Dear All,
Sorry about the lack of response. It might be worth sending me a quick email if there is something on the forum you want me to comment on. I dont get time to check here as often as I would like.
I think the idea of a smaller mainsail has merit for certain users. The increased weather helm is cause by high heel angles when sailing in a relatively fat, planing type hull. I am worried that if we move the mast forward 2 inches, we might end up with lee helm in light weather. The usual answer of course is to reduce heeling, as all good dinghy sailors know, and on cruising boats this is easiest to achieve by reefing. Having a smaller sail has a lot of advantages for some users, as Claus has pointed out. I can see how this works very well for West coast of Ireland and single handed Atlantic coast anywhere else. Especially with regard to the shorter spars, which must be a real blessing in bad weather.
However, I looking at the numbers, the BR20 is in fact pretty moderately canvassed. By comparison with a lot of other (for example Bolger in the US) designs she is hugely under canvassed but we were designing for cruising on the sea.
Of course we have the advantage of having water ballast, and if we take the case of tanks empty, you can see she could be a handful, with a sail area/displacement ratio of 26.8 (assuming 1 man on board). For comparison, a Hawk 20 has a sail area/displacement of about 23.4 and a Cape cutter 19, 22.07, both are good performers in their fields.
However, when we fill the tanks the ratio plummets to just 19.6. That is not far off Drascombe territory (18.2). While these numbers cannot be directly connected with speed, or tenderness, they do give an indication of power to weight and given that the BR20 is not extreme in any way (no wacky hull shape) it shows she is pretty middle of the road in terms of sail area.
I would be happy to draw up a reduced sail based on the reefed mainsail if enough people are interested. Cost would be very approximately as follows:
Sail: 400 ish
Shorter CF topmast with jaws: 180
Shorter boom, in wood: 150
Extra string and fittings: 30
Total of 860 plus VAT.
All in GBP and subject to VAT if you are EU.
If only a few people are interested, or if on a budget, I could draw up a sailplan and they could either get quotes, or else cut down an old sail from something similar. This would be the most cost effective solution and I would be very happy to help. But only after the Southampton Boat Show (14th- 23rd Sept)!
One last comment. Primarily for the USA market we have developed what we call the USA rig, which consists of a Carbon one piece main mast and fully battened mainsail. The actual area is only a little more but it has pros and cons.
The advantages are first and foremost easy reefing. Just pay out the halyard by a pre marked amount, haul in on the tack and then the clew, job done. Also, lazy jacks work well on this rig so you can release the main halyard, the boom drops a few inches until they take up but the sail is constrained and does not fall in the cockpit. Last advantage is due to the stiff mast and battens, it doesnt matter how hard the wind blows, you wont ever get the leech to flutter.
Downside is extra cost, and the fact that you have to disconnect the mast pin and slide mast forward when lowered in order to trailer her, otherwise too much overhang aft. There is extra rigging time involved in sliding on the sail slides but this has to be weighed against conecting up the topmast jaws and the parrel beads on the lower luff of the gunter rigged boat. Horses for courses - it is popular in the US but possibly not so much here, where lots of people know and understand the gunter rig. Here is a photo of a BRUSA rigged BR20 sailing locally. We will have this boat at the show in a weeks time:
