Smaller mainsail for the BR20

[Graham W]

Name Pickle.Hull cream with cream sails.BR swinging cradle trailer with spare wheel and mounting bracket and barrel lock.......

....One mainsail with roach and battons that fits on mast without need for gunter.(equivalent to gunter mainsail with one reef for variable or heavy weather)

As I have time on my, er, hands (I have broken some toes) I can examine obsessively the minutiae of other owners' BayRaider inventories, in this case Steve Coulter's Ionian-based GRP BR20 (see new listing in the forum's Boats for Sale section).  One item in particular caught my eye - the mainsail that fits the mast without the need for a gunter yard.

When I lived in Switzerland, I fancied sailing my brand new BR20 on the lakes there.  The problem is that boats with a sail area of greater than 15m² need a permit which will only be furnished if the owner takes an exam in one of Switzerland's official languages.  Getting around this required a mainsail that took the BR's 17m² sail area down a notch.  So a small mainsail with battens was ordered as part of Turaco's original inventory.  Scroll forward a few months and a broken knee, lack of snow and a lucky change in business circumstances meant that I was back in the UK permanently, the small mainsail unused.

I tried to rig the sail in the garden a couple of months ago, with ludicrous results - see the photo below.  When I read Steve's inventory, the penny dropped - there is no need for the yard at all.  Steve keeps his luff tight against the mast with a series of parrel bead strops and when I am up and about a bit more, I will try the same with my sail.  Steve has used his sail mostly in the changeable Irish Sea and I reckon that it would have been useful on the first day of the Bala Rally a couple of weeks ago.

An unusual and cheap source of wooden parrel beads: one of those beaded covers that fit the driving seats of taxis in tropical zones.  Not my idea - I found it on the forum for owners of Winkle Brigs http://jegsweb.co.uk/boats/winklebrig/discus/discus_forum.htm  As I said, I have time on my hands....

In the meantime, I have hoisted a ball, diamond and ball in a vertical line over the house.

[david]

Hi Graham,
                  Is that your standard boom? Or, did you have a shorter one made up?

[Graham W]

Hi Graham,
                  Is that your standard boom? Or, did you have a shorter one made up?

It's the original one that came with the boat and therefore full-sized.

[Graham W]

Here's a picture of the "Swiss" smaller area mainsail rigged without a yard.  This sail gets rid of a whole layer of complication and although the topping lift is shown in the photo, it isn't really needed.

[david]

Hi Graham,
                   Can you give an update on performace for the smaller sail please? I am thinking that not having to deal with the gaff will be helpful as I advance in years 

David.

[Rob Waller]

There was another thread with the same title last year:
http://www.swallowyachtsassociation.org/smf/index.php/topic,624.0.html

[Graham W]

Rob, the difference is that the original suggestion was for a smaller sail on all three sides, new shorter yard and new shorter boom. This version has a smaller sail with a long foot, no yard and the original long boom - cheaper and simpler.

David, it works a treat - I tried it out solo on Lake Bala today in really tricky conditions. The wind was across the lake, which means that it was very variable in both direction and speed (5-25 knots). The boat was easy to handle, less prone to tipping over in gusts and I easily managed 40 degrees to the apparent wind, bombing along at over 5 knots for quite a lot of the time.

I only had two parrel bead strops holding the sail against the mast. Without the benefit of a laced-on yard, the sail's luff gapped between the strops. I'll fit two more strops to keep the luff straight and the performance should improve still further.

Dropping the sail in a hurry is a cinch. Let go the mainsail halyard and the aft end of the boom drops to the cockpit sole. Take the downhaul off, wrap a few sail ties around the sail and boom and everything is under control.  If you want to tidy further, undo the parrel bead strops from around the mast, pull the boom off the gooseneck and you have a reasonably short package that can lie on the cockpit sole or along the bench ready to use next time. Alternatively, a single topping lift could be used to keep the boom and bundled sail horizontal at head height. Without a yard to complicate things, a double topping lift is unnecessary.

Below a picture of the front of the boat and back of my head, plus a screen shot of my uphill track in Google Earth - distance 3.7 NM over ground in just under an hour, 5.8 knots maximum.

[Peter Cockerton]

When i purchased my ex demo Bayraider Joybells from Matt it was already rigged with a Bermudan main on a single piece lovely wood mast. Raising and lowering the sail using a single line topping lift is never a problem just getting the mast up single handed is the problem. So i keep her on the hard at Rutland now and the mast is only lowered say twive a year for maintenance.

