Smaller Mainsail on BR20

[Llafurio]

Being a singlehander on the Atlantic coast I have often struggled with the standard BR20 mainsail, it is too large and too cumbersome to handle for me.

As sailing around most of the time with a reefed main is not practical, I have now made the jump and got me a smaller mainsail, roughly the size of a standard main with one reef, along with shortened yard and boom. I was surprised, the boat has improved hugely in handling, and not suffered significant setback in power.

The greatest advantage is the much easier handling. Yard and boom are the same length now, and fit jackknifed with the harbourfurled main on the cockpit floor. The sail foot and boom being shorter, they are no longer bothering when standing up during tacking and jibing. The boom is lighter in weight too, both from being shorter and being smaller in cross section.
I no longer have to lower the yard and sail coming back in but can simply harbourfurl the hoisted mainsail, even in a lot of wind, and the harbourfurled main if tied with the spare spi halyard does not blow open any more. I can leave the harbourfurled main up overnight, and I can now lower and raise the mast complete with the mainsail attached and harbourfurled without undue effort. For safer mooring in a blow and for going through under bridges.

I feel in better and safer control of the boat overall now. And she still moves very well now, I clocked 5.6 tacking up and 8.7 knots during reaching yesterday.

A BR with a smaller mainsail will probably not suit all, but for me in my situation it has been a real improvement.

[Julian Swindell]

That is interesting to hear. I sail singlehanded most of the time, more often than not with a single reef in, even if the wind is light. It doesn't seem to slow the boat down at all and everything else is just so much easier. It is only if the wind is really light that I bother to shake the reef out to try and catch whatever is there. I wouldn't go to the extent of having a smaller mainsail overall, as reefing on the BC bermudian rig is very quick and easy, but I can see it as a sensible option for singlehanders on the BR.

[Graham W]

Interesting! I had a 2m2 smaller battened mainsail made so that I did not have to have a permit to sail in Switzerland (boats with a sail area of less than 15m2 are exempt).  For various reasons I have never used it but will now give it a go in the UK.  I even have a spare yard with a lowish IMCS that I can cut down.

Claus, do you have pictures?

[Guy Rossey]

 And she still moves very well now, I clocked 5.6 tacking up and 8.7 knots during reaching yesterday.
A BR with a smaller mainsail will probably not suit all, but for me in my situation it has been a real improvement.

Very interesting experience Claus, which could help some, like me, to overcome the hesitation and the 'too much wind today' activation energy! Do you have an idea of the kind of wind you had for this speed ?

[Llafurio]

Guy,
it was about F6 here, beautiful. The tacking up speed was with the tank full, the planing started with the tank empty.

Graham,
sorry no photos. Just taken the boat out of the water to cut the locker lids and corners out like Guy has done.

I have forgotten one detail: With the smaller mainsail, I no longer bother with reefing. If things get too hairy even for the smaller mainsail, it is time to go under jib and mizzen alone, and so I drop the main completely. And with all spars being a lot shorter, they are no major bother in the cockpit then.

[Simon Knight]

Claus,

Thats very interesting.  do you still use a light weight boom?

best wishes
Simon

[Llafurio]

Claus,
... do you still use a light weight boom? ...

Hi Simon.
You mean a cf boom? Also no need for that any more with the small mainsail, with the small sail I am just using a 40 x 40 x 2,750 mm knot-free pine boom, and as the sheet attachment point is now so far near the rear end, that small cross section profile is fully adequate. And it weighs next to nothing, probably even less than a cf boom of that length.



 

[Simon Knight]

Sorry I missed your reply.  Several of the recent posts to this forum have started me thinking (a rare event according to my wife!).  The one aspect of my BR that I don't like is reefing the mainsail.  The times that I have been caught and wanted to reef I've not been brave enough to leave the helm and move forward to drop all that wood, canvas and carbon into the boat or more likely over the side instead I have crossed my fingers, filled the ballast tank and spilled wind.  I have been thinking of adding a second throat halyard  and adding a slide of some sort to what would become the peak halyard.  I can see that a smaller main has distinct advantages especially if the gennaker is retained for use in light winds.

best wishes

Simon

[Llafurio]

Returning to this subject, I really recommend anyone, and especially those sailing on or near the open coast to get themselves the smaller mainsail along with shorter yard (-1050 mm) and shorter boom (-450 mm). I today believe the BR20 is over-canvassed and somewhat impractical with the original long spars for everyday use with small crew. The present rig size may be fine for inland waters and racing with good crew, but rest of the time it's an unnecessary and even somewaht risky burden.
All these comments popping up now about reefing problems with the large BR gunter rig, I bet they would not be there with the smaller main and shorter spars.

The BR was conceived and modeled immediately after the SR which was designed for racing with full adult crew of 4, which may explain why it's (the BRs) originally designed rig size is also on the upper end. IMHO the boat would greatly benefit from a modest general reduction of the mainsail and rig / spars size as described.
My experimenting with the smaller main also suggests the boat would benefit from moving the tabernacle a bit more forward, by about 2" . Presently, with the tabernacle being in the original position, the mast is best raked fully vertical to better control the otherwise massive weather helm in high wind. The vertical mainmast looks a bit odd in connection with the aft raked mizzen mast.

A smaller mainsail would not mean that sailing the BR would get boring. I found otherwise. And Simon has rightly pointed out that there would still be the asymmetric to speed things up in light conditions.

