole is about J -1ft. If a pole is too long you can use a bridle or in case of twizzel make the X over between the poles bigger. If the poles are too short there is not a lot you can do about it except roll in sail.
As for rolling, I have argued this a couple of times. Spilling air is the problem, parachutes when first designed suffered from the pendulum effect. The problem was solved when a hole was put at the apex to spill air. The same principle applies with twin head sails, if there is an air gap between the two luffs, air spills and you don't roll (from wind effect, wave effect will still make you roll).
Similar with the parachute designed Spinaker.

 

[KellysEye]

>Dip into the site and you will see there is a 'bridle' of sorts that flies forward of the mast, secured by uphaul and downhaul.

Good spot, I couldn't see that when I first looked. It looks like the poles are overlapped which indicate he has tied the poles together with rope, which is not unusual. However it does enable chafe on the poles, a hinge is the way to go to avoid chafe, which is what we used. You are right about the angles of sail I was amazed how far off dead down wind you can sail. If you have a fairly short passage upwind after the downwind run then you can overlap them and they don't chafe. The beauty of a twistle rig is than you have an infinite number of reefing sizes, unlike a spinnaker where you have to change to a smaller spinnaker if the wind goes up or take it down. We carried a spinnaker but never used it.

>The same principle applies with twin head sails, if there is an air gap between the two luffs, air spills and you don't roll (from wind effect, wave effect will still make you roll).

I have to say I have never seen that and it would reduce power.

 

[macd]

>Great link http://www.simetric.co.uk/twizzle_rig/index.htm about the Twizzel rig.

Loooking at the picture the poles are attached to the mast

As Porthandbuoy wrote, this is not the case: check out other images on the link.

There isn't a lot of authoritative stuff out there on Twistle* rig, but your link above is certainly as good as any.

* I was taken to task a while back for calling it 'Twizzle'. But no matter: we know what we're referring to. If searching, Google both.

 

[geem]

We used our twizzle across the Atlantic a few years ago. We used twin spinnaker poles and the twizzle free floating a metre in front of the mast. We didn't use special sails. We had the normal genoa on the furler and a second smaller genoa set free flying. The slot between the two sails acted as a pressure relief. If the wind got a little strong we furled the genoa so the two sails were similar size. If it got very windy we furled the genoa more or dropped the free flying smaller sail. Worked very well.