When you contemplate how you want to rig a new boat or how best to change and upgrade the existing rig on your boat, you have to consider both the standing and the running rigs. The standing rig is comprised of the masts and booms and the fixed wire rigging holding them aloft, while the running rigging is the sails, and all the halyards, sheets, downhauls you use to hoist and trim the sails. Whether you are looking at sailing with the latest in sail handling gear and high-tech equipment and instruments, or you plan to sail with a simple and standard rig, you will have to think of how you want to set up the mast so it does what you need it to do, and how to arrange the sails so they perform to their best. To do this, it is best to think of the whole rig as two interrelated systems.

The Standing Rig


In general, the standing rig must be set up in such a way that it keeps the mast or masts vertical, stationary and unbent under the pressures of sailing. Moreover, the standing rig, ought to be adjustable to the point that sail trim can be affected, either temporarily or permanently. The standing rig should not be simply set up at launching time and then forgotten. Wire stretches, boats change shape slightly, sails require different amounts of rake or mast bend. The standing rig is dynamic and requires thought and trim just like the sails and running rig. How you plan to sail, and what type of running rigging you plan to use will affect how you set up and adjust your standing rig.

The Running Rig


There are so many ways to approach the running rig that most sailors design their own combination of systems to get the overall sailing system they need and want. In general, the running rig should be arranged to suit the boat's normal crew, should be simple enough to work in both very light and heavy weather, should be as adjustable or tweakable as possible and should include the right sails for any wind strength or wind direction you are likely to meet. How you decide to set up the running rig will in most cases depend upon your sailing experience, whether you prefer to sail with many guys, downhauls and so forth or without them. As we discuss the wide variety of rigs and sail-handling systems available to sailors, both the standing and the running rigs for each system will be covered so the relationship between the two can be understood. The aim of this article is to help both newcomers and experienced sailors simplify sailhandling and make the best of the available techniques and equipment available. My biases are clear: I like roller furling/roller reefing sails, having sailed many thousands of miles with them; I like spinnakers, mizzen staysails and other fun and fast sails; and I like a rig with enough sail combinations to allow the boat to be sailed efficiently in everything from 5 knots to 40 knots. That said, I have owned and sailed just about all conventional and modern rigs and know that each system has its benefits and its drawbacks. Setting up the right sailing system for you and your boat requires almost a statement of personal philosophy: am I a traditionalist or a pragmatist or a futurist? Which ever you are, there's a rig for you.

Setting Up Conventional Rigs


Most boats today are rigged with a straightforward Bermudian sloop arrangement. The days of gaff-headed rigs are gone, and in boats under 45 feet it is rare today to see a yawl or a ketch. The standard production sloop, as we know it, has evolved from boats designed for performance around the race course. Yet there are other strong influences as well: the bare boat charter business has contributed many design features to today's boats, including the wide acceptance of roller furling headsails; and traditional work boat design, full keels, short rigs and so forth have contributed to the development of conservative blue water passagemakers. Still, today's sailboat, more often than not, is a fiberglass sloop, with a fairly high aspect (tall) mainsail with some roach curve and partial battens and, forward, a standard 120 percent genoa hanked onto the headstay with piston hooks. Most manufacturers of new boats offer roller furling headsails as an option and many buyers opt for them. But, for those who choose not to and for all those who sail older boats that have not been retrofitted with roller headsails, there are a several important points to think of when setting up the standing and running rig. The first item of business is to make sure the standing rig is set up correctly and is adjusted for your sails and sailing style. The object of setting up the rig is to ensure, first, that it stays standing in all conditions and, second, that it helps you trim your sails effectively. The mast should be set up in tension: all stays lowers, caps shrouds, headstay and backstay are tight; the mast is centered over the hull and the headstay is tauter than the rest to prevent sagging. It is common practice to set up a mast-head sloop that is not fitted with hydraulics on the backstay with a slight prebend in the mast. The bend back at the top of the mast is achieved by setting the mast up centered and straight first. Then, gradually tighten the back stay until the top one third of the mast curves slightly aft. Prebend sets the rig up for a wide range of sailing conditions, gives you a good indication of the tension in the rig and, most importantly, ensures that you do not bend the mast forward when sailing