Reducing Sail on Cutter Rig

[Paul Howard]

As a general rule on any sail rig configuration, you want a balanced sailplan so you can sail at any wind angle.

Bayfield boats tend to have conservative sail area because of their shallow draft. I have not sailed a Bayfield 29, but have sailed on a few 32's.
Most boats have a slight weather helm so when the helm is left free the boat rounds up into the wind.
My rules of thumb:

When the wind increases, take a reef in the mainsail first. How deep a reef depends on the increase in the wind and point of sail.
Then take in the Yankee, as the relatively large sail area forward will make the boat try to bear away in the gusts if going upwind or reaching, though you may need the additional sail area if going downwind.

Cutter rigged boats I have sailed balance very well with a double reefed mainsail and full staysail and go to windward very well with this rig.

Cutter rigged boats I have sailed will sail and tack with just the staysail, though slowly, and do not point as high with only the staysail as with a double reefed mainsail and staysail.
I have used the staysail as a storm sail, sailing in a Force 9 gale in the Bay of Biscay, when we had to give up going to windward with staysail and deep reef in the mainsail on our cutter. The waves built too steep and the boat was being swept with waves and the cockpit filling.
We took the mainsail down and ran with the wind and waves on the quarter, staysail only, for nearly 200 miles to get to the harbour we had left.

[nelly]

This is how I reduce sail on my boat (ignoring general guidelines as to what wind speed to start reefing etc.. which you will learn with experience):

Hunter C37

I don't always sail with the staysail out as well as the genoa, but I'll write the below as if I do.

- I will reduce the headsail before I reef the main. To furl, it is always easiest to take the boat off the wind as much as possible or reasonable, but at least past the beam. "how much" I reduce the headsail is up to how I feel, but I try not to sail the boat extremely aggressively (unless we want to!). Usually I can get a feeling for how much the boat is heeling in a gust and how hard it is to sheet in the genoa.

- Once you reduce headsail you will unbalance the boat and you will have a lot of helm. I try to keep only a few degrees of weather helm. To this end, I will spill wind as much as I can from the main to get these few degrees of helm. Using the traveler or the mainsheet as appropriate.

- At a certain point you just can't spill more wind from the mainsail without it flogging everywhere, so you will need to put in a reef to reduce weatherhelm.

- Staysail hasn't been touched outside of possibly having to spill wind from the sail as appropriate. I'd rather have the staysail spill wind than it blanket the genoa, but this becomes less of a problem the more you reef the genoa.

- Repeat as appropriate. At some point you may want to furl the genoa entirely and sail under a reefed main and staysail.


How you manage things comes down to both how you like to sail the boat and how the boat likes to be sailed. What is comfortable to you and how the boat behaves.

Weather helm is reduced by reducing wind on the mainsail. You power the boat up (generally) with your headsail. You don't want a lot of weatherhelm really, as it is uncomfortable and slows you down a lot. But you want some - you don't want lee helm - and you need to keep the boat powered up and moving.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by CarinaPDX

As others have said, optimal sail usage varies a bit between boats but getting the balance right is always fundamental. A simple check for correct balance is that the helm is only slightly off-center when sailing straight ahead; specifically the boat should have a small tendency to turn upwind.

When reaching (sailing abeam or upwind) the headsails create slots which accelerate the wind behind the next sail aft, and thus increase lift. The staysail is not designed to fly as the lone headsail - the slot effect is greatly reduced. When shortening sail try to keep some of the jib flying so as to keep the proper airflow. I can't speak to the usage of roller furling specifically as I don't have them. Instead I switch out the yankee (high-clewed sail that just laps the mast) for a spitfire, which is smaller than the staysail. Sailing into the trade winds a reefed main, staysail, and spitfire is very effective, whereas a reefed main with staysail-only is a pig. After selecting the headsails I reef to balance the helm as needed.

