It will seem strange for a few weeks, but you will get used to it ... these boats ARE different after all, so enjoy the experience and challenge; they will reward you in many other ways as you adapt. Inviting some experienced, older trimaran people to sail with you, is the best way to learn fast, and as you will own two of the best boats in their size range, getting good people to join you should not be difficult. I'd even consider posting some invites if you are ready for that. (Andre in Germany would be great). I say 'older' for good reason, as some of the younger crowd (under 50) have no idea when to ease up and stop pushing .. those with 10 to 20 years on a multihull have a better idea. Watching the leeward float freeboard is a safe way to proceed. As long as you have 50mm on the W17 or 75mm on your Libertist, you are pretty safe. If the ama goes under.(or the main hull lifts out), ease the mainsail immediately., but do not change course too much or too quickly .. its not a mono !

To tack, ease the main out a little and then ignore it .... and then steer the boat around, concentrating on the jib sheets ... both now uncleated and in your hands. Hold the previously cleated one fairly tight for a few seconds, making sure the wind comes on the back of it for a slowish count of 0-1-2 (or 2 secs) before letting it go and then cleat in the new leewards very tightly BEFORE the wind comes into it. Its all a matter of timing. Then go back and straighten up the tiller/rudder and pull the mainsheet back in. I typically go to windward best with the traveler just a few cm's inside the gunwale (not on the centerline) but sheet the mainsheet pretty hard, so that the leech is pretty straight. You do not need full daggerboard to go to windward with this boat, so the top can be 100mm up above the cockpit floor .. even 200 mm if in shallow water.

Adjusting & Setting Sails and Boat Trim

Builders of the W17 will one day appreciate to know how to sail their boat to advantage, so after spending a few seasons putting over 1200 nautical miles on my own W17R, here is what I can share. Even if one might claim I’m biased, I can honestly report that ‘Magic’ is one of the most satisfying boats I’ve ever sailed, providing a blend of performance excitement with dryness & comfort that is rare to find. It’s no secret that I personally enjoy ‘a sense of high efficiency’ in any boat, so here is what I have learned to date about how to achieve that on this boat. I share this broadly as I’m confident much of it can also help owners of other small sailboats to get more out of their chosen craft. Having said that, I’m confident that some passionate duo of 30 year-olds with 20 years of racing behind them will find even faster ways to propel this boat, but when this happens, I just hope they will share their secrets ;-) In the meantime, here’s what I have so far.

To some, much of this exposes nothing surprising but I still think it’s worth spelling out - for those either ‘a little rusty’ or more particularly for those into trimarans for the first time. Keep in mind that what is described here is about ‘efficient sailing’- ie: how to get the most out of your boat. Of course, one could ignore such performance gains and just laze around on this very stable boat, simply playing the control lines for safety reasons – but that is not what drives this article. This is about sailing efficiency & performance, requiring a little more attention and effort than just a social sail might inspire.

Before getting into boat trim etc, let’s chat about SAILS ... sail shape to be precise. Novice sailors are too often seen with poorly set sails. ‘Sails’ are your engine and poorly set ones are like running with only half of your cylinders firing. Should you notice that in your car, you’d head straight to a garage, yet when sailing, many seem to just accept the status quo. Let’s try to change that and expand your sailing pleasure.

We must first note that our power comes not only from the wind. Its interactive force is also significantly affected by boat speed and direction so let’s think of it as ‘air movement relative to the boat’ (or for many, the apparent wind). Take a simple example. Upwind, our boat speed will add to the air speed, whereas downwind it will deduct from it. This will also significantly affect the direction the air actually impinges on the sails. This in turn affects its drive, required sail shape and its ideal trim relative to this moving air. But more on this later.

Basic Sail Attachments

Although most modern sails have their leading edge attached to either a wire (foresails), furler track (reefable foresails) or to a mast slot (via rope or slides) for the mainsail, sail loads are still principally transferred to the spars and boat by their 3 corners, so the tension adjustment of each is critical for optimum performance. Here are these 3 key attachments (see sketch).