I invite other owners to contradict or confirm. The intention is to make the yard aware that there may be a demand.

[david]

Hi All,
          Interesting. I also sail single handed on the ocean - Pacific rather than Atlantic though. A question for you, seeing as I would like to try before I buy! Would 1st reef kind of mimic the qualities of the smaller main sail? Or, would I need to go to second reef to get a similer feel to the boat handling?

Regards,

David.

[Andy Dingle]

Claus.

I'm very interested in your observations re the size of the BR main - I agree with your comments - I sail predominantly in the North Sea, on a very exposed coast which is pretty unforgiving. Like most it seems I also sail alone quite a lot. (I'm thinking of getting an EPIRB - will report on that when I got one, does anyone else have one?).

My main is fitted to a Barton track with cars, in my opinion there are too few fitted to hold the main into the track sufficiently and I suffer with quite bad weather helm from f4 and above - caused I believe by the carbon gaff spar bending aft and leeward thereby increasing the mast rake causing the leach to sag and flutter.

My question to you is did you have your existing main cut back or have a newer smaller one made? Who was your sailmaker as obviously he would know the new dimensions - is there any alteration you would make in light of your experiences with the smaller main?
I wonder if you have had any feedback on this idea from Matt?

You said you made up a new boom in pine, but did you cut down the existing carbon spar or again did you have one made up? I think if I went down that route I would try and source a stiffer carbon spar or even make up a wood one.

Bearing in mind the cost implications against just putting a reef in ..

Your thoughts would be appreciated - sorry for so many questions!

Regards

Andy

[Llafurio]

...A question for you, seeing as I would like to try before I buy! Would 1st reef kind of mimic the qualities of the smaller main sail? Or, would I need to go to second reef to get a similer feel to the boat handling?...

Hi David,
sizewise the smaller main I recommend is the size of the present standard main with the first reef in. Sailingwise, you can try it out a bit sailing around with a reefed main, but a smaller cut main will perform better than the reefed main, and with the reefed main you will not experience the huge advantage in handleability you will get from the shorter spars. There liese the biggest advantage IMHO.

..... I suffer with quite bad weather helm from f4 and above - caused I believe by the carbon gaff spar bending aft and leeward thereby increasing the mast rake causing the leach to sag and flutter.

My question to you is did you have your existing main cut back or have a newer smaller one made? Who was your sailmaker as obviously he would know the new dimensions - is there any alteration you would make in light of your experiences with the smaller main?
I wonder if you have had any feedback on this idea from Matt?

You said you made up a new boom in pine, but did you cut down the existing carbon spar or again did you have one made up? I think if I went down that route I would try and source a stiffer carbon spar or even make up a wood one.

Bearing in mind the cost implications against just putting a reef in ..

Your thoughts would be appreciated - sorry for so many questions!

Hi Andy,
I today think the huge weather helm above F4 has nothing to do with the gaff,ials  it's the mast standing to far aft.
With the shorter gaff all gaff bending is done with anyway. 

For the smaller main I had an original older main cut down to smaller size.
For the shorter spars I made new ones, which is cheap as you can use cheaper shorter smaller cross section profile materials. Amazing, the cheapest windsurfer mast material will do as the gaff is much shorter.

No feedback to this from Matt, yet.

Costs, like I said to David above, sailing around with a reefed main gives you a taste, but does not near give you the full benefits you will gain from a cut down main and cut shorter spars.

I give you my word, you will be positively delighted by the smaller main, and will probably not ever again want to go back to the bigger main.

[Graham W]

The BR20 is at least two different boats, a cruiser and a racer.  It sounds like the smaller mainsail is definitely suited to cruising but I will only give up my standard larger mainsail in Sail Caledonia 2013 if you do, Claus (and even then probably not....). 

For the best of all possible worlds, have both.  After all, we already do that with the other benefits of owning a BR20:
Ballasted vs unballasted
Jib and mizzen vs full sail and hang the consequences
Big outboard vs small outboard or none at all
Leisure pursuits vs bombing along by the seat of the pants (see photos)

[Colin Morley]

I have been following this with a certain amount of surprise. If you are going out on your own and it might be windy put a reef in before you go. As you say it is the same size as the smaller main. If it is too windy for that you can use the jib and mizzen. The boat sails very well with just the two sails.
TOne of the good things about the BR20 it has a very versatile sail plan.

Why have the expense of another sail?

[steve jones]

Just to add to the debate,

  I usually sail single handed, in estuary and coastal waters, I have built and sailed a Storm 17 and BR17 both with water ballast.
  The critical factor here is SINGLE HANDED. It might be ok to sail these boats with a crew the size of a biblical epic, but short handed sailing requires a different philosophy.
  I too have had my mainsail on the BR17 cut down to the first reef ( I have two sets of reef points) I found that at sea in anything above a force 4 I reefed. even with a full Ballast tank and the load of gear I deem it essential to lug around!

 It did not seem necessary to shake out the reef, in anthing but the lighest of airs, so I fully agree with Claus on this point. I prefer to sail with a mainsail however, and have had great success in reefing using the low-tech method of attaching a dedicated reefing line to the reef fixing on the yard which on full sail deployment is carried up the yard. In order to reef the main halyard is slacked away until the reef point is reached and is made fast on the same main halyard cleat.
  I  have hung off the side of racing dinghes but prefer not to on a cruising boat.

Steve Jones

BR17  Nona Me