to windward. Masts fail when they bend out of column because the cap shrouds are too loose or because they bend forward above the spreaders when the backstay is too loose. If you have an adjustable or hydraulic backstay, you will be able to tune the tension in the rig by fine increments. As you sail up wind in a rising breeze, you increase tension on the backstay, thereby keeping the headstay bar taught and putting a slight backward curve in the top of the mast, which flattens out the mainsail and moves the main's draft forward. As you head off the wind, or as the wind drops you can decrease tension on the backstay to give more shape to the main and relax tension on the headstay. At the end of the day, you can further decrease tension on the backstay, giving all the swagings, turnbuckles and fittings on the fore and backstays a rest. You will find that an hydraulic or easily adjustable backstay will significantly improve the windward performance of your boat. Tension meters are available to measure the approximate tension of the stays as you set up the rig. The simplest is the Loos Tension Meters, available through most catalog houses and chandleries. Such meters are most useful on smaller boats with smaller stay-wire sizes. On larger boats, unless you plan to install complex and expensive strain gauges, it is necessary to develop a "feel" for stay tension and to continually watch how stays stretch. The single most common failure point in the standing rig is at the rolled swagings that form the terminals on most rigs. The wire (1 by 19 stainless steel) is compressed within the swaging under great loads. Yet, the swaging itself is open at the wire end, permitting water to percolate down the wire into the interior of the swaging. Even though all the parts are stainless steel, corrosion can form which in time can break wire stands where they emerge from the swaging. In extreme cases, the swaging itself can crack. In either case, once the stainless has begun to fail, you must replace the whole stay . Stainless steel has the bad habit of looking fine until it fails completely. A quick word about stainless steel: Although 316 grade stainless steel is used by all reputable rigging and gear manufacturers as a minimum grade, the steel is only stainless while it can react with air. When stainless steel is immersed in water and cut off from air (inside a swaging), the stainless properties of the alloy cease to work. Hence the corrosion. To prevent corrosion the open ends of all swagings should be filled with silicone and checked and refilled with silicone on a regular basis. The best terminals for standing wire rigging are Norseman or StaLok fittings. These are patented mechanical terminals, which can be assembled and disassembled by anyone and can be replaced if suspect. Experienced ocean sailors prefer these terminals because they can be checked, repaired and adapted to repairs. Also, unlike swagings, mechanical terminals are not subject to interior corrosion. But, they are much more expensive than swagings. Rod rigging, which is used on most racing boats and many high-tech cruising boats, has the advantage over 1 by 19 wire of greater strength for its weight, lower windage and less stretch. Manufacturers such as Navtech have perfected the terminal fittings and spreader end fittings that once were a source of failure in rod rigs. The new systems of rod rigging are comprised of discontinuous sections that terminate in special tip cups at the ends of the spreaders as well as at the mast and on deck. If you chose to go with rod rigging, you will find it more expensive than wire, but it offers better performance. If you want to upgrade your rig to a high level of performance, rod rigging with an adjustable hydraulic backstay should be your choice. For those with older boats the question of a rig's useful lifespan needs answering. Rigs that are well maintained, used seasonally and unstepped during the off season last 10 years on average. If the rig is stored inside and is maintained by a professional rigger, that life span will increase to 12 to 15 years or longer. Rigs that are left stepped year round, whether sailed or not, will last a somewhat shorter time eight years on average. Lastly, rigs that are used actively for offshore sailing and are left standing year round, will have a useful lifespan of five to eight years. If your rig is getting old or if you are looking at purchasing an older boat with its original rig, you may have to consider rerigging the boat. Each owner will have his preference how the rig should be upgraded, but in general cruising sailors will seek the durability and elasticity of wire and racers and "performance" cruisers will seek the low windage and low stretch of rod. For those choosing to rerig with wire, it is wise to use mechanical Norseman or StaLok end fittings, if possible. In either case, to do the rerigging job correctly you should include an hydraulic backstay adjuster, replace tangs on the mast, turnbuckles and toggles at the deck and include radio insulators in the backstay. The cost of such an upgrade using 1 by 19 stainless-steel wire and undertaken by a professional rigger will run approximately $150 per foot of mast, or $6,000 for a 40-foot mast (circa 1991.) Doing the job yourself will save you 20 percent or more. Rod rigging should only be installed by a professional and will cost approximately 30 percent more than wire.

