Solent Rig on a 7/8th Fractional?

[William Longyard]

Looking for opinons, so fire away! I'm reconfiguring a sailboat which currently has a 7/8th rig, and no backstay. I would like to add a masthead forestay and assume, therefore, that I'd need a backstay? Would I also need to add spreaders and upper shrouds? Would I be better off moving the mast rearward and rigging the boat as a traditional cutter? All ideas, criticism, and personal thoughts are welcome!

[fxykty]

More information required - what is the boat design and size for starters?

Regarding moving the mast, forget about it. If that’s needed, get a different boat.

Why a masthead forestay? Or do you just want a masthead halyard for a spinnaker or a code 0? In either case you would need a backstay - fixed for a structural forestay and running for the soft luff sails.

Are you getting rid of the 7/8 forestay, or are you keeping that?

Depending on the mast section you could possibly get away with no side stays, but you should really speak with a rigger. You could just add jumper stays that attach to the mast at the current spreaders - no need for shrouds all the way to the deck.

It’s really hard to advise without knowing what you’re trying to accomplish.

[William Longyard]

Thanks for your input. Here's some more information. Firstly, the boat is only 17ft and my goal is to experiment with it to more fully understand rigging and engineering loads prior to buying a larger boat for cruising. I'm interested in a Solent rig because of the advantage of downwind sailing, and easily adjusting sail balance. My current jib is a roller furler on a point 7/8th up the mast. True cutters had their mast positioned about 50% of hull length, but I probably don't need to do that for a Solent rig. I'm thinking of moving the forestay to the mast head and adding an inner stay just below it about a foot. To do this, I believed I needed to add a back stay, and since I'm going to the top of the mast with a fore and back stay, I thought I should add spreaders and upper shrouds to the original 7/8th shrouds which are just aft of the mast about two feet. My mast is a rather skinny pole originally from a Buccaneer 18. This is all about experimentation and learning. I'm open to all suggestions as I value other people's ideas.

[psk125]

Experimenting can be fun, but the size of the boat you're working with may not provide results that are translatable to other situations. With so little space between the sails on a 17' boat, turbulence from adding more sails could interfere with the performance and mislead you. Adding spreaders and shrouds to a skinny mast not designed for them may cause a weak spot in it, leading to losing the spar. A lot depends upon the wall thickness of the extrusion. Using a Solent rig for sail balance depends a lot on the hull shape and profile as well. What works on your 17' experimental boat may not apply to your larger boat at all. Am also not familiar with the advantages of the Solent rig for downwind sailing. Unless perhaps if you leave the Solent up it keeps the spinnaker from wrapping around the headstay in light air or gybes. The best thing to do might be to use Dyneema so you can easily adapt your standing rigging in a variety of ways and to go out sailing with your different configurations starting in light air to see what happens. Then see what happens when the wind increases and try to keep from breaking anything. Good luck.

[William Longyard]

All good points. Thank-you. I have been wondering about the compression loading of the skinny mast when adding a masthead fore and back stay. I believe adding spreaders and upper shrouds would stabilize the mast so prevent buckling. Your point about translating data from a given hull shape to a different hull shape is also well taken. I do believe that experience is a good teacher, though, so I'm inclined to keep experimenting which, in my case, is not expensive as I have all the parts. Dynema is a good idea though.