Hi Dean,Dean Abramson wrote:
Russell, does your staysail still have its boom (like mine)? I would like to try winging the headsails, but I assumed I would not be able to get the staysail out enough, because of the lifelines. Or do I rig a longer outhaul, then extend the boom as far as it goes, and then let the outhaul out to move the sail beyound the lifelines? I have never heard of this, but it just occurred to me.
Dean
I have no problem getting the boom out a decent amount, and ultimately it does most of the job of a pole anyways. The cut of my staysail allows the boom to lift a fair amount and it clears the lifelines. Unless your sail is cut unusually low, you should be fine. I then rig a preventer to the boom to keep it forward and hold it down a bit. Once that is all setup then you can adjust the outhaul to get the amount of belly you want in the sail.
It ends up working pretty well, but not as well as two identical jibs would. If I ever chose to cross the pacific I will certainly have a second jib made and run that way. But for the breif downwind trips I do this setup works well and I far prefer it to the main/jib combo.
The one problem you may run into is your staysail sheet may not actually be long enough to sheet it out this far, before you head out to try it at sea, check at the dock that you have a long enough sheet.
