Buck Turgidson
Well-known member
The title says sail plans. Reefing a sail changes the plan.
We used 13 different sail plans on our ketch
- Thread starter geem
- Start date
geem
Well-known member
No it doesn't. It's still main and Genoa whether it's reefed or not
Sandy
Well-known member
A huge amount of hair splitting going on.
geem
Well-known member
Wiki says
A sail plan is a description of the specific ways that a sailing craft is rigged. Also, the term "sail plan" is a graphic depiction of the arrangement of the sails for a given sailing craft.
dunedin
Well-known member
Just in case 13 permutations is not comped enough for you If you scaled down a square rigged ship (Galleon), for example, so it was 50 times smaller, would it sail normally when sailing with the ...
DanTribe
Well-known member
I sometimes crew on a 50ft gaff ketch.
3 headsails, mainsail and tops'l, mizzen and tops'l, mizzen staysail, spinnaker and squaresail, 10 in total and everything is heavy.
When fully crewed the owner claims that everybody gets their own sail to look after. Somehow they manage to cruise widely as a couple.
3 headsails, mainsail and tops'l, mizzen and tops'l, mizzen staysail, spinnaker and squaresail, 10 in total and everything is heavy.
When fully crewed the owner claims that everybody gets their own sail to look after. Somehow they manage to cruise widely as a couple.
oldmanofthehills
Well-known member
The ketch rig was designed for ease of use by fishermen and short handed crews which is why some schooners were converted to ketch despite the slightly worse performance. I still remember watching with pleasure a single handed ketch storm ahead of the rest of the well crewed racing fleet as it suddenly gusted F6. He let go of mainsail halliard and it all flopped on the deck while everyone else was madly reefing.
A cruising couple can ignore maximum performance except when assisted by extra hands
dunedin
Well-known member
Ketch rig was useful for fishing under sail for very specific reasons - can sail under jib and mizzen slowly when fishing, leaving middle of boat clear for working the nets and fish sorting. Then hoist large mainsail to rush back to harbour.
Very different from a modern cruising yacht. And not sure which decade (century?) your example was of a ketch pulling ahead of a fully crewed racing fleet, but these days with efficient slab reefing most boats can reef quickly and easily going to windward in a couple of minutes, barely losing speed whilst doing so - even single handed if single line reefing.
DanTribe
Well-known member
I understand the theory but in practice it's not so cut & dried. The gaff on this boat weighs loads. By the time two of us have hoisted and swigged up the throat and main halyards we need a breather. Coiling the miles of rope gives a bit of rest, but that's when the skipper usually calls for the tops'l.
.We aren't supposed to use the electric winches while racing but sometimes someone accidently steps on the switch.
Just letting go of the halyards to reduce sail isn't really an option. The crashing gaff is likely to kill someone!
oldmanofthehills
Well-known member
I saw ketch beat sloops at Brightlingsea in about 2010. The problem may have been for the sloops that they were too light so over on their ear as gusts came in. I bought a ketch late 2010 partly propelled by my observation.
Though as you correctly observe ketch=catch, trading schooners in the Bristol Channel were often converted to ketch in order to reduce crewing requirements or workload in difficult waters
oldmanofthehills
Well-known member
I have sailed a mizzen rigged fishing lugger and and well aware of the heavy nature of these antique boats. Good fun and susprising fast and close winded but hard work really needing 4 plus helm just to tack the main lug.I understand the theory but in practice it's not so cut & dried. The gaff on this boat weighs loads. By the time two of us have hoisted and swigged up the throat and main halyards we need a breather. Coiling the miles of rope gives a bit of rest, but that's when the skipper usually calls for the tops'l.
We aren't supposed to use the electric winches while racing but sometimes someone accidently steps on the switch.
Just letting go of the halyards to reduce sail isn't really an option. The crashing gaff is likely to kill someone!
Gaff is beautiful to look at but hardly state of the art. Most ketches I see nowadays are GRP with bermunda rig type mainsail, so dropping the main is a touch simpler particularly if lazy jacks fitted.
DanTribe
Well-known member
Modern materials and techniques can make a big difference. A fellow club member had a lovely tradional looking Itchen Ferry. It was a lightweight replica with carbon fibre spars painted brown, high tech sails and rigging. She went like stink and fooled lots of people. The racing Falmouth oyster boats are anothe hi-tech example.
Never sailed a lugger and don't think they are for me nowadays.
Never sailed a lugger and don't think they are for me nowadays.
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oldmanofthehills
Well-known member
The restorer on our museum lugger had not known to taper the lug spar towards the ends, so about 30% heavier than needed, which is why only rugby built bosun could haul it aloft on his own with the 4:1 block but otherwise it needed 2. Fast boat but designed for single tack to fishing grounds and single reverse tack hurrying to home port to sell catch. We managed in under a minute to lower then raise on far side but hard graft