"JAXAshby" wrote in message
...

I personally know a guy who spent 15 days of a 45 day Atlantic crossing
becalmed.

This is why the gods created diesel engines

Most long distance cruisers have set of nylon sails. Lin and Larry Pardey
had
a nylon mainsail built so their boat wouldn't slop around in lite airs
(large,
lite sails in lite winds also means you can not point nearly as high, as
your
boat speed climbs relative to the wind speed).

Ok, this brings some questions to mind. In a cutter, would one do as well
to simply drop the main in very light airs and go with the staysail and jib?
Or use the mainsail as well with, say, a preventer in case one was caught
off-guard, and simply relax a bit?

Strategising here...