Cutter rig for a Mac 26D

[oreana1234]

OK I decided to make a quick attaching sprite for my 26D. I am intending to fly my regular genoa on my inner forestay, and I have a masthead genoa from another boat like a Catalina 25 that I'll hank onto the furthest forward stay.

The sheets for my usual genoa come back the the cockpit coaming, I'll sheet the new monster genoa to my aft deck line cleat. These pics show the set up, I used Wichard clips and SS cable, the sprite is pinned at the anchor roller assembly, just like the anchor would be if it were there. Ignore the green bungie, it was just there to help me swage up the wires. There is a bobstay connecte to another bow eye (fast clip), and two clips to the welded eyes where the lifelines used to run to the bow pulpit (quick release also). Since I already fly a spiinaker from the mast head, there is an eyelet that I clip the quick release Wichard clip to form the upper end of the forestay. The entire assembly is tensioned by the adjustable back stay.

The sails filled in some winds here on the trailer, and the sail set looks great.

This kind project is not for everyone. Will the center of effort, the center of pressure, the weight and balance be screwed up?. Will the rudder be able to deal with the added sail area? Note that even with it on the boat I don't have to use it!. I have several headsails that I want to try to mix and match, depending on wind speed conditions. I know that tacking will be an extra challenge, I plan to rig a cheater to help the clew pass in front of the inner stay.

I will be racing this rig this weekend at a local reservoir, ther will be other 26Ds, we'll see how they compare.....John S

PS Oh crap, I am not able to post the pics of the sprite and the boat with the two genoas on it, due to the website rules...... I'll just tell you how it went

 

[walt]

How about your photo bucket account? Id love to see the pictures..

 

[Robspan]

We used to race with a double-headed rig - a staysail under a reacher which is a high-clewed jib. It was designed for close and beam reaches in heavy air, when a spinnaker would be too much sail. It gave much better control but not nearly the drive of a spinnaker, so as soon as the wind eased, the chute went up. Good luck.

 

[oreana1234]

OK the photobucket account needs to be updated anyway, I have done some major changes to the boat interior. One change is the installation of a 25 gallon fresh water tank. I put it in the vee berth and it sits right on top of the other water ballast tank. Another 200+ pounds of righting force.

I have been thinking about the possibility of headsail changes while underway. I think that I will install a short wire with loops on the ends to the new stem fitting, and use bungee material to hold it aft where it will be easier to reach to attach the tack of the sail. Otherwise, it would be necessary to lean out pretty far forward to attach/remove a sail. When the luff is tensioned by tightening the halyard, it will pull the bungee forward and be no factor as far as the forestay rigging.

I used portions of parts from a hang glider I disassembled to make this up. This is not the last iteration of bowsprite attachment fabrication, just sort of a prooof of concept. Later, I plan on bushing the through bolts on the sprite and installing round pucks of HDPE inside the sprite where a bolt passes through, to keep the bolts from distorting the sprite tubing (crushing). I already have a solidly mounted anchor platform with a bow roller that the sprite lies in, the new tubing is under compression just like the mast. I realize now that I will need to bring the mast down to remove the assembly, because of the way it is attached at the masthead. The sprite sticks out so far that it will not clear the camper shell on my truck, so the sprite will be finally installed after the boat leaves the trailer.

When I was setting this up for swaging, I made sure that the original standing rigging was tight. I used a halyard to pull the upper portion of the mast forward slightly, before swaging the new forestay. When I let off the halyard, the forestay tightened up, and the mast was straight up above the hounds. I then pulled on backstay, and the rig was nicely strung.

Another change has to do with the new forestay/genoa sheeting angle. Luckily, the luff of the new genoa is about 2 feet less than the length of the new forestay, (the new forestay is about 32 feet long). Raising the sail up the forestay gives a better sheeting angle to the aft deck cleat.

I put up a lot of different sails on my Mac cause I use it to check out my work after doing repairs. The initial impression I got from these sails is that this is going to work, if something doesn't break. If the sprite assembly fails, the factory rigging will still hold up, it is in good condition and adjusted correctly.

I will upload pics to photobucket tonite

 

[oreana1234]

OK pics are up at www.photobucket.com/albums/v721/oreana123

 

[caguy]

Oreana1234 just watch the mast bend above the uppers. Scared the bjeebers out of me last time I flew my asymetrical on a close reach. The mast sprung back but I'm sure it was pushing the limits. I'm sure the wires will take it but the mast may not.

 

[oreana1234]

Thanks for the caution. At least a hanked on sail spreads out the loads along the luff. The spinnaker flown from the masthead puts all of the sidepull above the hounds. The neat thing here is the order of sail removal. The two genoas will only be flown below 10 knots. Then, if the wind increases, I shall start substituting smaLLER sails until I have only my blade jib on the front of the boat.

I am considering flying my symmetrical spinny. Might as well find out how badly I can shrimp it!

This weekend wind forecast for C J Strike reservoir: 8-10 knots. Perfect

 

[oreana123]

OK if you are interested, here is some data about actually sailing a 26D with a cutter rig:

Saturday and Sunday in the Boise area were split by the arrival of a cold front on Sat evening. The air on Sat PM was stagnant with winds of 2-5 knots. By the evening, the winds had increased to 15knots. By the next day, winds were 20-25 knots with local gusts to 30+ knots.

Right off I should say that I did not sail the cutter rig on Sunday, I sailed on a reefed main alone and it was a handful. Water was continually flowing over the main cabin as spume was blown across the lake I sailed.

