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(Bob Whitaker) asked:
P.S. What do you think of cutter vs sloop vs ketch rigs?

"vs" as in racing? No question, the sloop is better hands down. That's
why the other rigs get a rating bonus... for a while back in the 1950s
the yawl enjoyed a breif resurgence as designers stuck a handy mizzen on
the back of a sloop and got a rating gift. I think this is where most of
todays' sailors got their experience with yawls.

Frank Maier wrote:
Well, you've perhaps already guessed my response. grin

Frank's Rig Rant
aka My Opinion and Welcome to It

KETCHES

I have a coupla years of ownership of, and a decent amount of offshore miles
on, ketches (the one I owned and, later, my father-in-law's). Like many of
the other boat types I've spurned in this thread, I find them lovely to look
at, elegant in repose, nautical in presentation, and pretty much a slow
pain-in-the-ass as a sailboat on all but a couple of points of sail. Allow
me to rant against ketches for a bit.

No no, stop.... oops, too late

Their defenders claim many advantages to this rig: two masts for redundancy
in case of a dismasting; split sailplan gives easier sail handling; multiple
masts and the various types of sails they support allow unparalleled ability
to match your canvas to conditions; ...have I forgotten anything?

Better balance on different points of sail? That might be included in
matching canvas to conditions. How about a lower sailplan causing less
heeling moment, and less stress on the hull?

So, my response is:

Split sail plans make sail handling easier. Sure, in 1904, when some poor
sucker had to go below, carry up a heavy, wet canvas sail, hank it on, then
haul it up the wooden mast with a hemp rope using primitive types of
mechanical advantage. But this is 2004. Who nowadays does not have a roller
furling jib? Hell! Even some racers have 'em. You no longer hafta change
headsails for every 5 knots of wind. And as for difficulties in hauling
halyards... if you're experiencing exasperation, buy bigger Barients. I see
lots of traditional cruisers with POWERED winches. Come on, this is not a
realistic factor. In my experience, split sailplans simply add to your
workload.

It also adds to the maintenance workload, and rigging does not last
forever. When you have to replace extra line, not to mention standing
rigging, the bill will be substantial.

... Not that big a deal in mild conditions; but we all seem to love to
talk about "heavy weather" and 'big seas." Me, I'm lazy. I want my life to
be easy in easy conditions and I *need* my life to be easy in complicated
conditions. When a squall comes up, the sloop reels in a couple reefs on the
main with his single-line reefing, rolls in the jib some, and he's ready. Wa
nna go through the Chinese-fire-drill laundry list to do the same
preparation for a ketch, flying as many as five different sails? Hurry,
hurry, Hercules!

Agreed definitely. One of the most fun boats I've sailed, 'fun' for all
the wrong reasons, was a 40-ish foot steel ketch owned by the Great
Lakes Naval Training Center Sailing Club. It had been donated long ago,
and was kind of tired but well preserved under three inches of gray
paint. The Navy in it's wisdom had welded pad eyes at many odd places
about the deck, which came in handy when trying out different sail
combinations. That boat had been gutted, no cabin whatever, just a big
steel box. It also had a sail inventory that God would envy, there were
at least twenty five BIG bags and dozens of small ones... although to be
fair some of the small ones were the clubs racing-dinghy sails, which
often got used as mizzens & mizzen staysails.

It was a fun boat to sail on the cold & often rough waters of Lake
Michigan. It was also a very wet boat... it didn't lift much to choppy
waves and would throw trainloads of water over the crew. But we had a
great time experimenting mizzen staysails and tallboys and spinnakers
and watersails and huge ballooners sheeted to the mizzen boom etc etc.

Does everyone see why I say it "was a fun boat for all the wrong
reasons?" Even with a fully outfitted cabin, it would be a poor cruising
boat (which probably explains why it was donated to the Navy).

BTW this boat was rumored to have once belonged to Humphrey Bogart.

... (great material regretfully snipped for brevity)...
For the sake of saving me a lot of time, I'll just throw yawls into this
group. Not perfectly appropriate; but good enough for Usenet. For a defense
of the yawl as the only possible "real" sailing rig, see any of Don Street's
writings. He loves his yawl with a passion.

And he is also notorious for asking other sailors to give him a tow

Aside from that petty sniping "Iolare" is an awesome boat... I'm just
not dedicated enough to own such masterpiece.

CUTTERS

My simplest response is that I don't see any realistic benefit to a cutter
over a sloop, just expensive, unnecessary complications. People talk about
"balancing the rig" and all that kinda mystical sail trim stuff; but IMO if
you have a well designed sloop (and I grant that that's a measurable "if"),
you can balance just as easily. No, make that *easier* 'cause you only have
two sails to deal with rather than three.

If you're talking about cutters compared to sloops, then sure... but I'd
say that a ketch is (and some but not all yawls are) easier to balance.
You can move the center of effort much further forward or aft, and the
sheeting vectors don't yank the boat around as unpredictably. Yawls are
not as good because while they can move the CE well aft, they don't
benefit as much the other way (moving the CE forward) by furling the
mizzen, since so many yawls are already sloops with an added mizzen anyway.

With regard to rig redundancy, which Frank mentioned but in another
context... many people talk about how rigs with more standing rigging
are more secure. This ignores the basic engineering fact that each stay
puts a compression load on the mast. More stays equal more compression.
If designed by a capable engineer, more stays *can* be stronger but it
ain't necessarily so.

They also equal more places where bits of metal are bolted to the hull
and need periodic maintenance, and more potential failure points.

OK, I've had it for intelligent discussion... can I call somebody names
now? C'mere jax jax jax, I got a cookie for ya

Fresh Breezes- Doug King