Downwind is where we see who understands what they are doing. You will see many boats that furl the headsails and leave the full main up - presumably because it is easier to furl the headsails than reef the main. The main-only is hugely unbalanced, requiring the helm to be hard over to offset the extreme weather helm, and this in turn acts like a brake. Worse, a gust can overpower the rudder and cause an immediate and uncontrolled rounding to weather. It is far better to reef or take down the main first, and in deteriorating conditions it is best to get that more difficult job done first anyway. On a broad reach it will probably not be able to set both headsails on the same side, so pick between the two by the size needed. On a run I will pole out the two headsails on opposite sides (again, no main). Headsail-only is a very stable pull downwind, but just as with a spinnaker it is important to plan ahead as this severely restricts maneuverability.

I strongly recommend either reading a good book on sail theory or taking a course with a lot of theory. Once you understand CE and CLR and can visualize the force vectors you can reason out solutions.

Greg

Different boats are very different, and the OP would be well served by experimenting thoroughly with all conceivable sail combos until he completely understands how HIS boat responds.

My boat, for example, is totally different from the above:

1. Reefed main and staysail without the jib is GREAT on my boat in strong weather, powerful, balanced, self-tacking.

2. Main alone is not "hugely unbalanced" and does not produce excessive weather helm on my boat. Weather helm on my boat is practically a linear function of heel angle, and is hardly affected by what sails are up. This is totally different from my previous boat which had a lower aspect rig.

3. Reefing the principle headsail on my boat (which may be either a 95% blade or a 120% Yankee) sucks, especially upwind. I reef only the main, then when that's not enough, I get rid of the jib entirely rather than reef it. YMMV.

4. Jib alone is viable on all points of sail on my boat, but is used systematically downwind in strong weather. Downwind in a blow I do prefer the CE to be as far forward as possible.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by roland stockham

A lot depends on how the sails are built. The staysail is generally heavier cloth and flatter cut so is better in strong winds. Her some stuff to try. As the wind gets up loose the staysail first and see how it goes. Often this widens the slot and reduces any overlap or eliminates it. This may de-power the whole rig and in effect be you first reef. As conditions get stiffer and you need to loose some main try first reef in the main but now loose the jib and get the staysail back up. When you reef the main it brings the center of effort forward so to keep the boat balanced you also want to move the foresails center of effort back hence swapping to the staysail.
What you should always try to avoid is sailing with both sails partly furled. The downside of rollers, despite there massive advantage in convenience, is that they kill the sails performance. To get good performance a sail need as clean an entry as possible and if reducing canvas you want to also be flattening the sail and moving draft forward. Rolling a furl does the opposite of both these greatly increasing drag and reducing efficiency. The benefit of a cutter is you can generally avoid that by completely furling sails.

This is a great post, and the underlined part is crucially important, and true, I think for most if not all boats.


As the years and decades have gone by and I've gotten to be a better sailor, I stopped roller reefing headsails completely. If my yankee is too much, I change down to a blade. If the blade is too much, it goes away.


Headsails are basically "on" or "off"; not only can you not roller reef them and retain any efficiency (at least upwind), you also don't have controls to do anything other than trim them for optimum air flow. The mainsail is completely different; this is where you can make fine adjustments of sail area and power. Not only by reefing, but also flattening and feathering it to depower it in whatever increments you need, or fattening it for more power when you need it.



This is different from the OP's case, but I have an in-mast furling main, which gives up a significant amount of ultimate power to a roachy full batten main, HOWEVER, it can be reefed in infinite increments, and what is beautiful, it gets flatter as you reef it. So when less than ultimate power is needed, the in-mast furling main is great, and this is the sail I work hard with, flattening it, fattening it, feathering it where needed, rolling it in and out, working the traveler. The headsails are binary; I add and subtract them in whole units.


One note to the OP: The condition of the sails is key to all of this. Baggy dacron sails cannot be put into a low drag condition, and will need to be reefed much earlier, than good sails. A baggy mainsail in particular makes it impossible to sail properly. Buying carbon laminate sails for my boat was the best money, by far, I ever spent on her.