The halyard hauls and holds up ‘the head’ or peak. A line, shackle or pin holds on to ‘the tack’ (the lower forward corner of the sail) and with mainsails, there’s also typically ‘a Cunningham’ down-haul tackle to add more vertical tension to the Luff (forward edge of the sail) after the sail is hauled up. The aft lower corner (the ‘clew’), is either pulled rearward by an outhaul along a roughly horizontal boom, or in the case of sails with boomless foots (such as jibs or foresails), it’s pulled simultaneously ‘aft and down’, with a control line called a sheet. In the case of sails using a rigid boom, this ‘sheet’ leads from the boom and down to the boat on the downwind (leeward) side, which will depend on which tack the boat is sailing. As there’s a lot of tension in this line in strong winds, this sheet typically passes through multiple blocks to increase its mechanical advantage and lower the pull required. Even on a W17, the tackle for the jib sheet is a 2-part, while the tackle for the mainsheet is a 5-part in order to be able to apply sufficient tension by hand in strong winds. See here:

(In the mainsheet photo to the right, note the small net of poly-mesh that catches the W17 traveler control line P&S to prevent it dragging in the water! Simple to make & install, hooked to track brackets & quickly removable).

Sail Tension and Shape

As a general principle, the stronger the wind, the tighter you need to set most adjusting lines. Primarily, wind travels horizontally over the water so the flow of the moving air requires that we look at the section of our sails in a horizontal plane, but as wind speed is greater at more height above the water surface, we also need to allow for that when trimming our sails. Sails are designed, cut, sewn and set, to give some camber to their horizontal shape, much like the upper surface of a plane wing. Slower planes need more camber than fast ones, and so it is with sails. So a higher wind (or a faster boat - like many multihulls), needs a sail with less horizontal camber than in a lower wind or for a slower monohull.^[1] This also means that the slower air down by the boat or boom, can accept more sail camber than higher up. This often appears to be ignored by many casual sailors and even some sailmakers, as I too often see sails that are made and set too flat low down for my personal preference. So particularly with full-length battens, a very tight outhaul along the boom is seldom required even for a fast boat, unless the wind is really howling (see next paragraph). However, higher up the sail, wind speed is faster so we need to reduce the camber and with a non-flexible wing mast, this can typically only be done by the sailmaker (using good panel design and stretch-resistant materials), though it can certainly be helped with stiffer, tighter, full length battens. I often add tows of UNI carbon fiber to the after half of full-length battens that are frequently too flexible there and it’s proven to be well worth the effort.

The after half of nearly all aerofoils are almost flat but having underlined how critical the correct camber is, it’s still amazing to see some sailors seemingly quite unconcerned about this, even allowing the leech (rear edge) to curl to windward. As I like to visualize the air coming off the rear of the sail as a jet, the ideal direction is clearly one roughly parallel to the boats centerline. I have seen badly curling leeches with full-length battens that are far too soft, with leech lines too tight and even with a tight boom lift caught up in batten-ends as shown here. Such a ‘topping lift’ should never be the cause of any poorly set sail, as it’s an easy fix to just slacken it. Such a sail will take you no-where fast.

IF you find your topping lift is always catching in your battens, once the mainsail is up, you can either unclip it at the boom end and temporarily clip it near the mast (ok for small boats), or you can use a light tension cord from the forward boom or gooseneck area and clip it to the topping lift just above the boom to prevent it from flying aft .. but this retainer is best set up without tension that could adversely affect sail shape.

Leech lines (down inside the rear seam) are another thing. Personally, I never tighten mine, but leave them in their sleeve just to add a little ‘body’ to the rear edge. Tightening a leech line typically curls the leech to windward, forming a brake or partially stalled sail. Even if the leech is loose and flapping, that’s better than a fixed curl in my opinion. Better to think of the flapping like a sculling oar moving the air aft. Yes, a tensioned leech line will cut the noise, but it will also slow the boat.

To further keep the leech as flat as possible, I favor having multihull sails reinforced with a wide doubler in that area and always buy mine that way. As this also retards leech stretching, adding years of useful life, I find this particularly valuable for a multihull, when almost ALL the sail tension is applied down the leech from the mainsheet. No other part of a multihull main is stressed more.

So shapewise, do all you can to have the leech almost flat and when going upwind, parallel to the centerline of the boat. It may be a little freer to leeward, but never to windward, unless for some bizarre reason, you really DO want to stall the sail and seriously cut your speed.

In order to achieve adequate fullness down low with short-footed foresails, one can benefit significantly in light to medium winds by rigging a mikelin, a line that takes the horizontal sheet tension off the sailcloth at the foot. This will be fully explained in Sailing Tips Part 2.