Conventional Main Sail Options


Although the world of sailing has moved rapidly in the past few years to find new ways to handle and set up sailing and running rigs, there are still many virtues in the conventional, low tech systems. First, sails that travel on their own slides up and down the mast or headstay can always be taken down. Second, conventional gear is low tech enough for almost any sailor to be able to affect repairs of his sails and running rig even at sea. And, lastly, setting up a conventional rig is the least expensive way to get a cruising boat away from the dock and under sail. The Bermudian rig masthead or fractional sloop which is so common today has evolved over 70 years to a highly refined degree and many tricks, techniques and innovations have been developed to make sail handling easier and more efficient. The mainsail is the workhorse and largest working sail in the rig. The standard sail offered by sailmakers today will be Dacron with two sets of reef points for slab of "jiffy" reefing and will have a slightly rounded roach supported by three or four battens. This sail has evolved from racing sails which in turn were developed to get the most unpenalized sail area under a given racing rule while providing a straight trailing edge. For cruising purposes, the partially battened main should be considered only one of the possible options. Mainsails for coastal and offshore cruising boats should be built to last and to perform in a wide range of conditions 0 to 40 knots. Most cruising sailors will not carry two mains even circumnavigators. If you are having a main sail made, decide what type of sail you need and then seek out a sailmaker with experience building that type of sail. Your local sailmaker, who has always done your repairs and is a jack of all trades, may well have overlooked the advances in his trade. Be sure your sailmaker will give you triple stitching and will hand sew the headboard, will include webbing for strength at the clew and tack and will add a third reef point. The sail should be serviceable in winds ranging from 0 to 40 knots, which means heavy cloth, robust construction and attention to detail. On partially battened sails, be sure the batten pockets are reinforced at both ends and that there is a mechanical way either stitching or a small bolt to hold the batten in the pocket. Two other types of mainsails have found favor among cruising sailors who had found the partially battened mainsail to be inefficient and subject to hard spots in the sail where the battens end. The fully battened main, long outlawed by racing rule makers, has found loyal followings among multihull sailors, board sailors and even some traditional racing sailors. And, the roachless, battenless main has found a following among those who are willing to sacrifice sail area aloft and a small faction of their boat's performance for durability, ease of handling and cost savings. Of the three types of mainsails, the partially battened sail is the most common as such sails are more often than not supplied with a boat when prepared for sail by a manufacturer or dealer. Yet, if you are upgrading your rig and sail compliment, you may well want to exchange your partially battened main sail for fully battened one. Retrofitting an existing sail is not too expensive approximately $750 for a 600-square-foot sail. If you are having a new main built, having it made with full battens will increase the cost. But the extra costs will more than pay for themselves in the added life full battens give a sail. There are many benefits to using full battens. The sail will be quieter and more docile when it is luffed, tacked and gybed. You will be able to add roach to the sail and give yourself more sail area. The fully battened sail holds its shape better in both light and heavier winds and can be shaped more consistently with backstay bend, halyard and foot tension and leech-chord adjustments. And, when dropping the sail a fully battened main dropped into lazy jacks on the boom will furl itself neatly and quickly. Your boat will sail faster and will be easier to sail with a full battened mainsail than with a partially battened sail. The single significant drawback to full battened sails is the increase chafe on the sail. If you have a conventionally stayed mast, with fore and aft lowers, you will find that when sailing off the wind, the lower battens are in constant contact with the aft lower shroud. In just a matter of days of down wind sailing, the shroud will chafe through the batten pocket and sail. The cure is to add chafe strips to the sail and to apply chafe gear tape, plastic shroud covering, even baggy wrinkle to the lower shrouds. Fully battened sails also tend to chafe at the sail's luff, where batten pockets rub against the mast as well as absorbing all the compression load of the batten as the sail fills. In a retrofit of full battens to an existing sail, the simplest way to guard against chafe at the mast is to sew sections of nylon webbing, or elk hide, over the end of the pocket. While chafe will still eventually wear through, such robust material will last for years before needing renewal. For new sails, Harken and other gear manufacturers have developed batten end fittings that double as slide cars. The cars run either up a section of traveler track fitted to the aft side of the mast or can be fitted with nylon slugs which will run up the existing slug-slot in the mast. Either way, the batten end fittings protect the batten pocket from damage, while proving a sturdy car for hoisting the sail. The Harken solution is costly when compared to simple track slides. But, when you add up the expected extra life of the sail with the ease of handling provided by the cars, you may feel the investment has been worthwhile. The battenless main, which has come into vogue as sailors have accepted the in-mast roller furling main systems made popular by Hood Yacht Systems and others, has long been used by voyaging sailors more interested in simplicity than high performance. The advantages of a battenless main are its low cost, small relative size, hence ease of handling, and it low maintenance. Yet, unless you have a roller main, which we will discuss later, the roachless, battenless main may not offer the performance most modern sailors demand. Sailing to windward, it is difficult to trim an efficient air-foil shape into a battenless main and when the wind pipes up, it is difficult to adjust the sail's draft with mast bend and halyard tension. If you seek the simplicity of a battenless main, it makes sense then to set the sail free-footed, with only an adjustable outhaul at the sail's clew. The sail itself should be cut with a full shape, particularly in the skirt of the foot, that can then be flattened with foot and halyard tension. Gaining enough twist with a fair trailing edge on the sail is a problem with a battenless main, particularly in lighter breezes with the wind forward of the beam. One simple trick is to move the main traveler to windward and ease or tighten foot tension until you have created an efficient foil. An over trimmed, sheeted down, flattened battenless mainsail will stop your boat like a bucket off the stern.