On Saturday, I sailed in the normal spectrum of winds, and the cutter rig did vey well. When sailed in extremely light winds, the cutter rig did a good job of getting the boat moving, though slowly. Other boats nearby were unable to move at all in winds of 3 knots and less. The cutter rig funneled any air movement onto the main, and developed enough lift to get us going and establish some relative wind. My D model is probably heavy, two adults, bedding, camping gear and a 25 gallon extra water tank installed in the vee berth.

As the day progressed and the wind increased, I moved different sails around to test effectiveness, my best combination was flying a 135 Macgregor genoa on the cutter stay, and using a Melges 29 jib on the inner stay. These sails, as well as the main, have telltales on the body and on the trailing edges to make wind flow patterns apparent. The Mac genny and the Melges jib did a great job of controlling air through the "slot", and their sheeting angles were nicely angled towards my deck gear. The large genoa I brought along had very bad sheeting angles, and was not necessary even in light winds. I had 4 headsails to play with and someone to steer the boat.

The cutter rig is not for high winds. The stability of the D model is compromised by too much sail area in high winds (duh). I would not consider using the sprite in winds over 20 knots, EXCEPT I would like to have experimented with a small jib all the way out front with no other headsail- next time.

The pointing angle of the boat with the optimum rig in 15 knots of wind was directly upwind! OK maybe not directly, but the windward ability was awesome. Broad reach was powerful. Downwind I poled out the genoa on the forward stay, centered the jib by hauling in on both sheets, and let the main all the way out for a nice wing on wing. I did not fly the spinnakker as it presented too many variables for my small brain.

How does the sail get across the inner stay when coming about? In light air, I ran forward and helped the sail across the inner stay. When winds increased, the forward genoa crossed over on its own. The inner sail was sheeted to cabin top, the forward sail was sheeted to the cockpit rail area.

The max length of the sprite is partially limited by your trailer tongue, unless you remove the sptite before loading. I cannot completely remove my sprite assembly unless I drop the mast, but I can disengage the sptite pole from its mount just prior to loading, otherwise the pole would hit my campers back window. Also, my wires stretched that guy the sprite. I have some Macgregor multiihole adjusters I am going to install on the guy wires.

All in all, I think that the cutter rig confers a great advantage on the cautious user. It is more work and requires patience with the extra rigging. Without a doubt it is much faster than the stock fractional rig.

I posted a few movies on my photobucket account of yesterdays conditions. John S

 

[oreana123]

Well now I have pictures. This one is a downwing wing on wing

 

[oreana123]

Here you can see 3 sails drawing, probably a broad reach

 

[oreana123]

A 8eam reach, 7.8 mph sustained

It is hard to get good shots with so many people onboard (4 big guys). When I go out again I'll try to sail by the camera instead of being onboard.

The wind picked up to about 18 knots at one point, and there was a lot of bend in the mast, and especially above the hounds. It did not stay there so I guess no harm.

I am thinking that this rig will be best in light airs, I could not handle the amount of wind today with 3 sails up. That is Joel of Idasailor Marine on the side shrouds keeping the boat level.

 

[HEINZIR]

Great pictures! Don't you just love the versatility of the cutter rig?

I'll second the warning about mast bend above the shrouds. My Venture 23 was designed as a cutter, with the mast a little farther back than on a sloop. As designed, the boat has a fractional rig, with both the inner and outer forestays terminating at the upper shrouds, 7' below the top of the mast.

The previous owner of my boat moved the outer forestay to the masthead. This was great as it opened up the slot between the headsails as well as allowed for larger light weather sails. The only problem was that there was no side support for the top 7 feet of the mast. I found that out the hard way when I got caught by a surprise squall from behind with the (assymetrical) spinnaker up. The top of the mast got permanently bent to starboard. Fortunately, my insurance company agreed to pay for a replacement mast.

I moved the upper shrouds to the masthead on the new mast and raised the spreaders and lower shrouds to make a "real" masthead rig. I added running backstays to counteract the pull of the inner forestay and attached them to new chainplates adjacent to the original ones. They serve as intermediate shrouds in normal sailing but I can move them back to u-bolts aft of the cabin for beating in heavy weather. They also work well as baby stays (for raising the mast) when clipped to pad eyes in line with the mast step on the cabin top. There is a drawing of this setup in the Small Boat Journal article I posted on the Macgregor 23 Owner Modification section.

 

[Robspan]

John,
Did you try reefing the main? That double slot gives more drive with less sail area. Maybe a reefed main would keep the drive but give better control.

 

[oreana123]

I am just getting used to this boat with the rigging as it is. I can tell youthat the double headsail is much more powerful than the Bemuda rig. I have not reefed the main in higher winds, I have just pulled the foremost sail off and sailed with jib and main. Interesting thought to reef the mainsail instaed of doing that......

I am already in the process of designing my new standing rigging. I know this sounds contrary, but I do not want to lose the ability to quickly set up my standing rigging by my self, hence I wish to keep it simple. I am pretty sure that my sidestays are going to have to go to the masthead, perhaps move the spreaders to where the hounds are now. I have this great spreader material, aluminum hang glider control bar down tubing in an aerodynamic shape for drag reduction, yet very strong in compression.

This project will go on. John S

 

[oreana123]

remote pic

 

[oreana123]

another point of sail

 

[walt]

Cool picture!!