stay sail for mizzen on my yawl ???

[gregleeber]

Is there such thing as a staysail for a yawl's mizzen?

[Jay Greer]

Yes although the height of the mast restricts sail area, many yawl's are set up to fly either a mizzen staysail or mizzen spinnaker.
One such boat is "Butcher Boy II" that was rigged that way for the Transpac.
Jay

[rbgarr]

Yes, but usually for reaching only:
http://i38.tinypic.com/2hyupev.jpg

Some very large ketches and schooners that have the masts stepped well apart set mizzen/main staysails that serve as 'amidships jibs', but they are rare:
http://i33.tinypic.com/1z1bszq.jpg

[Vinny&Shawn]

Greg ,As you know I once owned MilkyWay, and she had a very nice mizzen staysail that I set many a day reaching out of the Sheepscot River to Seguin and Damariscove Island. A wonderful light air sail that would bowl us along with power and speed, I remember Shawn and I letting her have her way in a brisk breeze boiling along at 9 to 10 under jenny, mizzen stay'sl and mizzen,what a time!!

Oh! By the way it was silk and made in England. If you have her sail plan I think it shows the sail as part of her inventory.

[Jay Greer]

Yes, but usually for reaching only:
http://i38.tinypic.com/2hyupev.jpg

Some very large ketches and schooners that have the masts stepped well apart set mizzen/main staysails that serve as 'amidships jibs', but they are rare:
http://i33.tinypic.com/1z1bszq.jpg
Yes, that goes without mention! I believe that the top photo is Novia Del Mar, John Scrips boat that was dismasted just prior to crossing the finish line in the 1969 Transpac when my buddy Tom Hazlett had the foresight to sail the boat backwards across the finish line under mizzen alone! In 1965 my friend Grant Hoag saw twenty kts in bursts while sailing the Ketch "Ticonderoga" to victory and transpac record of 9days 13hrs and 51 min. Mizzen staysails and spinnakers can give amazing power off the wind!
Jay

[rbgarr]

The boat in the Norman Fortier photo is Impala. She was queen of the Edgartown (Martha's Vineyard) fleet if not all of Nantucket Sound in the sixties. She had a Luders power tender that I yearned to get a ride in. Her mooring was the closest to the yacht club and she almost always had the blue ('Owner Not Aboard') pennant flying and professional crew polishing and drying everything. At night, of course, the blue light was lit. I couldn't wait to see her every time we pulled in there.

http://www.sandemanyachtcompany.co.uk/details/?id=269

(See correction below.)

[Tom3]

Is there such thing as a staysail for a yawl's mizzen?
There certainly is. We use ours quite a bit. It's very easy to set and douse. Mostly a reaching sail, here's a photo showing how it can be put to good use in light air on a beam reach. The extra sail area in this condition can make the difference between sailing and powering.
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_ASREr4k7ZNQ/STp00TZP27I/AAAAAAAAAFQ/VLlAVKd85dE/Coasting%20the%20bay.jpg
It can be tricky to trim and often adds little if any power at times. But in this photo with the wind about as far forward as we find useful for the staysail, it added a full knot to our speed.
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_ASREr4k7ZNQ/STp00WkYz9I/AAAAAAAAAFI/WdOd22uOMCk/Staysail%20reach%202.jpg

[Dave Hadfield]

Often the main backstays are in the way, and crowd your setting-space for a mizzen staysail or spinnaker. You must be creative with the tack and clew sometimes.

But we set the spinnaker from the mizzen on Drake reasonably often. It really pulls. And I've got a bagged-out old mizzen that I set as a staysail up to a close reach. Drake's main backstays are on giant pelican hooks (see my thread over in Designs), so I put a preventer on the main boom to make sure a silly mistake on the helm or an odd gust can't bring it back to the wrong side, unhook the leeward main backstay and get it out of the way, and then hoist away into the nice clear space.

A sail like this is convenient because it's over the middle of the boat. Easy to get up and down. And the boat is still easy to handle because the overall center of effort doesn't change much. It even moves forward if you're mostly downwind and thus drop or ease the mizzen.

Dave

[John B]

We were sailing pretty close today with ours ... about 60 to 70 apparent and thats as close as I could go in any useful sense. If I had a centreline tack padeye I reckon I could improve a bit on that . Its a pretty full sail so I'd really like another with more of a jib/ genoa cut.
Yawls became very popular under the old CCA rule because the staysail was unmeasured( as I understand it).

[Zane Lewis]

We use our's all the time.
Tack it down to the Main goose neck, Head to mizzen mast head and sheet to mizzen boom. It's about 200 sq ft, We have 90+sqft in the Mizzen. 380 main and 380 in large genoa on roller furler.
We have found that often when the main won't hold the wind with the boat rolling around the Mizzen staysail will draw. It's a light spinnaker cloth sail, very easy to handle and very powerful.
If we are in criuse mode we will leave the main down and just use the Genoa, Mizzen staysail and mizzen. This also leaves the area were the main boom swings for people to sit, the boom to hang towls and cloths over for drying etc.
Zane

[rbgarr]

If we are in criuse mode we will leave the main down and just use the Genoa, Mizzen staysail and mizzen. This also leaves the area were the main boom swings for people to sit, the boom to hang towls and cloths over for drying etc.
Zane

I have fond memories of doing just that on a Concordia with a girlfriend and her family. A slice of heaven, I tell you.

[Dan McCosh]

Is there such thing as a staysail for a yawl's mizzen?

Yes. The short-lived popularity of yawls under the old CCA rating rule was partially due to the rating not counting the mizzen in rated sail area. The short mizzen mast didn't do much upwind, but the ability to carry a mizzen staysail was considered beneficial downwind and on broad reaches.

[Concordia...41]

I have fond memories of doing just that on a Concordia with a girlfriend and her family. A slice of heaven, I tell you.

You rang? :) (As to the Concordia staysail, not the girlfriend ;))

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8ce06b3127ccec523b50af21700000040O08BYtG7lsxbg9 vPhA/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47b8ce06b3127ccec5237751f22d00000040O08BYtG7lsxbg9 vPhA/cC/f%3D0/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D550/ry%3D400/

FWIW SARAH's new mizzen came in last week and was installed yesterday. I have a few pictures from the sail raising at the dock, but suspect I'll have even better ones in a few hours as we're going for a sail ... ah.... now.... :D:p

[StevenBauer]

FWIW SARAH's new mizzen came in last week and was installed yesterday. I have a few pictures from the sail raising at the dock, but suspect I'll have even better ones in a few hours as we're going for a sail ... ah.... now.... :D:p

Well, that will be nice to see as the snow coming down right now piles up higher and higher. :eek:


Steven