Storm Petrel

[Bryn Weightman]

I recently purchased a Storm Petrel, she is being much admired by everyone who sees her, definitely the prettiest boat I have ever owned.I have sailed her a couple of times, in quite light airs, I must admit, but have been quite impressed and think her performance will keep me happy.  However, I do think she is far more tender than I anticipated and am wondering if any one has any suggestions as to stiffening her up a bit. I'm not in the first flush of youth by any means and not as nimble as even a few years ago so really want a boat that I can move around in and not feel that she is going to ship water over the gunwhale each time I get in or out.  I'm not too keen on adding ballast as at the moment she is a delight to launch and recover.  Would the addition of bilge stringers help? Any suggestions would be very welcome

[Michael Rogers]

Bryn, Ahoy from another proud Storm Petrel owner! They are head turners, aren't they? On Lake Garda in 2008, an excitable Italian gentleman with little English was almost beside himself with his enthusiasm for my 'bella bella barca', and followed this with a pleading 'You sell, si?'

If you look under this 'General Discussion' section at 'Typical Use of Water Ballast', you will find my contributions describing the use of floppy 10 litre camping water carriers to provide water ballast, which has transformed my boat's performance from this point of view. If you load/unload these bags after launching and before recovery respectively, none of the ease of launching etc is lost. You will be delighted at the difference. Try it!

[Craic]

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[Michael Rogers]

Bryn, with respects to Claus, but in the light of my own Storm Petrel sailing experience, I suggest you try water ballast first. It is so simple and very effective.

I considered rig reduction for my SP, but at the time felt rather daunted by what to do, and why. Now that I am into rig design a bit, I think the effect might well be to make 'dull' rather than less tender. Make no mistake, the SP is a lovely boat to sail, and it would be a pity to remove the sparkle just to keep her more upright, when a bit of water ballast does the trick in that respect.

I would be very interested to hear more from Claus about what rig modifications for his Bay Raider he made, and why (I hope I haven't missed this in past posts: if so, I'm sure Claus will give us chapter and verse). This will get a bit technical, so if I can find the time (we are in the process of moving house, so bear with me if necessary), I'll try and start a separate topic in the 'Technical' section. Bryn might like to follow it there (or not!).

[Craic]

... I considered rig reduction for my SP, but at the time felt rather daunted by what to do, and why. Now that I am into rig design a bit, I think the effect might well be to make 'dull' rather than less tender. ...

Michael, you are right of course, taking on ballast makes a simpler fix.
Reducing the rig is more radical, and non-reversible except you build your self a second rig.

But making the boat dull is really far from me.
From my experience with the waterballast boats I know that in terms of performance they clearly prefer a reef rather than a full ballast tank.

I would recommend a rig reduction if the prevailing average wind and sea conditions where you mostly sail are regularly too challenging for comfort or safety. Boats could do with two different rig sizes: A full size rig for inland lake sailing, and a somewhat smaller rig if the boat is mostly used on the open sea.
You often see that boats sailed on lakes have much taller rigs than their coastal peers. That doesn't make the boats with smaller coastal rigs dull where they are sailed. 

Ultimately the usual local wind strength determines which rig size and sailarea suits the boat best in practice, not the designer at his desk.

[Bryn Weightman]

Many thanks to everybody for their advice. My home sailing club is on a lake where we launch down a slip. then pull the boat alongside a landing stage in order to get on board and I am finding it extremely difficult to get on board, to get off again , even to get a turn when coming alongside, as soon as I try to do any of these things, the side goes down and I feel that she is going to ship water over the gunwhales.  It is this basic tenderness that worries me.  As far as tenderness under sail is concerned, I have not sailed her in anything of a breeze yet, but so far have no problems on this score.  Obviously reducing sail area would be the answer, if there was any worry.
As far as looks are concerned, I think she is the prettiest boat I have ever owned. I live in France near the Swiss border a lot of the time, so it is very likely that I will take her there next year and sail on Lake Geneva. I have been sailing my Tideway 10 on Lac de Sainte Pointe, on the French side of the border and she has caused a lot of interest, so imagine what the Storm Petrel will do.

