A couple of quick questions:

How much has your boat slowed down with furling sails vs. non-furling sails? Do you foresee any major problems with furling vs. hank-on for serious offshore work? How do you plan to douse the sails if the furler jams?

Thanks again for your time. God Bless, Dr. Kirk

Steve, Thanks for sharing your extensive knowledge and experience in your book series. Accompanied by your videos, they are assisting us in mastering the significant learning curve. Last year, after careful consideration of your discussion of maxi roach full batten mainsails, we made the jump and invested in a new main and car system for our Endeavor 38. Wow! A substantial increase in performance, plus a new sense of confidence in a wide variety of sailing conditions. The new main provides enough drive that we routinely use a much smaller headsail and we have reduced weather helm. However, our battens continue to be a source of frustration. When reefing, furling, or raising the mainsail, the battens bend and flop out of the lazy jacks, dragging the rear third of the sail material with them.

In addition, starting in moderate air, the battens seem to be overly flexible and don’t seem to respond enough when flattening the sail. Additionally, the battens donÕt appear to be stiff enough to control the sailcloth as the main lays on the boom. Our initial diagnosis is that the battens are not stiff enough given the sail size, aggressive roach, and cloth weight (7.5 oz). The fundamental question is how do you tell when you have arrived at the right batten stiffness? I suspect our sailmakerÕs choice of batten material (pultruded 1 5/8Ó glass) was based on the availability of standard materials. If the analysis is correct, what is a source for stiffer battens? Dave

Hi Steve- I read a question in the Q&A section of cruising central. It was the one where you said that getting into sailing dinghies for a summer would be comparable to sailing a larger boat for a few years. I already know how to sail and I sailed a dinghy as a youngster. Now I’d like to get into cruising 30-40 footers long distances. Would dinghy racing also benefit me as far as learning and experience in sailing? There are many dinghy fleets here in San Diego that I could readily join. I’m a 50-year-old guy and I’d like to become a capable cruiser before I’m too old. Thank you very very much for your valued guidance. Kevin

I am building an Aluminum Sailboat with a spade rudder and rudder stock. I am planning to use UHMWPE plain bearings. Would it be a good idea to hard anodise the shaft in the area of the bearings to reduce the wear? Would there be any corrosion issues? Thanks, Howard

I received Surviving the Storm for Christmas, and have found it to be a very informative and useful book. It is great that you provide specific advice on what to do in different situations. You also inspire a great deal of confidence in the boat – that most modern boats will survive if the crew is careful.

I do have a couple of questions. How do you maintain active tactics like running off or heading up into large waves when 1) you are shorthanded with a husband and wife only on board and/or 2) it is night and you can’t see the waves coming? Regards, Hank

I noticed that your boats keep getting bigger and bigger. What do you consider the best minimum size for cruising? My dream is to sail down the coast of California to Mexico, Panama Canal, Caribbean, and then Greece, Italy, France, and England. Thanks for writing what looks like a wonderful book. Sincerely yours, Sal

Hi ya: For years we have lusted after your boats (Wiroa was one) but couldn’t afford them. Our own boat Gungha (Alan Buchanan design in steel, round slack bilge’s and overhangs) was getting too small. We owned her and lived on board for 21 years.

Last year we were lucky to change boats and boat designs. The new boat is a Birdsall 60. She really is the boat of our dreams. Heaps of space, stable and fast-as. I can’t think of anything about the layout or performance of the boat that I could criticize. We have just made our first offshore passage from NZ to Tonga with heavy weather and she went like the clappers. So no problem there. There is however a problem of lingering doubt vis-à-vis the design.

I have been used to the deep draft and 45% ballast ratio of Gungha (nice and rolly). I always knew that if she was capsized she’d snap back upright in moments. I know you’re probably familiar with the Birdsall designs, as they resemble your own in some aspects. This yacht is 63′ on deck, 60′ at the waterline. She has a 14’10” beam which is carried aft but certainly not forward (very narrow there) and she has a 6′ draft.

The yacht is single chine steel with a long (about 17′ fore and aft) fin keel and a skeg-supported spade rudder. The hull of the yacht draws a little over 2′ with the keel making up the rest of the draft. The yacht is double-bottomed fully with welded in tanks, which hold a total of 800 gallons of fluids. The deck plate and all construction techniques have concentrated all the weight as low as possible. The yacht has a center cockpit and trunk cabin with considerable buoyancy.

My problem is this. The yacht is adequately stiff even in hard conditions but…she only has 4 tons of ballast. Her total shipyard weight is 27 tons. What do you think of that and her ability to be tipped over????? We have sailed over 60,000 miles and prior to that I was a commercial fisherman in Alaska…Am I getting paranoid in my old age?

Thanks and cheers, Mike

I have a 1987 Ericson 34 MKII and am looking to replace my mainsail. Why would I consider a tri-radial verses a cross cut mainsail? I do not race but the family enjoys going fast. Thanks