Storm Sails

[johnrobinson]

We're gearing up to headout and I'm getting to the end of the sail inventory. I've replaced the Yankee with a roller furled Jib with a bit lower clew, a new hanked-on staysail, a new cruising spinnaker and the new main will be built this spring. This brings me to storm sails and the ever-diminishing space down below to store gear. While it would be great to have sails for all conditions I'm wondering if a triple reefed main and a reefed stailsail will do the job in adverse conditions. The Seattle boat show has just finished and I talked to several experienced offshore sailors who had not carried storm sails and not needed them or who have carried storm sails and never used them; others of course wouldn't be without them. What experience/opinions do you have . . ??

Regards, John Robinson, s/v Crossings,Seattle
43T

[mike]

John

we found that the triple reefed main was more than sufficient in some conditions, the windage on the furled yankee was sufficient to prevent excessive weather helm.

mike

[warmrain]

We were on a strict budget having just acquired Warmrain when we sailed up the coast in 1988. For inland waters or for a limited amount of coastal work we found a deeply reefed main and a reefed staysail did the trick (if the staysail is not roller fouled... err, I mean furled... and both are of sufficient weight of cloth.

http://www.hanschristian.org/bb/viewtopic.php?t=3162

[Bill]

John,

We were talked out of a triple reef by Kam Richards of Pinapple Sails. The logic to leaving the extra reef out was that if the main ripped in severe conditions at the 3rd reef there would be nothing left to sail with when conditions improved.

If I recall correctly a trisail from Lee is about $500.00. If faced with making the decision to buy or not I am not convinced I would purchase one unless I was going well off-shore, but wanted to give you the information that was presented to us.

[warmrain]

A true offshore yacht ought to have a spare set of sails, even used sails from someone like Minney's in Newport Beach, CA..

However the advice given Bill is opposite the advice given me by many sailmakers (e.g. Port Townsend Sailmakers) as well as seasoned offshore sailors (e.g. the Pardys). That it is having a reef to fall back on when the tack or clew rip out, that may be what save's your bacon. Or at least prevent a sail change in conditions less than desirable for that activity...

[mike]

Johnathan,

We have both tri-sail & dedicated storm jib on a separate stay with tension lever, however when I was last caught out the weather came away so quickly - 10kts to 65kts then 85kts in less than an hour which didn't give me time to set either of the storm sails, it was survival with the triple reefed main - no headsail as the boom on stay'sl I'd tried to put the reef in had felled me twice so I gave up & tied it all in the side of the bulwark so it couldn't go overboard.

mike