Riding Sail

[Ed Haley]

If you want to have a riding sail made for your boat, the article in SAIL (January 2007) magazine suggests a sail area in square feet about equal to your boat length in feet.

If you have an old hanked sail you probably have all you need to fabricate a riding sail.

[Cathy Monaghan]

Hi Farmerchase,

Steve,

Thanks- I can see that clearly now. That seems like a terrific use for a rolling hitch.

Cathy, I thought that was your backstay flexing under the tension of the sail. On closer inspection I see it does not. Thanks for the rigging explanation....

Steve, I like your idea of using old sailcloth and sewing on some big hanks.

Chase

The backstay is uneffected by the presence of the riding sail. Since we've got the awning up, and the awning is attached to the backstay as well (it actually goes around the backstay), my husband rigged the sail's tack line to travel outisde, aft of the backstay and over the stern pulpit to the bridle (though he very well may have attached it to the pulpit, but that's not normally how we do it) so that it wouldn't interfere with the awning.

If anybody wants to see the sail, I'll take it with me to the Northeast Fleet Winter Meeting at Unk's (hope I don't forget).


Cathy
CD32 Realization, #3
Rahway, NJ
Raritan Bay

PS: In case you were wondering, those photos were snapped in Red Brook Harbor just off Bassetts Island (Buzzards Bay, MA).

[Dick Barthel]

Having never used a riding sail, do you set it to one side and leave it or do you have to redeploy as conditions change?

[Cathy Monaghan]

Hi Dick,

Having never used a riding sail, do you set it to one side and leave it or do you have to redeploy as conditions change?

Set it up and leave it.


Cathy

[Lew Gresham]

I used my main sail and tied it off nice and tight. You could bounce a quarter off it. Just that tight. The boom has to be locked down to keep it in line with the boat. It work pretty well. Keep it very small and tight. Try it you will be surprised. Hope Cathy don't mind using her beautiful boat as a example.


<a href="http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p52/ ... .jpg"><img width="540" src="http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p52/ ... t.jpg"></a>

[rtbates]

I used my main sail and tied it off nice and tight. You could bounce a quarter off it. Just that tight. The boom has to be locked down to keep it in line with the boat. It work pretty well. Keep it very small and tight. Try it you will be surprised. Hope Cathy don't mind using her beautiful boat as a example.


<a href="http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p52/ ... .jpg"><img width="540" src="http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p52/ ... t.jpg"></a>

I like it. So easy to deploy. Do you tie one of the sail slides down at the boom? How do you secure the leech? Tie the upper most batten to the boom? I assume you don't have a reef that deep.

[Lew Gresham]

That's right, I would slide a line between the mast and a main sail guide, and then I would just double wrap a line around the leech portion of the sail holding it down to the boom. Experiment with the size.


[img]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p52/ ... nShee2.jpg[/img]

[Steve Laume]

Sometimes if something seems too cheap or easy to be true it is probably just that. I am not so sure the deeply reefed main idea will produce the desired results. It seems like it is way too close to the center of effort and would increase the sailing of the boat at anchor. I have always heard the riding sail described as feathers on an arrow. The feathers are not in the middle on arrows or darts and there is good reason for it. I have tried using a Typhoon storm jib as a riding sail. This was because I had one so it was cheap and easy. It helped but the results were not as good as I had hoped. Well now that I brought it home and measured it, I have a pretty good idea why. According to Cathy's sources the riding sail should be about one square foot per foot of boat length. Well the little storm sail only adds up to about 12 square feet so I now know it is way too small to be effective. I do have an old hank on jib out in the barn that could be cut down now that I know what size sail I am looking for, that might be the way to go. Am I missing anything here? The nice thing about the little storm sail is that it is very flat. So if a 19 foot Typhoon had a 12 square foot storm jib, what size storm jib should a CD-30 have? You can see where I am going here, Steve.

[rtbates]

After anchoring by the stern(my current preferred method), this method is pretty easy and I like easy.

tks