Setting Sails

The mainsail is typically first hauled up as high as possible, or if it is a short luff storm sail, as high as is needed to lift the boom above a horizontal line to give enough clearance to duck under. Then firmly cleat the halyard. Not wanting to have a conventional horn-cleat that can catch jib-sheets and add unnecessary air resistance, my manual for the carbon fiber wing mast includes a compact design of ‘halyard snubber’, which when combined with a cam-cleat gives secure cleating as close to the mast wall as possible – see pic). Now hook the Cunningham tackle into the eyelet that needs to be about 200mm above the boom and tension the luff. (If your sail does not have this eyelet, get one added, along with the necessary sailcloth reinforcement). Except for very light wind sailing, the luff will require to be fairly tight … enough to remove any horizontal wrinkles near the luff rope plus a little more, as the wind will blow-out most small vertical wrinkles. Because of inevitable friction at the masthead sheave, it’s worth initially tightening the Cunningham really hard to get most of the stretch out of the halyard that’s ideally inside the mast. Then, the tension can be eased off a little to suit the weather – still tight in high winds but eased off a little in light weather to allow some horizontal ‘speed wrinkles'. Normally, with ‘a bendy mast’, one might adjust this Cunningham more often to suit conditions, but with a sail set behind a non-flexing wing mast, it has far less effect on the overall result, as the first 200mm of the aerofoil camber near the luff is now created ‘solid’ by the mast itself, so is automatically wrinkle free.

The final mainsail adjustment is with the outhaul. With the fully-battened W17 rig, this primarily adjusts the camber in the lower part of the sail … so needs to be set accordingly. I have found it seldom needs to be tight as the lower part of most sails are already cut rather flat … typically too flat for me. Later in this article, there is a table giving my suggested sail camber for different winds. This gives 8% camber for 25 kts which for most small boats is a STRONG wind. If the foot is 2.4m, this means a camber of 192mm, meaning that the outhaul is correct for that wind when you can push out the lowest batten nearly 200mm from the boom. But at only 5kts of wind or less … a mere zephyr, we are looking for 16% camber, or 390 mm (!) of flex in the very lowest batten at the boom. As your apparent (interactive) wind may be higher than this, the camber can be reduced accordingly, but could still be more than we typically see, and I’ll stand by my recommendation until it’s proven to be too much (Camber will need to be progressively less higher up though, as the chord will be shorter and the wind speed higher). Slower boats, be they multihulls or monos, will sail more often with their wind aft of the beam and in such cases, will generally benefit from the addition of a kicking-strap (also called ‘kicker’ or ‘boom-vang’) that pulls the boom down with a tackle between a point on the boom and the base of the mast to keep the mainsail leech straighter, significantly reducing rolling and improving mainsail-drive efficiency when sailing 'off the wind'. Multihulls, especially those with a wide mainsheet track like the W17 have no need of this equipment as they seldom sail with apparent wind aft of the beam, and even if they do, their mainsheet effectively does the job when combined with a wide traveler that’s used correctly).

A Word About Booms

It’s been my experience that sails without booms can only be perfectly set and controlled when the clew is close to the deck and led to a point that provides adjustment both fore and aft as well as athwartship. This applies to both main and foresails. As the mainsail typically carries the most sail, a boom is essential for high efficiency in all directions, whereas one commonly accepts to compromise for foresails that are smaller. However, jibs with booms can still give that extra control and even rotating camber-booms (inside large sleeves), have shown better overall performance if you can suffer their inconvenience due to no longer being ‘roller furlable’. Mainsails without booms only work well in a close-hauled tight position and cannot be recommended for overall efficiency. Boomless mainsails put high loads on their battens when eased off, so sails can soon go out-of-shape. Even for small pleasure boats, they allow far too much twist and camber, causing the boat to oscillate dangerously downwind, and to be frank, I am not convinced that a large, multi-sheave-block hanging from a clew that is now free to swing fore-and-aft as well as sideways, is any less dangerous than a boom that can more readily be grabbed to check its passage across the boat. Sorry, but for me, it’s just too much of a compromise on efficiency. Anyway, I also use my boom for other important things, such as a core for rolling up my mainsail and …. well, even for drying clothes or supporting a sun or rain cover while at anchor.

And performance-wise, race classes that allow both boom or boomless rigs, often end up giving the boats different handicaps, as in moderate winds and above, boats with booms have typically proven to be both faster and safer.

