I wrot this argument for the Facebook Vega list but thought it might
be of interest here.
Benn seeing on
occasion some talk of making a Vega a cutter by adding a a stay
sail.
To start with that will not make her a cutter. The boat itself is
build differently to make a true cutter. The mast needs to be
farther
aft and the keel may need some modification. Still a sloop with a
stay-sail is still a good thing but may be not worth the effort
for
ocean sailing. If I were to make any changes to my nearly perfect
Vega rig for world Voyaging it would be this. I would do away with
my
roller furling Genoa. Then I would add a second head stay, spacing
them about 6 inches apart so they stand side by side. With a
couple
whisker poles you can run downwind or off the wind on a Broad
reach
with the twin sails poled out at the leech. For each sail the top
lift would run back to the cock pit for hoisting from there. At
the
same time there would be a haul down line woven through the sail
hanks to haul each sail down from the cockpit. The downed sail
will
be pulled back along the lifelines withe the sails sheet and left
to
lay there until sea conditions make it convenient to go forward
and
bag the sail at the foot of the head stays so you can beat to
windward with the single jib. If winds lighten the jib can be
replaced with a Genoa as needed. Running down wind in light wind
two
Genoas can be used if you have them. Then it is possible to hoist
the jib and using Genoa and jibe again run with th wind with again
big and small sail poled out. Imagine running thousands of miles
in the trade winds with such a configuration and at the same time
seldom going forward to handle sails. I would have no worry about
the
roller furling getting stick. You would need to sore more sails
but
increased speed under sail would make for shorter passages so less
stores on boar less water. I assume a well planed voyage will
entail more running than beating and that’s the kind of voyage
this
rig excels at. Jib sheets back to tiller provides self steering
with
out a wind vane, though I would likely have one. It does about the
same thing a spinnaker does but can be handled by the
singlehanded. I have used thus rig and it is excellent for single
hander or full
crew. I used this rig on a Yokahama 21 single handing on the
Atlantic and it is absolutely fool proof. Doug
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