cutter rigs on small boats

[mrbill]

I had a rather vigourous discussion with a rigger the other day regarding cutter rigs on small boats. His opinion is that no boat under 40' should have a cutter rig. The staysail and jib are too close together and there is no aerodynamic advantage to having both the jib and the staysail up at the same time. Unless you are going offshore was his only caveat where he thought a cutter rig might be OK.

This discussion arose as I commented I was getting rid of my roller furler on the jib. My 25' boat came with a cutter rig with a mainsail, a staysail, and a 150% jenny on a furler. In my first season of sailing I found that the jenny was useless to windward if I had to tack, as it had to be rolled up for every tack since the gap between the forestay and inner stay was too small. So I decided to get a 100% working jib with a high cut foot, hanked on. This should be able to be tacked easily, and with the jib and staysail I have as much square footage of sail as with the jenny. Rolling up the jenny didn't work as I lost too much power so that in any wind or waves, the boat would stall in a tack and not go through the wind.

He ways I will never sail again, as I won't want to go forward to change sails when the winds lighten and I want the jenny, or the winds increase and I want to go to the jib.

I say he doesn't know me very well.

Anyway, what is the opinion here of the merits of a cutter rig on a small boat, and hanked on sails versus a roller furling?

[Frank]

Charles Stock would NOT agree.He has over 70,000knm (yes..70,000) on his 16ft gaff cutter !! I am not at home so don't have access to his link here...but if you check under 'favorite links' somewhere on this site , you will find his link. Check out his thoughts on why gaff and why a cutter...he is probably THEE most experienced and knowledgable true 'small craft' guy out ther. His boats name is shoalwaters...he loves his lil cutter ;-)

[AdriftAtSea]

While many people fit an inner stay to a sloop rigged boat, it doesn't automatically make it a cutter.  The mast on a cutter is generally a bit further aft than the mast on a sloop.

I think an inner staysail stay is probably a good idea, especially for hoisting a storm jib. It will bring the center of effort closer to the center of lateral resistance, and will help with heavy weather performance. 

[Fortis]

My Endeavour 26 comes with an inner stay that runs the storm sail and ..oh heck...forgot the name of the damned thing, it is a small flat headsail you can run at the same time as the spinnaker.

the smaller version of my boat, the E24 also uses the same system. The E19 is the only one that doesn't. I have seen 16footers built as cutters proper and it seems to work very well for them.

As with anything else, a cutter rig gives you options...this is only useful if you are prepared to use them and are knowledgable about when and how to use them....If the option is going ot be a one time thing, then you just don't need it.

Remember that depending on how far down the mast the second stay connects may mean you need running rigging to support it. This is a royal PITA. That is what I would be finding a rigger to talk about!


Alex.

[Leroy - Gulf 29]

Could you put a Johnson lever on the inner stay and make it removable? and keep your RF?  I really liked the CDI RF on the clipper and am converting the Gulf to the same.  I may run an inner stay on the Gulf but probably not until I get venturous in my sailing.

[AdriftAtSea]

I don't see why not... I know several people who have made an inner storm staysail stay with just such a rig.  The real problem is that the base plate of the johnson lever has to be be very strongly anchored in to the hull and deck.  The other issue is that some masts will require running backstays to support the mast when the inner stay is in use.

[Frank]

Most newer flicka's have an eye already welded on the mast for rigging it to a cutter.Because of the relatively small size of the sail, often a simple wire luff is suffice.I considered it and was going to go with no wire but simply the hi-tech/no stretch rope luff.That would make it an easily stowed sail. Simply tighten by bending on the halyard. I realize that this may not be 'perfect' for beating...but then on a small boat the stay sail isn't a great asset beating anyway. I liked the thought of simply pulling it out and hoisting it without an extra inner stay or 'johnson bar' to tighten it. SIMPLE. Wouldn't work for larger sails but on a smaller craft it sure would be the KISS approach. Cheaper too. Cheap and simple=good in my books