The Jib

The jib luff needs to be as tight & straight as practical. If the jib luff is the forestay (as on the W17), it will basically be tensioned by the shrouds so will generally be fairly tight. It does not need to be ‘brutally’ tight’ though (as often seen on monos) as the mainsheet will add the final tension to the forestay via the mainsail leech and mast. If your jib is hanked to the forestay, the halyard will apply luff tension, but this needs to closely match the forestay tension or the latter will go slack and offer no support. While this balance can be achieved by eye for different wind conditions, a rocking equalization mount (like I first built for a racing dinghy back in 1958), better guarantees that the jib luff and forestay share the load. See sketch.

If the jib luff is long (say from the mast head), there will always be a certain ‘sag’ from the straight line. Although this is best kept to a minimum (by a stiff mast or backstays), the amount of remaining sag must be recorded and the sailmaker informed, so that this same amount is removed from the jib luff … otherwise the foresail will always be too full. This is generally more apparent with larger foresails such as a genoa.

Typically, the jib tack is lashed to the lower thimble of the forestay on the W17. With time, the sail can change a little – stretching with use, but sometimes even shrinking with age. So this lower attachment may need adjusting after a few seasons use … with the tack lashing effectively becoming a Jib Cunningham. Tensioning the luff of any sail will pull the fullness forward, but when sailing, this fullness will be moved aft by air pressure and friction over the sail surface, so keep a constant eye on your actual sail camber. While the point of maximum camber can be allowed to move to 45 % back on a mainsail sailing in moderate to strong wind, it should be more forward on the jib, more like 35%. If it’s too far back, try tensioning the Cunningham. With old tired sails, it will generally mean a visit to the sail loft.

Unless there is a jib boom, the jib ‘outhaul’ is the actual jib sheet and it’s important that the sheet lead blocks are set at the right location so that tension is initially roughly equal on the leech and the foot. If not, then one can move the jib-sheet blocks or, often easier for a W17, raise or lower the jib by changing the length of the upper wire strop to the mast hound beak and adjusting the lower tack-strop to suit.

The jib sheeting must be adjustable for different conditions, so let’s consider what can be done beyond the basic sheeting adjustment. Some boats have their jib sheet leads on a track that can be moved fore & aft, or even a little inboard or outboard. Moving the lead more forward, will move the tension from the foot to the leech ... allowing more camber for lighter winds. Moving it rearward, will tension the foot but ease the leech, helping to avoid mainsail back-winding or spilling excess wind in heavy conditions.

But the W17 system is simpler and lighter with no tracks required. First, after the leeward sheet is set, the normally idle weather sheet can be slightly tensioned to pull the jib clew closer to the mast for a finer sheeting angle … even down to 10 deg can be useful on some close-winded boats (A supplementary line that adds side tension to change the load direction of the primary one is generally called ‘a Barber Hauler’, so in this case, the weather sheet is being used as a Barber Hauler).

Also, as the W17 sheet has 2-parts, the standing part can be pulled down under a small hook mounted about 200-250 mm forward of the normally attached position (see above photo of jib sheet). This will add tension to the leech without adding as much to the foot … so permitting a little more camber in the sail for lighter winds. Using the ‘telltales’ will help to guide the ideal sheeting … something that will be discussed in Part 3.

But now, what if the wind is very light … say under 5kts and we are looking for that 16 % camber?

We can achieve more camber if we just slacken off the jib sheets completely, but then the leech is also slack and the sheeting angle is so large that there’s no upwind drive or ‘slot-effect’ with the main. So what to do?

This is where a mikelin can really help. There will be more on this in Part 2, but basically, it is a horizontal line that is added to take the foot tension of the foresail. (See Part 2 for photos & more explanation).

Boat Trim

Take note that small boats of all types, particularly those under 6 m (20 ft), will need to use the movable weight of crew members to modify the heel constantly and trim in order to sail at the highest efficiency.

First and foremost for a trimaran, it’s important to never sail the boat on three hulls! When sailed very light, a few trimarans with high amas (high dihedral for the aka beams) can actually be balanced just on the central hull with the amas clear of the water. This is faster in light wind and my old Buccaneer was like this. However, the high dihedral meant the boat heeled a lot more to find its float stability so losing valuable sail drive, even if offering a boat-rig that spilled wind gusts more automatically. (High dihedral also makes a boat very skittish and ‘flip-flop’ at anchor). Later designed boats generally avoid this, but require that the movable weight (crew) is always conscious of the heel and ready to move from windward to leeward should the wind not be enough to get the windward ama (float) out of the water. At the same time, the crew should be ready to move back to windward if they see a darkening of the water to windward, indicating an imminent wind gust. Ideally, the windward ama should be just above the water surface and if the ama bottom shape is correctly engineered, clipping a few wave tops will be silent and smooth, so of little concern. But if your windward ama annoyingly slaps, you may need to heel your boat more to gain clearance. Although the helmsman might help with this adjustment of heel, the main weight movement should be one of the principal duties of the crew when there is one.

