Staysail - Clubfooted or Otherwise?

[Richard Jacobsen]

I bought my Hunter 37 eight months ago while she was in a chater service. The charter folks advised me to remove my staysail for liability reasons. I've recently removed her from the charter service and going to reinstall the staysail. My question is what are the advantages of a clubfooted staysail? Obviously, Cherubini thought there was some advantages. By the way, if you can't tell, I'm new at this game. This is my first boat.

 

[Justin]

Club footed...

A club footed staysail serves to purposes. First the boom holds the sail out when you are reaching and running. It is kind of like a permanent whisker pole. Second it makes the self tacking arrangement easier. Without a club foot you would need some sort of curved traveler to have an effective self tacking staysail.All that said I have a cutter with no club foot and I prefer it that way. The boom is just plain dangerous and in the way in my opinion. Plus I have an overlapping staysail so it couldn't be self tacking anyway.Bottomline. If selftacking is important to you, you probably will need the club foot. If it isn't leave it off.

 

[jcherubini]

H-37 stays'l discussion.

By all means please check out some of the comments I made earlier on this issue, under both the H-37 and H-33, in the HOW achives.The short form is that from experience I personally agree with Justin. [wink]J Cherubini IICherubini Art & Nautical Design Org.

 

[Roger]

to club or not to club

I like the club on my 37c. I don't find it dangerous. I made two mods that make it much easier to set and douse. The halyard now comes to the cockpit and I've added a downhaul to the luff so I can douse it without going forward.I use the sail often and find it versatile and usefull. I don't set it below 10 Knots of wind. I think it acually slows the boat down in light air.FYI- I single hand almost alwaysRoger