[Tony]

Hi, Bryn.
I sympathise. My CBL ( a modified Storm 19 with bilge boards and standing lug rig) is on the tippy side, too. 90 kg of lead ballast stiffens her up a bit – worth it in a seaway - but at the price of lost performance in light winds. In sheltered waters I prefer to take most of it out, but, of course, I cant do it on the fly. Over winter I will be messing about with a bilge pump, valves and water tanks. The aim being to make some kind of rero-fit variable ballast system.
Reducing the overall size of the rig (or better still having 2 sets of sails like Claus) makes sense to calm down a powerful boat like the SeaRaider – it has  plenty of performance in reserve, so to speak – but, like you, I would hate to permanently lose that light airs performance, so effective reefing must be the answer.
Incidentally, I believe the Vikings used rounded boulders in the bottom of their long ships as ballast. The idea was that it all rolled out in the event of a capsise and the boat stayed afloat. I presume they then had to row to the nearest beach for more before they could stand the sail again! After experimenting with plastic water carriers rolling about in the bottom of the boat, I would prefer the ballast to be firmly bolted down.

Cheers!
Tony

[Michael Rogers]

Hi again. This risks getting rather technical for the 'General Discussion" section. However, it's partly a horses for courses matter (there must be a suitable nautical metaphor, but it escapes me). To Bryn, as a fellow Storm Petrel sailor, I would say, you will find the roll-flat-when-empty-and-with-a-wooden-dowel-handle-built-in-at-one-or-both-ends 10 litre water carriers I use will NOT roll around around, but fit snugly against either side of the dagger plate case. If you want to use four, slide two partly under the side benches. They stay put.

In my foray into rig design I had to get to grips with concepts like Centre of Lateral Resistance (CLR) of the hull, Centre of Effort (CE) of the sail plan, and 'lead' (expressed as a percentage of water line length), which is the horizontal distance between CLR and CE. It's not rocket science, and both CE and CLR vary in practice according to conditions, but there is a consensus that they can be roughly determined, using rather jolly methods involving balanced and suspended cardboard cut-outs, and used to help in rig and sail plan design. Centreboard craft usually do well, in terms of helm balance, with a lead of +5 to +10%. (Bear with me, I'm coming to the point.)

Storm Petrel was originally designed with a single sail, the jib being offered as an optional extra a bit later. With full, two-sail rig she is well balanced with, like most boats, a tendency to weather helm in a blow and/or when well heeled. With 'one reef down' (the jib taken down), she has marked weather helm: so, in a sense, I wasn't surprised to work out that, with her original non-jib sail plan, she has a lead of MINUS 2-3%, ie the CE is aft of the CLR. The other striking feature of the design is a very raked mast, which (as Claus explained to me elsewhere in the forum, some time back and before I had a handle on these things), is bound to increase weather helm. I haven't had the opportunity to ask Nick Newland (who designed her) why she is so rakish. Were I not heading off in a different direction rig-wise, I think I would try bringing her mast nearer plumb (wouldn't be difficult - there's room for another mast step) to see what effect this had on her balance, with both one-and two-sail rig. It would cock the clew up in the air a bit (headroom already isn't a problem), but might improve her reefed helm balance

Which brings me back to my beefing about reefing. In a rather tender boat, even lowering the jib (= 'first reef') isn't straightforward when the wind freshens. The forward end of the club boom can't be reached across 4 feet of foredeck. I tried roller furling (a la Storm 15), but found it fiddly in various ways. What would be well worth trying (I haven't got round to it) would be to put the jib tack (effectively = the outer end of the club boom) on an outhaul.

SP's gunter gaff is called, rather aptly, the 'topmast' in the building instructions. Reefing the main involves lowering the gaff, altering the point at which the halyard is attached, re-hoisting, tying in reefs to the foot of the sail, which is by now thrashing around enthusiastically in the freshening breeze, and adjusting the clew outhaul, and snotter if one is still being used. This is most emphatically a run-for-shore job. What if no hospitable shore is nearby, or if the wind strengthens while making for it? I love my SP to bits. I built her, she is really beautiful, and she is a real greyhound in the right conditions. However for me this "inconvenient reefing" is a no-no for the rig as it stands, and "something has to be done". Which is the main (but not the only) reason I am exploring a radical alternative.