Fore and aft trim is equally important for best performance. When sailing upwind, one needs to trim forward to keep the narrow bow as deep as practical*, with the leeward aft chine (on a W17) exiting the water close to the transom. This will not only give the longest waterline length, but also give the minimum wetted surface and related skin friction. When sailing alone in light weather, I often sit tight to the forward beam on my W17, using a long, lightweight tiller extension of PVC ... (see photo).

NOTE: The asterisk against the words ‘deep as practical*’ needs clarifying. When sailing in steep waves that are very close (as often found on a large and windy lake) ... the practical limit can be exceeded when wave tops start to come over the foredeck …. so a balance will be required between good bow depth and required forward freeboard. Allow me to also diverse here and get a certain message across. This is a point I like to emphasize, both when sailing and designing.

A boat is required to be supported by upward forces that match its weight. IF going fast enough, some of that can come from dynamic lift, as offered by planing surfaces or foils. However, most of the time, its weight is supported purely by hull buoyancy, so now it’s for the designer AND later, the sailor, to decide just where is the best location for that buoyancy to give the least resistance to forward motion. If there is little chance for dynamic lift, I have observed that getting more buoyancy up forward will lower forward resistance, especially if added deep below the waterline and not at the surface. So either the designer can work this into his design, or the sailor can move forward to achieve something similar, keeping in mind that every cubic centimeter added forward (where the waterline is narrow) will be a cubic centimeter less to support aft where the boat is generally much wider. If the designer and sailor work together on this, the improved results are significant. But with any design that’s light enough to be heeled and trimmed with manpower, the sailor needs to decide where best to get his buoyancy from, and then adjust crew positions to suit. The gains are measurable.

As you bear-off to sail on more of a reach, your weight can slowly slide aft, but only when the wind is moderate or strong.

As you move to a broader reach, say 45 degrees from a true downwind run, then in moderate to strong winds, you will need to slide your weight (as well as that of the crew), farther aft. The stronger the wind, the farther aft you need to go … even ending up sitting on the aft beam of a multihull. This can bring its own adventure. (I was sitting on the rear beam of my W17R one day when a strong gust hit. The sudden acceleration had my feet rising off the trampoline and for a second I thought I was going off the back! IF that ever happens to you, do NOT let go the tiller extension … another good reason for a long, flexible one of PVC. The pull on the extension will turn and slow the boat, giving you the best chance to get back on board. But the experience has me making a couple of lightweight backrests of PVC tubing and carbon fiber sockets that will make ‘the back roll’ far less likely. Options are to add a line from the forward beam with a loop you can hold on to, or … just don’t sit up there! Such acceleration is what you get to enjoy with high stability and a powerful rig ;)

Sail Trim

When sailing upwind, thrust is created by gently deflecting the air over a slightly curved surface of the sail and accelerating the retained air flow off the leech. But it needs to be gently corralled into the sail and held close to it without separation that would cause eddies and drag, so at the entry (luff), the wing mast and sail is pointing almost directly into the apparent wind. From this point, sail curvature will start to perform its magic. Test have shown that, IF the air flow can follow the foil surface, a camber of 1/6th the chord creates a very effective thrust, but this is too much for higher air speeds as the air breaks away from the surface. 1/10th or even less camber is then required (see table below). One way to think about this is to consider that the forward driving force is a product of camber x air speed – but only UP TO the point that the air flow can stay on the sail surface. High air speed will require LESS camber to achieve this. From my own observations, here are some suggested sail camber values as needed to match the apparent wind.

Pressure on sails (lbs/sqft = 0.0012 x C x v2) [v = ft/sec C=1.2 or if in knots, P ~= 0.004 x V2

Apparent Wind (kts) 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

Suggested Sail Camber %: 16 14 12 10 08 06 04 02

or: Chord/Camber Ratio (C/C) 6.2 7.1 8.3 10 12.5 16.7 25 50

Pressure (@C = 1.2) lbs/sqft 0.1 0.4 0.9 1.6 2.5 3.6 4.9 6.4

How wind force is applied to the boat will depend in good part on the angle the leech area makes relative to the boat. This in turn will depend on the mainsheet tension and how effectively it is sheeted. As the sail is let out for reaching, a wide mainsheet track can keep the leech area flatter for more effective drive. Without a wide track one can lose some of that, as one will see the boom lift up, allowing the leech to spill air off to leeward instead of driving the boat forward (Typically, boats with narrower mainsheet sheeting, must add a boom vang to apply the necessary down-force on the boom to keep the leech flat).

