Downwind Sail Plans

While most sail plans include the obvious sails such as a mainsail and a jib or genoa, there are other sails to consider! Some of these sails will end up being useless and others more useful than expected.

By far, the most useless sail to invest in is the spinnaker while the most useful sail is the trysail. The spinnaker is a large unruly downwind sail that no one ever flies. It takes a competent crew to set and douse it, and if anything goes awry, it happens quickly and severely. Out of fear or laziness, there is always an excuse not to fly the spinnaker.

Now for the most useful sail: the trysail! This little sail is sold as a storm sail, but it has so much more potential than that. We use our trysail whenever we are sailing downwind, light or heavy airs. The trysail doesn't use the boom, so accidental jibes go from a fear to a nuisance. Being such a small sail, it won't produce sufficient weather helm to bring the boat up into the wind when paired with a well sized headsail, such as a 100% Jib, Genoa, or Drifter. Best of all, the trysail keeps its forces on the boat within the deck.

What I mean here is the trysail is set on the mast and sheeted to the aft toe rail. As you ease the sheets while going downwind, the sail will fill up its belly next to the mast within the spreaders. The clew will simply move forward and not outboard. This means that the Center of Effort (CE) is kept midship and merely moves forward, not out.

A third reefed main is about the same size as a trysail, but set on the boom. As you ease the reefed main, the boom will move the clew very far outboard of the rigging and deck. The result is a long lever arm aft of the mast that is pushing the yacht to weather. This will create a lot of weather helm and may begin to struggle against the headsails lee helm.

When sailing downwind, the last thing you want is weather helm. You want to go downwind, and so should your sails. Instead of spending money on a downwind spinnaker you will never use, consider buying a trysail and adding it to your downwind sail plan.

One last point, you might be wondering why even fly the trysail since it is such a small scrap of cloth. The answer is simple, it adds sail area. Albeit not very much, but more than you had before you hoisted it up!

Easy Headsail Change with Staysail

I would say that the staysail on a cutter is the most useful sail aboard. Not only does it help balance the sailplan, but it also facilitates headsail changes.

If the wind picks up and you need to lower your jib, genoa, or drifter onto the deck, having a staysail set will make your life easier.

Without a staysail, the wind will pull the sail off the deck and into the water. Now you have to wrestle with a wet sail in building winds!

With a staysail present, all you need to do is pull the headsails lazy sheet under the foot of the staysail as you lower the halyard.

The headsail will be pulled up against the staysail and get sucked to the leeward side of it, completely de-powering the sail as it is lowered. As you pull the sail down and under the foot, the sail will come to rest on the deck. Once you have enough of the sail under the staysail's foot, you can drop the rest of the sail with ease and it will fall squarely on the deck and be ready to be tied and bagged.

​Tip-toeing Around Monsters

When you picture a cloud, you probably see the white puffy part hovering high in the sky. The base is clearly visible above the horizon and the top of the cloud is also in view. These are happy clouds that grace you with shade on a hot ocean day!

Monster clouds are the ones that rise up over the horizon with no visible base. These clouds are so massive that they are located somewhere beyond the curvature of the Earth yet they still take up almost half of the visible sky! These are pressure systems, so massive that they have a different air pressure than their surroundings.

If you are in a high pressure with clear blue skies, these low pressure monsters will look like massive white hazes in the distance. If they are far enough they will look like a white dome, if they are closer, just a hazy white horizon. The winds in these creatures can be quite powerful, so it is best to avoid them.

To do this, you choose your course based on where they are going and stay out of their way. You are a literal ant in a room full of elephants when you are sailing the ocean blue. Don't get stepped on!

The Power of a Sail

When people think of powerful boats, they probably picture something with a motor, something that can easily be quantified by a number written on the motor cover. There is no doubt how much power a center console has when it has three 300hp outboards bolted to the back of it!

I would like to propose a different illustration of power, the simple sail.

We have found ourselves at times in the ocean with considerable chip and no wind. We attempted for a moment to motor with the seas, but to no avail. Each wave felt like a wall, slamming into it would cease all forward motion, if not set you back! If we caught a break between seas, our speed would get up to 2 knots before the next wave struck. We were using 8hp of our motors 20hp, and it was hopeless.

Then the winds came and with our tiny staysail and double reefed mainsail, we were doing 5 knots steady, and at times reaching 7 knots! When a wave would come, the bow would plow through the wave making the sea erupt into a world of mists and spray.

This made me wonder, how much power does it take to pull a boat through these seas at these speeds? What number should be printed on the sail bag to let you know the power that lays inside?

This is an 18 ton, 45 foot full keel boat blasting through 12 foot seas under its small sails. Imagine the power available in the larger sails.

I think that when we imagine a powerful boat, instead of picturing a sporty speed boat, we should imagine those old pictures of square riggers and schooners with every sail they had available set in the wind! Stuffing sails, water sails, anything and everything they had was presented to the wind to pull them forward!

Headsail Trimming in the Dark

On night watch, you will inevitably have to trim a headsail in total darkness. The moon has either not risen or is new, offering no illumination on the matter at hand. Stars, while bright and beautiful, will not grant you vision of your headsails either.

You could shine a flashlight at the sail, but this will only destroy your night vision making the remainder of the process even harder.

So how do you trim a headsail in the dark? By feel.

If the headsail is too eased, it will flutter and that fluttering can be felt in the sheet as it approaches the winch. Simply ease the sail until you feel it start to flutter, then winch it in until this damaging vibration ceases. At this point, the sail is trimmed in as little as possible so you don't risk being over-trimmed either.

Next time you can't see your sail, simply touch the sheet and let your fingers see for you.