Sorry, a bit of an essay that, and arguably (as I said), in the wrong section of the forum! Hope it's of some interest.

[Bryn Weightman]

I think the water carrier idea is probably the most practical and has the advantage of losing its weight in the event of a capsize, and I shall certainly try it.
As far as the rig is concerned, I have not sailed her enough yet to really be able to comment, but my initial feelings have been that it is rather unhandy compared with gunter rigs that I have sailed with before. I know that the idea is to keep the rig simple, but I think it's simplicity makes it difficult to control. I feel that a conventional boom with gooseneck etc and a double topping lift as used in Tideway dinghies would improve matters. Also, I think the gaff jaws could be improved if what is fitted on my boat is standard.  Altering the attachment point for the main halyard when reefing is always a problem in gunter rig, although many years ago (about 60) I had a gunter rigged dinghy that used two halyards, a throat halyard and a peak halyard that ran on a wire span along the yard and this arrangement made life a lot easier. This boat also had roller reefing, the foot being laced to the boom.  Yes, it's another piece of string to pull, but the sail was far easier to control One could make a much neater job of stowing the sail too.  For now though it appears to be a bit of trial, eror and see what happens.

[Michael Rogers]

Bryn, it seems that you and I had similar sailing upbringings 60 years ago!

I have rebuilt my SP gaff jaws with solid jobs out of marine ply. Additionally, because of the slimness of the gaff, you will need quite thick cheek pieces of hardwood, to fare the jaw width into the slim gaff. It's worth doing.

I have also replaced the snotter with a gooseneck and clew outhaul, as in the new generation of Swallowboats. However I'm sure you've worked out the significance of the sprit boom, with its 'out and down' thrust keeping the clew down so that it can't rise and thus keeping the sail flat (achieved in a different way for the jib with the fascinating geometry of the jib plus club boom), and not needing a kicking strap. If you went for a 'normal" boom at the foot of the sail, you would certainly need a kicking strap of some kind for starters; and you would have an entirely different boat, I think. The Swallowboats sprit boom rig has a lot going for it, but reefing.... well, you've read my bit above: nuff said.

[Julian Swindell]

Michael,
I do not know the Storm Petrel directly, but I am interested in all your comments about reefing the rig when things are getting hairy. I went through all of these thoughts when choosing the rig for my BayCruiser. I loved the simplicity of the BayRaider sprit boom and gunter, but could not see how it could all be handled when there is a cabin in the way. In the end Matt and I decided that the very conventional rig of furling jib (no self-tacking balanced club) and Bremudian mainsail on a standard boom with topping lifts and slab reefing is actually a perfect solution to these problems. That presumably is why it is so common. Providing nothing jambs or tangles I can furl, reef and stow everything from within the cockpit. The reefed or stowed mainsail stays up over my head and I never have to go forward. The downsides: I need a kicking strap and topping lift/lazyjacks (more string), the jib is not self tacking and I need a full length mast. The non-self tacking jib is not much of a problem, and a conventional jib is much easier to back if you want to heave to or get through a bad tack. I spend a lot of time hove to, watching the world sail past, so it is probably better for my style of sailing anyway. The mast isn't a problem either as it is carbon fibre and I can raise and lower it quite easily.

[Michael Rogers]

Julian

Really interesting, thanks. There are downsides to everything, and every rig is a compromise. I'm not against 'string' as such when it is part of means to useful ends, and can be taught to behave (I would say that, wouldn't I, as someone contemplating junk rig!!).

I think the BayCruiser is a beautiful little boat. She is, of course, not just a BayRaider with a lid, and it would be interesting to see how she sails alongside a BayRaider. As I said, it's all a matter of (sea) horses for courses - how and where and why you sail. Heaving to and watching the sailing world go by must be relaxing (when you've got oodles of sea room!).