Once again, the leech ‘tell-tale’ can add a visual factor to the air flow … see Part 3.

Sailing Downwind

Typically, multihulls are almost never sailed directly downwind, but on the W17 I’ve observed that with sails winged out to each side, the speed in medium winds is ‘pretty good’, so only by racing identical boats against each other can one really see if it’s still slower than the more generally acknowledged tacking-down-wind with multiple gybes. Meanwhile though, here’s a rough guide.

To tack downwind at an assumed 35 degrees off the straight downwind line on each gybe, you will need to travel approximately 22 % faster to cover the extra distance. (Or approx. 42 % faster average if at 45 degrees off-wind, and that means making 8.5 kts instead of 6). Significant differences ... but sometimes feasible.

Although personally, on my W17 in moderate wind (say 5 to 8 kts), I’ve found it quite efficient to go ‘wing-on-wing’ straight downwind as noted above, in both lighter and heavier winds I found tacking downwind does work best. In the case of very light winds, it helps to create a higher apparent wind to keep you moving (say at 140/220 deg), while in heavier winds, it gives you the ability to steer up and over waves to lower the risk of sticking the bow under, (something that can happen if you go straight downwind at high speed), as well as enable sailing in the fastest water of a wave, something I will discuss more in Part 4 of this series.

Tacking, Sail Adjustments, Wing Masts, Mikelin And More

Tacking

Tacking is often a challenge with a multihull. The relative increase in windage of 2 or 3 hulls does not help, plus having at least two ‘long & slim’ hulls in the water that both really want to go straight. But let’s discuss how we might get around this.

First, with a trimaran, it’s important to keep the boat heeled so that you have ‘only 2 hulls’ in the water. When tacking, I think there’s an argument for having the ‘windward ama down^[2], as it’s then on the inside of the turn and has less distance to go. That ama will then stay down after the turn as it will now be to leeward but one needs good ‘entry speed’ as the turn is sharper. As different boat designs have different turning abilities, it’s just another thing to experiment with.

It’s important to get head-to-wind with still some forward motion, otherwise the rudder becomes useless as you pass through the eye of the wind. This means that the initial rudder motion needs to be gentle, or otherwise, it acts too much like a brake. Once the boat starts to turn, then the tiller can be moved over more aggressively, though preferably not over 40 degrees.

The mainsheet needs to be eased out a little (say 1.5m of line) by the time you are head-to-wind – otherwise, the mainsail will be trying to stop the turn to the new tack. At this point, I’d say, ‘slacken & forget it’ until you are really on the new tack. The sail to really concentrate on is the jib. When sailing the W17 alone, I start the turn and then slacken the main before facing forward and grabbing the TWO jib-sheets, one in each hand. I hold the previously sheeted one and watch the sail until the wind starts to blow on its reverse side. Unless it’s VERY rough, I then let that sheet go completely and immediately pull in the new leeward sheet as fast as possible, to get it tightly sheeted before the wind is back in the sail. (In most light to moderate conditions, the jib does not need to be backed at all). I then check my course and pull in the mainsail & boom to accelerate the boat back up to speed.

When it’s very rough, waves hitting on at least 2 (if not 3) hulls can really slow up the turn and if you don’t approach it with some momentum, it can be hard to get the bows around. It’s all too easy to forget that ANY rudder is useless if the boat is not moving … like trying to steer your car when it’s stopped in a parking lot ;) But if you make it into the wind and then start moving backwards, remember that the rudder can start to work again, but this time in reverse! You will have to very firmly hold on to the tiller though, as the bulk of the rudder area is now AFT of the pivot and will try to force the rudder hard over, but you only want a very moderate angle. And most important if sailing backwards … make CERTAIN that the mainsheet is really slackened off. Once fully turned say 40 degrees to the wind in the direction for the new tack, pull in the mainsail and off you’ll go. Tacking in waves is very difficult without a few sq.ft of foresail, so follow the guidance in the stormsail article for using just a small corner of the jib when sailing and tacking with either double reefs or the storm mainsail. See photo below.