[wingssail]

We don't have a staysail, but we can change jibs. (We try to decide which sail will be most useful for the day before we set sail.)

Upwind:

In light conditions (under 15 knots of wind, true) we sail with a 110% jib and a full main.

In stronger conditions (over 15kts true wind) we prefer a 85% working and full main.
In brisk conditions (over 20kts true, upwind) we reef the main, so 85% and 1st reef

At 25kts true we put in 2nd reef, so 85% and 2nd reef

At 30 kts true wind we will strike the jib and sail with main alone (with 2 reefs). The boat sails well with just the main, but is not close winded.

At 35kts we will put in the third reef. Beyond that we just hold on (or heave too)



Downwind:

In light conditions (under 15 knots of wind, true) we sail with a 110% jib and a full main or spinnaker and full main

In brisk conditions (over 25kts true wind) we will dowse the spinnaker or the 110%jib. depending on the heading and how long we think we will be sailing in these conditions we may set the 85% jib

At 30 kts true wind we will strike the jib and sail with main alone. The boat sails well with just the main, and it is not unbalanced sailing with main alone.

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At 35kts we will be reefing, probably down to third reef, and no headsail.

We have never sailed with jib alone (no main). Ever.

I think, in summary, since we don't use roller furling, our simple two sail rig, without any staysail, works well and is very easy to handle and quick to respond to changing winds. The exception being if we have to change from 110% jib to 85%jib in a building breeze. Often we just strike the 110% and wait to see what happens. Why set the 85% jib if you'll be taking it down in 1/2 hour anyhow?

[Adelie]

Cutters like sloops are individual. As a guess
A. Reef the staysail
B. Reef the headsail
C. Reef the main
D. Strike the staysail
E. Strike the headsail and reset the staysail.
F. ???

The point is to decrease sail in the order that reduces heel without resulting in excessive weather helm or worse, lee helm.

[Benz]

On my cutter the sequence is thus: one reef in main first, then strike the jib, then second reef in main, then storm trysail, then trysail and reefed staysail. The staysail only goes away when going downwind as it takes wind out of the jib.
My goat is gaff-rigged though, so I have a lot of power in my low-aspect-ratio main, and even the 2nd reef has substantial area, though it carries it low so the heeling moment is less. It's a great downwind sail, since you can sail by the lee with little danger of gybing.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by Benz

...My goat is gaff-rigged...

My goat has little horns and a beard.

Ha!, It is a goatee.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by wingssail

My goat has little horns and a beard.

Ha!, It is a goatee.

Good catch. My gaff-rigged goat....eats up the miles.

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by Benz

On my cutter the sequence is thus: one reef in main first, then strike the jib, then second reef in main, then storm trysail, then trysail and reefed staysail. The staysail only goes away when going downwind as it takes wind out of the jib.
My goat is gaff-rigged though, so I have a lot of power in my low-aspect-ratio main, and even the 2nd reef has substantial area, though it carries it low so the heeling moment is less. It's a great downwind sail, since you can sail by the lee with little danger of gybing.

You know the phrase “shorten sail”?

I think that MAY apply to some boats. Lower the sail plan to lower the healing moment.

Someone upthread talked about a “Spitfire” jib and staysail combo. I think that is a good combo for a our 44’ boat, still experimenting but seems to work better than the bigger/heavier Yankee, and it’s more manageable.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by hpeer

You know the phrase “shorten sail”?

I think that MAY apply to some boats. Lower the sail plan to lower the healing moment.

Someone upthread talked about a “Spitfire” jib and staysail combo. I think that is a good combo for a our 44’ boat, still experimenting but seems to work better than the bigger/heavier Yankee, and it’s more manageable.

The point is, a gaffer carries more sail area lower, so the same amount of SA produces less heeling moment than if it were triangular.