Staysail/Yankee/Large overlapping genoa:

First of all unless you are sailing in high tradewind conditions ......
keep the Yankee below and use the Genoa. The yankee is highly
inefficient with its center of effort 'way too high' resulting in
mostly heel and little forward thrust. Modern dacron, etc. materials
dont strectch; hence, no need to 'split the foretriangle' as when sail
material was 'stretchy'.
With a large overlapping genoa, using the staysail will aid in tacking
the genoa; otherwise prepare to foul the genoa on the forestay when
tacking. For beating with a staysail under a genoa, set the staysail
with bar-tight halyard to attain a rounded luff shape and draft forward
mode while flat aft section at the leech. This will improve the flow
at the mast and will yield less areodynamic drag due to mast turbulance
- for a slight increase in overall boat speed. Position of the
staysail athwartships is important, so watch your knotmeter when
setting.

Most of the interaction of staysails set flying under a genoas is
usually conjecture .... and is dead wrong. The only aerodynamic full
'field plotter' analysis ever done on staysails under genoas was by the
famous aerodynamicist Arvel Gentry in about 1978 .... an article based
on his work appeared in the compendioum "Best of Sail Trim" by Sail
Magazine about 1982. The preceding paragraph outlines his approach
when beating; otherwise the staysail 'fills in' the foretriangle , to
advantage, when not beating. A staysail 'under' a large genoa is a
very 'finicky' sail to shape and set .... watch your knotmeter. About
the only time that the staysail 'adversly interferes' with a genoa is
in very light wind conditions (air flow separation problems) .... and
usually in very light winds, the stays'l is dropped on a beat or high
close reach .... otherwise it always 'adds' to the sail plan.

With a good furling/reefing system you can reef a genoa down about 30%
and still have good shape. Huge genoas for roller furling usually
need to be specially cut on the luff; or, have a foam luff added to
keep good shape when you reef down that 30%.

The best staysail set-up IMHO is flying from a boom, especially a boom
that can be vanged to the deck (or the use or a 'hoyt boom'). A self
tacking staysail is GREAT when beating hard in stink weather; but, the
drawback is that most self-tacking set-up do not include a means of
normal fairlead adjustment ..... meaning that when you open the attack
angle to reach or run you wont be able to move the 'fairlead' positiion
forward and the upper leach of the sail will be terribly twisted open
(flogging upper leech) - using a vang on a boom will solve this
'problem'. Probably 99% of the cutters you see sailing at lower than
a beat will have a flogging upper leech and an overtrimmed foot - a
boomed staysail with a vang (or Hoyt boom) will solve this 'problem'.

A staysail boom close to the foredeck can sweep you overboard. just
make it a practice to bring in the single staysail sheet all-the-way-in
to control the boom/staysail when going forward .... or learn to make
yourself an instant 'flat-spot' on the deck if the boom starts to
swing.

As regards the 'kite shaped' spinnaker. .... please explain exacty the
shape. Cutters are lousey sailers dead downwind and usually the
fastest way downwind is to tack downwind on a broad reach at 45 degress
above dead downwind (true) .... gybing instead of tacking. A
symmetrical or asymmetrical spinnaker is the usual for downwind
tacking..
Kite shaped Spinnaker???? this may be an old fashiioned 'blooper' or
spinnaker staysail, mizzen-spinnaker etc. .... used for direct downwind
sailing in addition to a regular symmetrical spinnaker but flown 'free'
and 'way out in front' on the opposite side. Direct downwnd sailing
is very inefficient and slow; most folks nowadays 'tack downwind' to
keep up a higher apparent wind: faster and easier.

hope this helps



In article .com,
Matt wrote:

Hi,
I've recently sold my main\jib TS and bought a cutter rigged ketch
and have come up with a few things I'm not too sure of.

I've got a yankee cut Jib and self tacking staysl I tend to use when
it's at all blowy or likely to be. I've also got a very large Genoa I
use when it's not. I thought that with the Genoa you keep the staysl
down as you don't want to smother the Genoa. I read a comment where the
staysl was used with a genoa. Is this worthwhile\possible with a large
genoa?

Now I know this one is subjective.........but, I feel very comfortable
with the jib\staysl cutter rig, particularily in bad weather. My wife
is keen on a self furler and I can appreciate that most of the time I
probably would find a furler made things easier.

Now the question is, given that our game is cruising , is it
(a)possible (ie how do you hank jib on with furler) and (b) practicable
to switch between the two?

I guess what I'm asking is do many cruisers actually do this.

O.k last question. I'm yet to fly the kite shaped spinnaker. Is this
sail set with two poles similiar to twin headsails or like a
conventional spinnaker. Is this sail only for running?

I've got a ways to go on the learning curve so hope these questions
make some sense.

Thanks