Conventional Main Sail Running Systems


There are four things you want to be able to do easily and well with your main: trim it, reef it, control the main boom and furl it. Since the main is a big sail, you need to rig the lines and systems that you use to control it carefully and use line that is long enough and strong enough. Trimming the main is a skill that can take time to acquire. The shape of the sail will vary on various points of sail and will show different degrees of efficiency. In general, the main should be trimmed by letting it out until it luffs and then trimming it in again. However, with fully battened sails, you'll find that the main won't luff until it is back winded by the genoa, so the trim point will be in somewhat from the luff point. Trial and error and telltales on the trailing edge of the batters will have to be your guides. The second test for trim is to maneuver the sheet until the top batten on partially battened sails is parallel to the boom. If you have telltales on the leech, these should be flying straight out backwards. In lighter airs, you will want to trim in more twist to the sail. As the breeze freshens you will want to flatten the sail and depower it by sheeting it farther to leeward. A boom vang is considered essential equipment on racing boats and rigid boom vangs such as Hall Spars' QuickVang have become increasing popular on cruising boats. The vang flatten the sail, doubles as a topping lift for the boom and controls the boom. When linked with the adjustments of the halyards, main sheet and traveler, the vang gives you the last iota of sail shape control. For running down wind, a preventer is useful. Rigged from the end of the boom and sheeted forward, the preventer stops the main from swinging through an accidental all-standing gybe. The preventer line can be simply a long guy line that is tied to the end of the boom and then made fast forward. On some offshore boats you will see such a line fixed permanently, with the line coiled and hanging from the forward end of the boom when not in use. Another approach is to use a vang tackle a three-part piece with shackles at both ends attached to the middle of the boom and to the toe rail near the turnbuckles for the upper shrouds. It makes sense with such a tackle to have the line long enough to lead back to the cockpit for trimming. Yet another approach is to mount two vang tackles, port and starboard, and simply leave them rigged while out sailing. The two tackles can be used to adjust the position of the boom, to vang the sail and to act as preventers. Although the double vang-tackle system requires a lot of line spaghetti on deck, it is a simple and efficient way to control the main and boom. Finally, the job of controlling the boom and preventing sudden gybes can be handled by the Dutchman Boom Brake, which is a patented device that fits to the underside of the boom and is controlled and trimmed with lines led on both side decks to the cockpit. Philippe Jeantot used this brake during the first BOC Round The World Race and proved its efficiency and usefulness. Reefing the main should be a painless job, accomplished quickly. Otherwise the job of reefing will be put off until the wind has risen making the job more difficult. Almost all cruising boats with conventional rigs have slab or jiffy reefing. The old roller reefing mains, with round booms and all the attendant trim problems, are things of the past. If you have a roller boom, the best thing to do is to convert it to slab reefing with the addition of two reef points in the sail and cheek blocks and cleats on the boom. You'll be surprised at the increase in performance. It is standard on slab reefing systems to have both the main halyard and the reefing lines leading to the main mast. While it means making a trip out of the cockpit in rough weather, I prefer the simplicity of this system. On Clover, I can release the main sheet, move forward, release the halyard and hook the next reef cringle, rehoist the main and haul in the reefing line on the reefing winch in less time than it takes to type this sentence. To simplify the job, it is helpful to mark the main halyard with sail thread whippings or Magic Marker at the correct point for each reef. But, many sailors prefer to remain in the cockpit and shun the foredeck in deteriorating weather. Who can blame them? For these sailors, single-line reefing systems have been developed in which the main halyard and the reefing lines are led aft to the cockpit. Harken has developed an off-the-shelf system which can be fitted easily to most rigs. The Harken system has been tested extensively by boat builders such as Hinckley who have done a lot of work of their own to make sail handling and reefing easier. Or you may decided to fit a system yourself. To fit such a system on your existing boom, you will need to replace your reefing line with a line long enough to run through the sail and back to the cockpit. Below the boom, fix two turning blocks either on the mast or on deck, to accept the reefing line and a new line that leads back up the mast, through the first reef tack cringle and back down the other side of the sail to a cleat or eye fastened to the mast well below the boom. The two lines reef and tack lines are then joined aft of their turning blocks with shackles, splices or bowlines and led aft to a winch. Hauling in on the single line tightens the tack and clew of the sail simultaneously. You will have to play with line length before you get them exactly right. The clew line will probably require about a foot more tension than the tack. While it is possible to rig all three reef points in this fashion or in one of the other single line systems developed by sailmakers and riggers you will find your mast and cabin top becoming a spider web of lines. Lastly, there is a lot of friction in single-line systems, so you will need a large winch to make it operate smoothly and will have to watch your lines for chafe. Furling a conventional main sail with a small crew has always been a problem, for the sail falls all over the deck and you need three hands to control it while you try to secure it to the boom with sail ties. That's why the development of lazy jacks came right after the invention of the fore-and-aft sailing rig three hundred years ago. For dousing and furling a main sail, nothing helps more than lazy jacks. Simple systems can be rigged with nothing more than line and a few fair leads. It is best on larger boats to have three falls to the boom, while on smaller boats you can get away with only two. There are off-the-shelf systems available from Harken and others and these are well engineered and simple to install. Whether you choose to fit your own design or a store-bought version, it is important to be able to tighten and loosen the lazy jacks easily. You will find that permanently rigged jacks can be a nuisance when hoisting the main. Battens tend to catch under the lines. Also, you need to be able to unrig the lazy jacks when you rig an over-the-boom awning. There are several other systems that have been developed to assist in furling and stowing mains. The Zip-Stop system is a device that fits on the aft side of the main mast and collects the main into a zippered pouch as it furls the sail. The Doyle StackPack systems controls the sail with lazy jacks and then furls the sail within a sewn-on acrylic pouch at the foot of the sail. And, the Dutchman system, controls the sail while it is lowered with vertical guys lines fixed between the boom and the topping lift and threaded through grommets in the sail; when the halyard is let go, the sail flakes itself along the guy lines atop the boom. All three systems have eased handling the big mainsail and have made sailing a bit easier and safer. Conventional main sails and running systems have evolved over the years to a high degree. For those setting out to design a new system or upgrade an older boat with a new mainsail system, there are plenty of options. My choice for a complete conventional system is: full battens, lazy jacks, a rigid boom vang such as the Quick Vang, a Dutchman Boom Brake and a prerigged preventer.