I think it’s fair to mention that it is possible to design trimarans that turn very easily, but there’s a significant price to pay. Such boats have cut-away bows and more banana shaped amas. But unfortunately, these boats are slower, they pitch more and typically show more leeway than does the W17. Designing is always a question of trade-offs, and as the W17 generally tacks just fine, I am totally satisfied with the hull shapes that give extra performance, low pitching and remarkably high resistance to leeway.

Tight Mainsheet and Leech

The leech area should be firm and flat for at least the most rearward 25 % of the sail. I personally believe in having the leech cloth doubled in that area in order to help achieve this and also resist stretch from the high vertical loading down the rear edge of a relatively high aspect ratio sail, especially when attached to a rigid wing mast that does not bend fore & aft, even in a high wind. In such a case, it’s the square-top of the mainsail that eases off in a gust.

Mainsail Foot Tension

I’ve already mentioned that ‘in my personal opinion’, most boats have too much tension on their boom outhauls. But then, what is required? What is enough and how can we figure this?

Here is one way. If we look at the table (towards the end) in Part 1, the Sail Camber proposed for say 30kts of wind is just 6% (a C/C (chord over camber) ratio of 16.7). But for only 5kts of wind, the proposed camber is 16% (a C/C ratio of 6.2). So now refer to this chart (published earlier with an article on ‘Adjusting sail fullness’ to show how much extra sail material is needed to give a certain chord-to-camber ratio). From this chart, we can see that we will need about 6.6% more foot length to achieve a C/C of 6.2 for 5kts of wind, but only 1.6% more length to achieve a C/C of 16.7 for 30kts wind.

As noted in the small print under the graph, this is for a parabolic curve so we can reduce the % values by 35 % (or multiply by 0.65), for a more typical aerofoil shape sail. So if the mainsail foot is initially pulled tight, we need to ease off about 1 % [0.65 x1.6%] only to give a relatively small 6% camber for high wind. But in only 5kts of wind, we will need to ease off 4.3% [0.65 x 6.6%]. This indicates that ‘cranking up’ the foot ‘super tight’ is not justified. (But in a high wind, keep a check on the actual camber in case the sail stretches, requiring tighter adjustment). So to summarize this example; to adjust a mainsail foot from one suitable for a strong 30k wind to the camber required to more efficiently match a 5kt wind, one needs to slacken the outhaul 3.3% (4.3-1) of the foot length. For a W17, this equates to 3.3% of 2400mm, or moving the clew forward 80mm .… rather more than most sailors do I suspect. It might be useful to mark these two positions on your boom, for 5 and 30kt winds (almost full stretch) .. so that you have some reference points. This will not significantly affect the leech tension as this is more directly dictated by the vertical mainsheet tension. The photo at the end of this article, shows a W17 sail sheeted down firmly but with the foot still only lightly tensioned, so I hope this encourages you to experiment with your foot tension and not give more than you really need to maintain a foot camber that matches the wind speed in that lower area.

This easing of the foot works best with sails that are loose footed. If your sail goes into a boom groove, try pulling it out for light weather and only attach the sail at the tack and clew. (One could argue that a loose-footed sail with a small piece of cloth going horizontally to the boom track, might be even more efficient by preventing loss of air under the sail - but that would be measured as illegal sail area for most class boats. Anyway, smoke tests have shown that air typically flows more up the sail than down, so I’d personally not consider this a major issue - unless future tests prove otherwise).

Bearing Off

As a tight mainsail actually resists bearing off, it’s a good idea to ease out the mainsail significantly, before, or as, you bear off. This will require slackening first the mainsheet and then the traveler, being as the traveler will probably be reluctant to slide out unless the high mainsheet tension is first relieved. One can quickly sheet down the boom again, once the traveler is out. Also, bring your weight aft a little, as it both assures the rudder stays deep and also raises the bow slightly, both helping the downwind turn.

Wing Masts, Their Control and Adjustment

First, let me be totally upfront with readers and admit that although I have over 30 years experience with rotating masts, I presently have only 6 seasons of regular sailing with a true wing mast. So if someone with the experience of Randy Smyth or Chris White ever contradicts what I say here, please listen to them ;) With that ‘out of the way’, let me share what my experience has been.

