Masthead Vs. Fractional Rigs

The main distinction between these two popular rigs is how far up does the headstay go?  

To the top: Masthead

Part of the way up: Fractional

Fractional rigs offer a smaller headsail luff but a much more adjustable mast. Since the headstay doesn’t meet the backstay at the head of the mast, the section between the two stays acts as a lever which can effectively bend the mast to tune the sails. All this equates to much higher performance from the boat. 

Typically, fractional rigs are seen on racing boats while mast head rigs are seen on slower cruising boats.  

Keel Art

Maddie has always painted a mural on our keel. Our first haul out of our voyage was in the first week, and that is when Maddie began this tradition. That first mural was done with topside paint and quickly grew many things! That was a valuable lesson to Maddie to paint in bottom paint. 

The second mural was in Florida and we applied what we had learned! Seeing the mural while snorkeling was very awesome.  

This, our third mural, was once again painted by Maddie the morning before we splashed in the Azores.  

Birds!

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.