Conventional Headsail Systems


It is common for sailors using conventional headsails to carry a minimum of two sails genoa and jib for light and heavy conditions. However, a well dressed cruising boat should carry at least four headsails, not including spinnakers. These should be: 130 to 150 percent genoa for winds up to 15 knots or so; a 100 to 120 percent working genoa for winds of 15 to 25 knots; an 75 to 85 percent high cut working jib (or Yankee) for winds up to 35 knots or so; and, a spitfire storm jib. With all of these sails on board, it becomes a task to stow them effectively when not in use and then to arrange those in use on the foredeck so they can be hoisted, trimmed and dropped with a minimum of fuss. The effectiveness of your head sails will depend to a large degree on the tightness of your head stay. A sagging stay will decrease the headsail's windward performance and will put additional strain on the mast. Setting up the head stay properly entails adjusting the headstay and inner stays, such as a forestay and baby stay, so the mast is either vertical of has a slight prebend aft. Once this is done, you increase headstay tension by tightening the backstay. If you have a hydraulic of mechanical backstay adjuster as described above, you will find that you can crank in more tension when going to windward and, therefore, greatly increase the performance of you headsails. Remember the headstay will have to stand up to a lot of strain, a lot of jarring motion and a lot of vibration. It should be heaviest stay on the boat one size larger than the cap shrouds and back stay and needs to be fitted with toggles at both ends to ensure that vibration does not cause stress fractures in the wire and swaging. On most boats, the headsail sheets will lead aft through blocks or adjustable sheet cars mounted on tracks. These create the angle of trim for the sail and need to be adjusted as the wind increases or decreases. To decrease the twist in the headsail or depower it as the wind picks up, move the sheet car aft. To increase the twist and close the slot between the headsail's leech and the mainsail as the wind decreases the car should be slid forward. Additionally as you change headsails, shortening down from the number one to number two and finally number three, you will need to adjust the cars again. To get the best from your headsail trim, establish the various car settings for each sail and mark these with Magic Marker or small brass or plastic plaques so you can immediately go to the correct setting. The tack fitting for the headsails should be a heavy snap shackle with a lanyard on the pull ring. If you anticipate frequent sail changes, you will want to set up two snap shackles at the stem head so you can hank on a second sail while the first is still flying. Not all boats are fitted with two jib halyards. Yet, it is prudent to have a spare halyard ready to go. If possible it is wise to add a second halyard either by reeving one internally or, if necessary, by adding an external halyard. Halyards can be either rope-wire or all rope. On a rope-wire halyard, the wire needs to be long enough to lead from the head of the sail, through the sheave at the masthead and down to the halyard winch where it should make at least four turns. Ideally, the splice will fall between the winch and the cleat, where it will not be under strain, nor will it be twisted on the winch or cleat. For sails with shorter luffs, use a wire pennant to made up the difference in length. Modern Kevlar-cored lines have such minimal stretch that these are often preferred for halyards because they are easy on your hands, do not get "meat-hooks" (broken wire strands) that can rip sails and skin and because they do not chafe against the mast, spreaders and other rigging. Also, rope halyards do not require the difficult and expensive wire-rope splice, which is normally done by a professional rigger. If you choose all rope halyards, make certain the brand and style are rated for the job at hand. In addition, even small halyards need to be of a size that are easy on your hands. For reliability and comfort, 3/8-inch line should be considered a minimum and 7/16- or 1/2-inch is much better. Shackles on headsails are often the failure points. Snap shackles are commonly used, yet these have the bad habit of flying open when the sail is luffing in rising wind. Be sure the shackle is in good condition not bent or badly corroded and that the pin slides firmly into place when attached. If you intend to leave the sail hoisted for a passage, taping the shackle closed can save a lot of hassle. Conservative sailors will opt for D-shackles or dedicated halyard screw shackles such as those made by Wichard and Scheafer Marine. On wire halyards, the shackle will normally be fastened with a Nicopress fitting. These are reliable but need to be inspected regularly to ensure that the press is holding the eye firmly in place and that the shackle is not chafing unduly. On rope halyards, experienced sailors often opt to attach shackles with a bowline instead of a splice. A bowline can be untied easily to replace a worn or bent shackle. Moreover, unlike a tapered splice, a bowline will not jam in a sheave at the top of the mast. If you choose to use a spliced end on your halyard, you should put a stopper ball on the line to prevent the splice from entering the sheave. The most difficult task involved in flying a headsail is getting a large sail down in a rising wind. There are several ways to make this job easier. First, of course, it makes sense to reduce sail before it become absolutely necessary. But, given that the sail will be unruly when it is coming down, it is helpful to have sail ties ready to secure it as soon as it comes on deck. These can be looped through the stanchion bases on both side of the foredeck. When changing down to a smaller headsail, it helps to lay the new headsail on the windward deck and secure it with sail ties. Attach the tack to the spare tack shackle and the piston hanks to the headstay, removing the lowest hanks on the genoa if necessary. The jib is now secure and ready to go. When ready to drop the big sail, head the boat off, blanket the sail with the mainsail and drop the genoa onto the leeward deck. You can then secure it with sail ties before removing the hanks from the head stay. This done, the halyard and sheets can be swapped to the jib, the sheet cars can be moved forward and then the jib can be hoisted. Again, this is easier to do if the sail is in the lee of the main. If you are beating to windward, you can pretrim the jib while it is blanketed and avoid the grunt work of grinding in the sheet with the wind working against you. Furling headsails on deck is neither good for the sails nor good for mobility around the foredeck. Instead, an unused headsail can be flaked on deck and then furled and made fast along the lifelines. The sail ties need to be made fast halfway up the stanchions and the sail's clew needs to be folded forward on itself before the sail can be put away. It is important to get the sail off the deck to allow boarding waves to wash through without taking the genoa with it. Naturally, in rough conditions, the sail will have to be bagged and moved aft to ensure that it stays aboard. Stowing sails on the foredeck while at anchor, or while a different sail is being used, often results in a pile of sail bags tied to handrails forward of the mast. A better solution is to have sail covers sewn for one or two headsails that can be furled and stowed along the lifelines. A sail cover can be constructed to fasten to the top lifelines and to the stanchions forward of the mast. Permanent sail ties should be fixed inside the sail cover into which the sail can be furled. Once tied down firmly, the sail cover is wrapped around the sail and closed with a full-length zipper. Such sail covers can be rigged on either side of the bow, should you want to have your genoa and working jib ready to fly. There are several other "labor-saving" devices that have been promoted for handling headsails. The down haul, which is a line rigged up the luff of the sail and used to haul down the sail, can be of some help. Yet a down haul is only really suited to sails flying from bowsprits. On conventional modern sloops, such a rig is rarely needed and clutters the deck with unnecessary line and blocks. A reefing head sail is another improvement that may be more trouble than it is worth. While it may seem attractive to have a single working jib that can be lowered and reefed by a third, such a sail is very difficult to build and can not be as efficient as a second smaller sail. Moreover, the tack and clew of a reefed headsail will have to be so heavily built that they will detract from the performance of the sail when fully set. Lastly, in a rising wind the sail will have to dropped to the deck to tie in new sheets and the reef points, so the labor savings of the sail have been lost. For my money, I would always prefer two well built sails to a single compromise sail. Setting up a simple and bullet proof system for handling your conventional headsails will take time as you sort out head stay tension, sheet car settings and you own reefing and furling procedures. But, given thought and practice, you can take most of the work and pain out of working on the foredeck.