I have often thought about conversion to gaff rig to ease the mast problem should i attend more raids but cost has always been the stopper.

I mention this here because i have some comfort now with this topic in essence being my rig and two slabs of reef in the main. Of course you can convert back and gain the advantages of your gaff where i can't.

Anyone want to buy my lovely one piece mast and main.

Peter

[Graham W]

Another excellent day's sail on Lake Bala with the smaller mainsail, this time properly set up with all the necessary parrel bead strops to hold the luff straight. The wind in the morning's uphill sail never exceeded F3, so progress was stately, as can be seen from the first chart below. The wind then backed and increased to an occasional F4 in the afternoon and speed increased a touch (see second chart).

I am pleased that tacking angles are respectable with this sail and that there is less weather helm in strong gusts.  The trade-off compared to the standard gunter mainsail is between relaxed and uncomplicated progress versus missing the odd knot or two for the prevailing conditions - probably more so downwind than upwind. I would say (and as has been mentioned elsewhere) that this is a sail for solo sea cruising, where getting there in one piece is more important than outright speed.  Also helpful is the fact that my small sail has a set of reefing points that can reduce it to the size of a pocket handkerchief.

[Bill Rollo]

Graham

Have been following this string, and have reread the previous one, with interest, after a couple of weeks mostly solo on the West Coast. Lots of advantages in a smaller main in terms of solo handling (and more as part of a four sail system?), but what are the pros and cons of the 2 options so far presented:

- A cut down version of the original main with smaller spars.

- A shorter version without the need for a yard at all, but retaining the original boom.

If making one now what other modifications might one make to either in terms of battens, sail shape or anything else.

A followup if one went down this route is where best to get such a sail made - Dolphin, Jekyll, Hyde...who would already have a pattern, or is the best and correct approach to go via Matt?

Bill

[Graham W]

Bill,

I haven't seen the two-spar version in action, so can't comment on its sailing capabilities. However, the original proponent of that version (who quit the forum over an even smaller piece of cloth) was definitely pleased with it.

I think my version (without a top yard) is less complicated and if starting from scratch is surely cheaper. My sail cost £495 + VAT in 2010, while Matt was quoting £860 + VAT for the two-spar version in 2012. One advantage of my version must be that reefing is easier - my sail simply slides up and down the mast on its parrel bead strops, so there is no need to drop the sail completely to change the position of the halyard on the yard. A double topping lift is probably still desirable to control the top of the yard on its descent, whereas with my version I am quite happy with a single topping lift or none at all. One unforeseen advantage of a small sail is that my wind speed indicator, no longer blanketed by the full-sized mainsail, now works downwind.

My sail has two battens and is a bit "fathead" in shape, as seen on BRe's. It has no identifying marks but judging by the type of yellow sail bag it came with, I think it was made by Hyde to Matt's design.

I used it in wind against tide conditions in Aberdovey the other day and as the forecast was fairly benign, was going to use my flying jib as well. As it turned out, it kept on gusting F6 and with a strong outgoing tide creating breaking standing waves, I fled back to the mooring buoy. It will be interesting to discover in due course if there is any weather helm at all with four sails flying.

[Bill Rollo]

Graham

Many thanks. I'll try Matt once he has surfaced after Southampton.

Best wishes

Bill

[david]

Hi Bill,
             You said that you are sailing on the West Coast. Is that England? Ireland, USA? I am on the west coast USA and am looking to sail with another Swallow boat if possible!

Regards,

David.

[Bill Rollo]

David

I'm afraid none of the above - Scotland! And sadly definitely not the West coast of the USA, though Vancouver is on my list for one day and probably lots of other places if I knew it better.

Come this way?!

Best wishes

Bill

[Graham W]

I managed to sneak out for a sail on Lake Bala before the weather turns cold and this time had my standard full mainsail up in WSW winds that never exceeded F4 apparent.  Hardly surprisingly, progress was faster than with the smaller mainsail (see below).  I think the boat pointed slightly higher upwind and tacked round faster without losing so much way. In gusts downwind, acceleration was instant whereas with the smaller sail it had felt more muted. I reckon that in similar moderate wind conditions (F3/4), the smaller sail knocks an average of slightly more than 0.5kn off the speed over ground. In stronger winds, it would probably hold its own against a standard gunter mainsail with one reef in and is easier to handle.