When the breeze starts to blow at anchor most yachts will shear – sail back and forth – at anchor. This can be uncomfortable, and substantially increases the load on ground tackle. The answer to this is a riding sail.
If you have a ketch or yawl a bit of mizzen will hold you steady. Single stickers need a “backstaysail” hanked on the backstay (for more information on riding sails and backstaysails see our Offshore Cruising Encylopedia).
Riding sails also pay ventilation dividends in lighter airs as staying head to wind offers the best air flow.
What you do not want to do is use the mainsail as shown here. The area is too far forward and will exacerbate shearing.
Posted by Steve Dashew (March 3, 2011)
March 12th, 2011 at 7:23 am
We have a nice big riding sail for our backstay and it does not do very much to help. Being one piece like a sail, the boat has to swing out to one the side to generate enough wind pressure on the sail surface to help push the boat back. So it still swings way too much.
I noticed when we have the big awning up and it’s aft sun shades are unrolled and tied off (they hang down about 2 feet to provide a sun block) they steady the boat perfectly. Of course this is light air weather only, but I am amazed at how little surface area it took to stop sailing back and forth! Given that works so well, this year I am going to try flying a kite off an aft cleat or the boomkin.