Roller Furling-Reefing Headsails


Few innovations in sailing systems have been so revolutionary and so widely adopted as roller furling-reefing headsails. Although roller furling systems have been around for 50 years, it wasn't until the late 1960s that Scheafer Marine reintroduced the concept and marketed aggressively to cruising sailors. In the 25 years since, dozens of companies have jumped into the market and thousands of sailors have sailed millions of miles with roller furling gear. Critics of roller systems make the point that should the system fail, it can be impossible to get your headsail down. That may be true. However, once a sailor has become familiar with roller furling equipment, he will find that it is virtually trouble-free. The great sailing test ground for cruising gear is the BOC Singlehanded Round The World Race run every four years. Since the inaugural race in 1982, ninety percent of the boats to compete in the event have used roller gear for their headsails. In the vast majority of the cases, the sailors returned from their 27,000 mile voyages in the deep southern latitudes of the Southern Ocean with their roller gear and sails in tact. Most claim they would be unable to compete in such an event without the gear. Today, more than three quarters of the boats voyaging about the world on extended cruises, use roller furling headsails. Most crews sail great distances shorthanded and find that roller furling makes life underway safer and easier. In my own case, when Rosie and I decided to go off cruising about the world, the first item on our wish list was roller furling for the headsail. I wouldn't cruise without it. That said, there are several basics to think about when selecting and rigging your boat with roller furling gear. All of the best roller furling gear on the market adapts to an existing headstay by fitting extruded aluminum sections around the stay and a drum around the turnbuckle. The stay itself can be wire or rod. The most important items you may have to add to the headstay when fitting a roller system are toggles at the top and bottom. The stay must have the freedom to move in any direction under load or the extrusions and the drum fitting can crack. A second alteration to an existing rig may be a positive screw shackle for the halyard. Most sailors leave their roller jibs hoisted for the entire season, although it is kind to the sail to relax halyard tension when not underway. With the shackle out of sight and out of mind for that long, you should take the precaution or replacing the snap shackle with a more robust model. Choosing a roller unit will involve personal choices regarding manufacturers, price and how you intend to use the unit. Schaefer Marine was the first company to move into the market. But they did so with a luff-wire system that did not fit around the headstay and therefore had very poor luff tension. It was only in l989 that Schaefer brought out their extruded aluminum model for fitting around the headstay. The models offered by Schaefer are extremely well engineered, although to date they have not had as much sea time as some other models. Hood Yacht Systems and Harken have established themselves as the leaders in the U.S. market for roller furling gear. Hood has long been an innovator in roller technology; they are called upon now to build systems for every type of boat from 12-foot day sailers to 120-foot mega yachts. Harken has been in the market for many years as well with a superbly engineered system that rolls on very smooth running plastic ball bearings. The Harken systems have raced and cruised all over the world with success and many offshore sailors and riggers swear by the system. Both the Hood SeaFurl and the Harken system fit over the headstay and include an integral turnbuckle. A retrofit on an existing rig requires the headstay to be cut and a new mechanical end fitting (StaLoK or Norseman) applied so the turnbuckle-drum attachment can be fitted. The advantage of such a set up is the ability to adjust headstay tension without removing or adjusting the roller drum. When Mike Plant chose the Harken system for his 1990 BOC racer Duracell, he cited this as one of his main reasons. Profurl, a French system, produces roller furling systems that fall in the same category as the Harken and Hood model, although slightly more expensive. Unlike the American systems, however, the Profurl can be fitted over an existing turnbuckle. This means you must remove the drum to adjust the forestay. But a benefit is the additional strength provided by the stainless-steel straps which support the roller unit a belt and braces solution. The Profurl bearings are steel and sealed in a water-tight compartment, while both Hood and Harken have plastic bearings in unsealed compartments. The advantage of the American systems is the ability to flush them with fresh water and inspect them from time to time. On the other hand, Profurl's steel bearings will bear up under a significantly greater side loading when reefing the sail in strong winds than will plastic bearings which distort if put under extreme loads. Since a headsail should never be reefed while still full and under maximum load, this bearing distortion rarely becomes a problem. At the lower end of the price scale are retrofit units from companies such as Cruising Designs and the Hood SeaFurl LD. These are good units that will serve coastal cruisers well and can be fitted to just about any boat. The key to long service with these and other units is to keep them flushed with fresh water to prevent corrosion and to refrain from cranking in reefs partial rolls when the sail is full. At the high-tech end of the scale you will find electrically and hydraulically operated units manufactured by Hood, Profurl and by the German manufacturer Reckman. On boats of 50-feet and up, with working genoas of 750 square feet or more, a mechanical assist while reefing or furling the headsail can be most welcome. For those who like redundancies on their automated gear, look for manual over rides for winding up the headsail in the event that the electrical or hydraulic system fails. The headsails you will use on you roller furling should be tailored to the purpose. In general, it is good to carry two headsails, a genoa of 125 percent or so, for coastal sailing, and a working headsail of 85 to 110 percent for offshore work or cruises in windy areas such as the eastern Caribbean. Your existing headsails can be adapted with luff tapes and can be recut to be slightly flatter for better reefing. In addition, luff pads should be sewn into the luffs of the sails to give them bulk when the sails are rolled up. If you are having new sails built for a roller furling-reefing system, you should find a sailmaker who has a lot of experience with roller headsails. There are several details in a new headsail that can improve it's performance. The sail will need to be slightly higher cut than you might be accustomed to. Yet, a higher cut sail will roll in and out more easily and will keep its shape better in reefed positions. Additionally, the higher the cut the more constant will be the sheet car setting when the sail is reefed. Instead of using stainless-steel grommets at the head and tack, loops of heavy nylon webbing sewn to the sail will attach it firmly and will keep the sail from bunching around the fittings as it will do around stainless-steel rings. Reinforced corners, with Kevlar patches, can increase the life of the sail as will nylon webbing reinforcing at the clew. The sail should be designed to be reefed. Although you will never be able to have a perfect reefed roller headsail, you will find that a fairly flat-cut sail with luff pads sewn in, will develop a reasonable shape when reefed about one third and that shape will improve when reefed two thirds. A new sail should be marked with clear black stripes running vertically from the foot to show the first and second reefs. When rolling out the sail, particularly in moderate to strong breezes, be sure to maintain some tension on the roller line as it runs forward and wraps around the drum. The danger is getting an over ride or a knot on the drum that will tangle the line and prevent you from rolling up the sail later. In heavy weather, the furling line should be kept on a winch and the sail partially rolled, thus insuring that you will be able to get the sail in when necessary. Running dead down wind presents a potential problem, for should the sail be partially rolled when it is blanketed behind the main, causing it to luff and flutter, it can wrap backwards onto itself. The sail can then bind and prevent you from rolling it in or out. To prevent this you have to make sure the headsail stays full and does not get blanketed by the main. When running down wind with the head sail poled out on the spinnaker or whisker pole, you can set the rig up easily while the headsail if furled and then simply roll it out when the topping lift, down haul and sheet are all in place. Jibing this rig is made simple by again rolling up the headsail, dropping the pole to switch sheets and then rolling the sail out again. In a rising breeze, you can reduce sail to any desired amount and can continue to carry a scrap poled out up to 30 knots or wind or more. To preserve your roller furling-reefing headsail, make certain the sail is protected from ultraviolet damage with a strip of acrylic cloth along the outside of the leech and foot.

