Whats this self tacking jib stuff all about?

[Nostrodamus]

I have seen a few boats of late with self tacking jibs although I have never been on a boat with one (unless you count backing the jib by mistake).
They obviously work otherwise they would not be fitted as standard on some boats but can they ever work as well as a taditional sail?

 

[DJE]

Traditional self tacker?

 

[Norman_E]

Some boats are designed for it, and that usually means that the mast is set well forward with a big mainsail as the principal power unit. I guess however that it is a trade off between ultimate performance and ease of sailing. If you are going to be single handing in confined waters then a self tacker must be a delight. I have seen a boat with twin forestays close together. The forward one carries a genoa, which needs to be rolled to tack, and the inner one carries a self tacking jib. That strikes me as a nice arrangement, especially as the genoa furler is electric.

Island Packet yachts are often rigged that way, using a hoyt boom which has other advantages. Downwind the boom effectively poles out the jib.

 

[Seajet]

Yes they work very well as staysail on a cutter, a bit less so on a sloop.

General consensus seems to be the performance loss is too great - the sail cannot overlap so most of the slot effect is lost - unless one is in an area where short-tacking with a small or no crew is required.

A furling chute would overcome a lot of the loss, and give a very flexible rig.

 

[snowleopard]

They have been around for donkey's years. I had a self-tacking staysail on my 1908 gaffer. They work pretty well but the big mistake is to substitute one for a conventional genoa because the loss in area affects performance. In boats designed for them they are good. Here's mine...

Note the special clew arrangement as you can't adjust the twist by moving the sheet fore & aft.

 

[Tranona]

As with all things there are pros and cons, so you have to weigh up your priorities and decide which is best for you.

A couple of years ago YM ran a comparison between two Southerlys with the same 35 ft hull but with different rigs as they offer the choice. The conclusions reflect the differences already mentioned. Self tacking jib scores on convenience and ease of tacking but loses when wind is free because of lack of sail area. This can be offset to an extent by having some form of easily deployed reaching sail. Hunters offered this kind of rig as standard on many of their boats.

Advantages are different on a cutter rig and jib booms have been in use for many years, but not universally, so they don't seemingly have a clearcut advantage. The development of reliable and effective roller reefing headsails on all rigs has reduced the value of selftackers for convenience sake, but there are clearly some people who do value them.

 

[Ceirwan]

I have seen some boats with a small overlap by installing a curved track for the self tacking jib, but I'd have thought the difference was minimal.

 

[Averisera]

self tacking headsail experience

We have two Hanse yachts in our program. They have self tacking headsails. We have several Solings also fitted with self tacking headsails. Our Aphrodite has the kit for one but we don't use it.

In the vernacular of Massachusetts: self tacking headsails are "wicked pissa." That's compliment.

Two principal things to note. The traveller must be fitted with control lines or the noise of the damn thing sliding around on a reach will make you crazy. The sheet must be either 12 strand or hollow core; regular double braid gets a memory and twists.

Personally, they fall into the category of midboom sheeting: a convenience that really isn't. It is for daysailors who sail with non-sailing friends. If that is your sailing type, and it is for most folks, the system is magic. Our members love self tackers.

 

[maby]

Most British Hunters have self-tacking jibs as standard. There's a curved "curtain-rail" sort of track that runs across the boat in front of the mast foot and the clew of the jib is coupled to a slide that runs on that track via a single jib sheet.

The jib sheet comes from the clew down to a block on the slide and then up to another block half way up the mast before routing back down and back to a jammer and winch on the coach roof. The jib is roller reefed and you unfurl it and set it by hauling on the single jib sheet. It relies on the fact that you normally are tacking the same angle either side of the wind, so the slide just runs from one side to the other and you don't have to adjust anything.

Of course, it does mean that you can only have a small jib - 90% or so... We had one on our Ranger, but we only flew it if we were feeling lazy - otherwise we flew a standard jib...

 

[Dockhead]

If it's like the self-tacking staysail on my cutter, it's ****. You only have one rope to play with, and no way to trim it within a mile of what you want.