Incidentally, your accounts of sailing in Poole Harbour evoked powerful nostalgia. Sailing a Lymington Scow there in the early 60s, I watched an osprey fishing in the stretch of water south of Brownsea Island. On the same water, in a home-built kayak, I found myself in the middle of a large school of harbour porpoises; in some mysterious way they emanated friendly curiosity, and it wasn't scary at all, although there must have been 30 odd of them, breaking the surface around me and 'hissing' as they breathed. They swam much faster than I could paddle, although for a while I did my best to keep up.

[Bryn Weightman]

Michael,

That's what I had decided was the best answer to the gaff jaws.  I think basically, I am going to conventionalise the boom, yes, it means a kicking strap, but  you are losing the snotter.  I also think that I would rather sail with a normal sheeted,  rather than the self tacking jib..  I know all these alterations will produce a somewhat different boat, but I think it is a question of what you feel most comfortable sailing.  I have also wondered if there is enough rudder blade in the water too.  Any thoughts?

[Michael Rogers]

Bryn

I will be very interested to hear how your modifications go, sailing-wise. A self-tacking jib is fine up to a point, and the very flat jib on its boom goose-wings very readily down-wind, which is handy. On the other hand it is often useful to be able to back the jib, as someone (Julian?) commented above, and I think self-tacking is probably an over-rated bonus.

The foot of the mainsail has quite a marked roach, and I'm not sure how you will fit a conventional boom - loose footed? It might set OK. While you're about it (!), what about trying the main halyard on a fairly tight strop along the gaff, to simplify reefing? I don't think you would need separate throat and peak halyards, but I'm not sure to what extent the gaff might sag/swing away from the mast.

I must say, I would also want to try eliminating most of the mast rake (see my comments in my last post but one, above). It might be worth doing the cut-out-sail-plan exercise to predict the effect this might have on lead, balance etc.

Rudder blade size - I remember a query about this from a prospective SP-builder, way back in the early days of this website, and before the forum had its current format (I think it was before I had my boat in the water in 2004). Matt Newland's reply was that tests on the prototype had shown the size to be more than adequate. I must say I haven't had cause to be concerned when sailing. I wonder whether a double-ender needs a relatively smaller rudder than a transomed boat, because the effect may be more direct with water streaming past the blade with much less turbulence than that created aft of a transom? Just a thought. Anyone else have any views on this point?

It sounds as though you are planning a rather more drastic rig modification programme than Claus probably had in mind in his comments! I hope some or all of the changes you make are worthwhile. SPs are beautiful boats, and I assure you they can sail - and how! Your boat is well worth any effort you put into making her more biddable. Keep us all posted in due course.

[Terry Cross]

Bryn
I hope the following will help you with the "mods." on your SP.
My son and I have a Storm 15 "Iona" which I believe is based on the Petrel. We found the simple rig very different from the bermudan rigged dayboats we had been used to and looked for "solutions" to "improve" it.
   The main "problems" we identified were dropping and stowing the sails when beaching with an offshore wind and reefing while sailing.
 The first thing we tackled was the boomed jib to which we fitted a drum furling system.   This is described with photos earlier on the forum.  It is easy to use and has worked perfectly for the last two seasons.
The boomed jib is a joy to use, just cleat it and forget it.
  I fitted new gaff jaws (Mirror type) so that the gaff could be lowered to a horizontal position while still attached to the mast. We intended using the gaff in this position to wrap and stow the mainsail while rowing. We abandond this idea after we learned how do a harbour furl.
   We intend to tackle the "reefing the main while sailing problem" this winter.
  Not having worked out the finer details we intend to:-
  Fit a double sheave in the masthead to take two halyards. ( You say you had a simular system on an earlier boat)
One of the halyards will be attached to the gaff at the normal sailing position, the other to the gaff at the reefed position.
The gaff is hoisted on both halyards to the normal sailing position. To reef, the gaff is lowered on both halyards to the reefed position where the reef is applied with pre positioned cordage.
I hope all this makes sense. At least the main is in a raised position when the reef is applied and not in a pile in the bottom of the boat.
 As for the other two points you raise.
We try to aviod jetties by starting and landing on the beach or slipway.
 The S15 is a well balanced boat and the rudder seems the ideal size. On a run I sail with the rudder in the raised position (less drag)