Roller Furling-Reefing Mainsails


Although not yet as widely accepted as roller furling headsails, roller mains either in the mast or in the boom are rapidly developing a wide following. It is easy to see why. When you are sailing along on a pleasant afternoon and the sea breeze begins to build as it often does along the coast, all you need to do to adjust the size of the main is to roll in a few feet. No rushing forward to the mast to haul down a 30 percent jiffy reef. No luffing of the main when you know you are just slightly over powered. If all you need to do is roll in 10 inches, then that's what you do. And, at the end of the day, when you sail into harbor, you put the sail away for the night with the crank of a winch handle. No flogging sail, no wrestling with stiff sail cloth, and no tangle of reefing lines and no sail stops. Magnificent. Like roller headsails, roller mains particularly masts and booms from Hood Yacht Systems have been tested for years and have covered many hundreds of thousands of miles at sea. Dodge Morgan used a roller furling-reefing main during his historic non-stop circumnavigation. Phil Weld used the system during his record breaking singlehanded transatlantic run in the early 1980s. Hundreds of boats have crossed oceans and thousands have cruised extensively with the systems aboard. In the early years mid-1970s in-the-mast furling systems were famous for jamming half way in as they were being furled in rising winds. This was due to uneven rolls on the internal roller, which forced the sail to jam, usually at the tack. This was remedied by correcting the angle of the boom, and therefore the angle of rolling for the main. Moreover, improved bearings and simplified rolling systems made winding in the big mainsails easier and more efficient. Also in the early years, roller furling masts had the unpleasant habit of humming like primitive flutes in the wind when the sail was furled. Hood's developed a canvas baffle that slips up the slot in the mast to dampen the fluting. And, eventually, ways were developed to create a mast extrusion with a narrow enough slot to keep it from becoming a musical instrument. Today there are several different ways to adapt your boat to a roller furling mainsail. Hood, Z-Spar, Composite Spars and others manufacture masts that are tailor-made for roller mains. To fit such a mast you need to replace your exiting mast and rig and you may well have to have new chain plates added to the hull. It is far easier to have a new boat fitted with such a complete spar and system, for the designer and builder can optimize the standing rig design and position the mast to offer the best balance. For those who want to retrofit existing masts with roller mains, there are several different systems that can be adapted to standard aluminum mast extrusions. ProFurl, Facnor (Viscom International) and others have developed systems that can be fitted in most cases with pop rivets directly to the mast. In most cases the existing boom can be used as well, with a length of traveler track fitted atop the boom and a traveler car adapted to carry the clew blocks. The furling line can be led through a block at the gooseneck and then back to the cockpit. In most cases the existing main sheet can by used. The sail you will use on a roller main is unlike a standard main with fractional battens or full battens. It will have a hollow leech, no battens and a loose foot. It will be smaller and will have less power than a standard main and needs to be trimmed differently. The sail will be designed to roll easily as well as to sail well, so you will find that it is somewhat flatter in shape than a conventional main. This being the case you will need to keep and eye on the sail's twist as you trim it and as you roll it in and out. Most main sheets will have an adjustable traveler and you will find that to get the best shape to the sail you will have to trim the traveler to windward adding twist. Additionally, having a loose foot, you will be able to ease clew tension to give more draft to the sail in lighter winds. An in-the-mast roller mainsail will never give you the top performance of a fully battened main. Yet the systems that have been developed by Hood and others more than make up for it in convenience and in the pleasures and benefits of incremental sail trim. For those who have never used roller mains, the ability to crank in just the needed amount of sail 10 inches or 10 feet instead of the 30 percent segments of slab reefs, will actually increase the average sailor's performance. Yet, there are many boat owners and sailors who seek a higher level of performance from their main sails and a lower investment in mainsail technology. To answer these sailors needs, Hood and a European manufacturer SailTainer, have developed in-boom furling systems which can be adapted directly to existing masts and rigs. The Hood StoBoom is a design that evolved over the years from an early attempt that never quite worked. After years of testing and trials, the new design does just what it is supposed to do: it offers a infinitely adjustable sail that can have full or partial battens and thus the power and performance to really drive a modern cruising boat. New to the market in 1989, roller booms may well be the wave of the future. The technology is simpler and less expensive than roller furling masts and the performance from the main sail is better than with either a conventional main or a in-the-mast roller main. For cruising sailors upgrading an existing boat, the roller boom can be a real boon to sailing.

