I’ve enjoyed reading the Q&A on rigs on your site…and have a question…I wonder if this is the way to communicate it?
I have a 60′ aluminum centerboard boat–very French looking. I love the boat but the rig is a handful. The mast came out of Fortuna Light–a Whitbread boat from the 80s. It’s very beefy, but also very tall–about 80′ off the water. I put a Harken track on the main so it’s not too bad to handle, although it takes a while to get it up. The headsails are a lot of work though. The boat has a fairly healthy weather helm (I’ve experienced worse, for sure) but the main is old, a bit baggy and has been cut and recut quite a few times. All in all, the sail area is generous, and I could probably get by with a little less.
What I’d like to do is re-rig the boat as a ketch, with nearly equal masts. Do you think I can get the mast height down to around 60-65′? There would be two natural places for masts, about 10-12′ fore and aft of the current mast. Can I use those spots and then design the sails to provide a balanced center of effort? Is this worthwhile or would I be better off buying electric halyard and Genoa winches? All the best, Willy R
Hi Willy: There is no easy answer to your question. If you go to a ketch rig, the main mast will have to move forward, and for performance you will want substantial separation of the two rigs (see data on Beowulf and Sundeer in our Offshore Cruising Encyclopedia).
The center of effort of the rig would have to be in the correct position relative to the keel, and cost wise, I doubt you want to mess with moving the keel.
It would be far more efficient to invest in an electric halyard winch and electric primaries, and maybe a powered main sheet winch (very handy for jibing in big winds). Sometimes the main sheet winch can be combined with halyard and reefing lines.
Weather helm is often a function of sail shape. When sails get too full, they develop lots of drag (and weather helm).
Maybe a generous sized staysail, on its own stay (and perhaps furler) would help to get your area down quickly when the breeze comes up. Good Luck – Steve
Posted by Steve Dashew (November 30, 1999)
