Two Headsail Setups

Have you ever wondered about different types of two headsail setups  on a sailboat?

There are actually three different types. Cutter, Slutter, and Solent.  

A cutter has the mast set aft of 40% line of the boat, meaning that 40% of the boat is bow and 60% is stern. Since the mast is farther aft, there is more space for headsails and that means that you can easily fit two different headsails on the bow and fly them at the same time.  

If the mast is forward of the 40% line, the boat is a Sloop, but a sloop only has one headsail. When you add a second headsail, the boat becomes either a Slutter if the inner headsail is set on the deck like a Cutter, but runs all the way up to the masthead. A Solent has the inner headsail set just aft of the headsail, making it a sloop with two different headsail options.  

Slutters and Solents don’t work well at flying both headsails at the same time like a cutter can, except when Sailing dead down wind with the headsails set wing on wing. 

Why you might be wondering why the inner sail leads to the top of the mast on both of these sloop combinations? Well, there are two reasons: 1. The space for the inner sail is so small that if it doesn’t lead to the masthead, it would be too small to have any effect. Leading it to the masthead gives it the extra sail area that makes that sail effective. 

The second reason: 2. by leading the sail to the masthead, the counter loads are supported by the backstay meaning they don’t need to rig additional running backstays. 

These are the different options available to sailboat that wants to have two headsails. Either already be a cutter or be a sloop with a Slutter or a Solent rig.  

Anniversary Time!

3 years ago, Maddie and I started our lives together. Little did we know that three years would take us so far away.  

Now we are thousands of miles from where we started and an entire ocean away! Shortly after the wedding, we told our families that we were going Cruising full time and spent the first year of our marriage preparing the boat for passage making.  

From there we have been strengthening our relationship by spending every moment together as we voyaged down the East Coast and then across the Atlantic Ocean.  

Now we sit in the Azores, preparing for another ocean passage to make our way to mainland Portugal, and we get to spend weeks at sea without any distractions from our relationship. 

Coordinating everything

We are back in the Azores and ready to go to Portugal as soon as some parts arrive. That is the hiccup. 

Our batteries are dead so we ordered some replacement units. They were supposed to arrive two weeks ago and be ready to pick up when we got here. Well, it turns out that the company producing them doesn’t have them stocked in their warehouse for distribution yet! 

At the last moment before we go into the water, we need to source and install a new battery bank on top of everything that also needs to get done.  

This is Cruising. Problem solving and rolling with it from here to there.  

Galley Backsplash

We are back in the boat and ready it finish the galley with all the finishing touches.  

Maddie painted tiles with glazing that I will then mount with 3M 4200. The 4200 will adhere them to the bulkhead while also sealing out water from the gap in the galley.  

Weather Window

Tge hope is that we can shove off from the Azores in the first week back. This way we have a lot of time to sail to Porto. I know that the most dangerous thing on a boat is a calendar, and that Cruising was supposed to be the end of our scheduled lives; but two years into the voyage and we are planning on being in Porto near an airport before July 9th, so we can fly to Venice on July 9th. The longer we wait to leave Terceira, the less time we have available to us. This means that we need to leave and fast!