Down Wind Sails and Systems


Although many cruising sailors shun them, spinnakers are the most fun and most effective sails you can carry. The reason so many sailors choose not to carry and fly a spinnaker is the sheer size and power of the sail and lack of experience with it. Yet, there are many systems and rigging tricks that will make life with a spinnaker fulfilling. There are two choices in down wind sails, the full triradial type of spinnaker or the single luff, poleless sail. Each has a place on board and if you can carry both, then do because you will find that in reaching conditions the single-luff sail will be the better performer while the spinnaker will shine running. The first challenge to spinnaker sailing is getting the sail up and down without a lot of drama. On boats over 30 feet or so, the best way to do this is with a spinnaker sock or snuffer. There are several commercial brands on the market but they are not all created equal. By far the best is built by ATN and marketed through Hild and other sailmakers. What makes the ATN snuffer superior is the wide bell opening used at the base. The bell is large enough and fair enough to slide over the spinnaker from the top down even in strong breezes without catching and hanging up on a bunch of sail cloth. Additionally, the ATM design incorporates an enclosed and endless retrieval line that can not become tangled in the rigging aloft or twisted up in the roller furling headsail. Hoisting and lowering a spinnaker with a snuffer becomes a simple chore. The sail inside the sock should be hoisted in the lee of the main sail as you run down wind. When the snuffer is pulled to the top of the sail, the spinnaker does not fill suddenly, but gives you time to trim it and keep it under control. And, when the sail is lowered, the snuffer should be pulled down over the sail while it luffs in the lee of the main. Finally, lower the whole sock to the deck. The second challenge in spinnaker flying is handling and controlling the spinnaker pole. On larger boats the pole is heavy and unwieldy and on a pitching deck can be a hazard to the crew and the boat. To make the pole easier to handle, you need to rig the standard foreguys and topping lift plus separate after guys. The foreguy attached with a snap shackle to the outboard end of the pole and should lead through a block, preferably a snatch block, aft to a winch in the cockpit. The topping lift can run from the end of the pole or from a bridle on the pole. It will be rigged like a halyard; however, if you can run it aft all the better. A third control line on the pole will add to your comfort on the foredeck. Called an after guy, the line should run from the cockpit, through a sheet block and to the end of the pole. With this and the foreguy, you can control the pole's position during any maneuver. This is particularly desirable during the take down in rough seas when the pole can swing wildly and do damage to the roller furling extrusion, headstay or your head. If you are using a spinnaker with a small crew, it is important to learn how to preset the spinnaker sheet (to leeward) and the topping lift and foreguy prior to hoisting the snuffer. Once the halyard has been cleated off, the sock is raised quickly, the spinnaker luffs in the lee of the mainsail until you are ready to trim the guy (windward side) and set up the after guy on the pole. The best place to stow and then launch a spinnaker pole is from the forward side of the mast. A track rigged up the mast with an adjustable car enables the pole to be hoisted at its in-board end as the out-board end is made fast on a ring low on the mast. On boats over 40 feet or so, you will find a telescoping pole of the type manufactured by Forespar and also available through Hall Spars will suit your needs better than a solid pole. Remember, a pole on a standard 45 footer will be 20 feet long and will weigh fifty pounds or more. A telescoping pole, stowed on the mast can be lowered, led forward, telescoped and rigged with guys and lines without having to lift it's full weight at any time. In rolly conditions, handling a big pole on the foredeck is tricky. It is handy to have sail ties tied on either side of the bow pulpit to lash the pole down while you set up the running rig. Once all the lines are in place, hoist the pole with the topping lift and secure with the fore and after guys. You will find that a spinnaker trimmed with the pole well aft squared to the wind may be harder to keep trimmed and will require more attention than a chute that is trimmed slightly forward. On our passage across the Pacific in Clover we used our 1,100-square foot spinnaker much of the way. We found that when sailing at about 165 degrees apparent and with the chute trimmed somewhat forward and eased on the sheet, the self steering would steer easily and the sail could go unattended for hours. With a boost of a knot and a half to two knots of speed, that was pleasant and fast sailing. The single luff or cruising spinnaker has become popular in the past decade because it does away with the pole and thus with a lot of the hassle of flying the big sail. Tacked down at the bow, a cruising chute called a MultiPurpose Sail (MPS), Genniker and other brand names works well when used with a snuffer such at the ATN. Because it is easier to set up than a spinnaker, you will find that you may use it more often than the bigger, symmetrical sail. We have found that a cruising chute is best adapted to reaching in light airs. Down wind, the sail tends to be blanketed by the main, so it is marginally efficient until you find yourself sailing dead down wind, when you can fly the main and headsail wing-and wing. However, sailing wing and wing you will have to rig a whisker or spinnaker pole to get the full benefit of the sail's light weight and size.

Fully Automated Sailing Systems


It used to be that only large and vastly expensive sailing yachts were fitted with automatic systems for hoisting, setting and lowering sails. But, in the past few years, many innovations have come onto the sailing market aimed at the average cruising sailor who is looking for easier ways to do hard jobs. The development of small electric and hydraulic winches is what makes automation of even a 35- or 40-footer a practical reality for cruising sailors. Lewmar and Barient have led the way in development of light, high powered self-tailing winches that will trim your genoa with the press of a button. On the fully automated cruising boat, the roller headsail is permanently hoisted. The furling line leads to a small electric winch which will reef or furl the sail in just about any conditions. The genoa sheets lead to larger self-tailing winches that can also double as sheet winches for the spinnaker. The mainsail is a roller furler either in-the-boom or in-the-mast. The furling line runs through a line stopper to a small electric winch, which in many instances can double as the main sheet winch. On larger boats 50 feet and up main and headsail reefing systems can be installed with their own cranking motors, which can be operated remotely from the cockpit. Such systems, made by Hood, Reckman, ProFurl and others, have the benefit of adding redundancy to the whole operation. Should the motor cranking in the headsail fail, the job can be taken over by a winch in the cockpit driving an emergency furling line. Lastly, forward at the mast, electric halyard winches, which have to be mounted on deck, assist in hoisting heavy headsails, the spinnaker and the spinnaker pole. These also enable a small person to hoist a very large person up the mast without breaking a sweat. The choice to be made when considering an automated sailing system is whether to use hydraulics or electricity for cranking power. Both are available from Lewmar, Barient and other companies. Hydraulics require sophisticated engineering and installation. The hydraulic pump will have to be run with electricity, so there will be significant battery drain. However, a hydraulic system suits the marine environment and once installed and tested can give reliable service for many years. Electric winches will be less expensive to install and will give excellent service. Although they will draw a lot of amps when in use, draw is sporadic and short. With electric winches you will have to ensure you have enough reserve battery and charging capacity. One benefit to electric winches is the ability to remove the winches easily for servicing. The fully automated sailing system is not for everyone. But, by taking the hard labor out of sailing and by making it possible for smaller people to do heavy jobs, roller furling equipment and power winches can make sailing both safer and more fun. And, certainly, as we get longer in the tooth, such labor saving devices enable us to enjoy sailing longer than we could have in years gone by.

Further Reading


Sail Power by Wallace Ross; Alfred A. Knopf, New York, NY. The Art And Science Of Sails by Tom Widden and Michael Levitt; St, Martins Press, New York, NY. Cruising Sails And Rigging by Ross Norgrove; International Marine Publishing, Camden, ME. Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia by Steve and Linda Dashew; Beowulf Press, Ojai, CA. Spurr's Boat Book by Dan Spurr; International Marine Publishing, Camden, ME. ??