First of all, I am sold to-date on the advantages of a wing mast, and am convinced that my boats sail more efficiently upwind because of their use. The most forward 12” of any sail is very critical when sailing upwind and that part can be better controlled with a rigid wing mast rotated by a mast tiller that can precisely position the wing mast relative to the sail, for the most efficient result. But let’s first look at what sectional shape may serve the best.

Mast Section Shape

If we first look at the raw resistance of a wing mast compared to other basic shapes, we can certainly see the advantage of a wing mast as long as it's pointed into the airflow.

We are looking for a sectional shape that will primarily allow the soft sail to be in perfect continuity on the leeward side, so that air speed is maintained at the maximum. This will slightly lower the pressure (as pressure & velocity vary inversely) and also support a good quasi-jet flow off the leech. It’s interesting to note how the fore & aft chord of the mast, changes the required angle of rotation to achieve the same overall aerodynamic form with the soft sail. This diagram (once shared by aerodynamicist Tom Speer) gives values for the variations. Note that a regular rotating mast might be about 5% of the total sail, compared to say 10% for one of my wing masts ... reducing the required rotation from 53 deg. to 35 deg. The latter is likely to be much closer to the on-coming direction of the apparent wind …. typically around 30 degrees for a well performing multihull.

Although theoretically the front edge could be semi-elliptical, my own wing masts have a more radiused nose, as one can argue that due to constant variations of apparent wind direction, a wider, more radiused nose will ‘overall’ be less likely to stall than a finer, more elliptical nose that’s no longer pointing directly into the on-coming air. The side wings of the mast will have a very slight curvature and lead to a track or bolt-rope tube that’s as close as ‘physically practical’ to the wing wall for the smoothest flow. For this reason, the bolt-rope tube is more efficient than a track, but it’s understood that many deep-sea cruisers feel more at ease with slides that ‘may’ allow the sail to come down faster. I say ‘may’ as some slides are even worse than a good rope-tube fit in my experience. Depends as always on the design and quality – and resulting cost. Fully battened sails with luffs over 10m are often fitted with batt-cars to get the sail down more easily.

Certainly for small tris (under 10m), I am quite at ease with a rope tube, as long as the bolt-rope itself is fairly stiff. As I also recommend and use a rotating boom, this gets rid of the projecting slides that can foul on various lines around the mast.

The last dimension of significance is the depth or ‘chord’ of the mast itself. As you will see in another article on wing masts (Wing Masts on Multihulls), I do not personally recommend a chord in excess of 3 times the mast width as then the side area can become hazardous in very high winds. (But see the referenced article for ways to control this). IF it were practical to only have the mast supported at the top so that it could have full rotation to weathercock, then the 3:1 limit could be increased to even 5:1 with further potential performance gain. (Randy Smyth has been playing with this on his light, experimental boat “Scissors” but at last check, it was not certain if this can be effectively ‘scaled up’ for larger craft).

The Traveler

More and more we see good performance boats emulating the top race boats* by fitting a mainsheet traveler. So what are the advantages and how should we use it ?

* Note that full-foiling boats do not need wide tracks as do the non-foiling race boats. This is due to the fact that at the much higher foiling speeds, their apparent wind direction varies very little. So while they still use a track, it does not need to extend beyond the sides of the main hull.

With a traveler, your lower mainsheet block will be attached to a traveling slide with rollers on the sides to engage in the track.

You need this to roll easily, so first a note; keep the track sides clean and you might want to occasionally spray it with silicon for low drag, though in a dusty environment, this may also mean cleaning it more often too ;-)

There will be blocks and cleats at each side with either a 2 or 3 part tackle to pull the traveler to the position you want. Mainsheet systems with a strop will only permit the lower mainsheet block to go out about the width of the transom at best and the same with mainsheets that are blocked down to each transom corner. A wider track offers more ability to pull the boom down vertically to flatten and straighten the leech which is more efficient in the most common moderate wind range. This is particularly important for multihulls, when apparent winds are higher.

Some tracks are straight but these are a compromise as the mainsheet can only pull down vertically over a range of boom angles IF the track is curved, to be always closely under the mainsheet boom block. With a straight track, there is always a compromise for the sheeting. Outboard, the track may be too far to the rear, when the mainsheet will be pulling the boom from the mast, or if too far forward near the centerline, the boom will experience compression on the mast that can cause excessive mast rotation with a rotating mast or potentially damaging compression on gooseneck fittings.

A curved track generally avoids these issues and fast racing trimarans can have them wide enough to permit keeping vertical mainsheets as much as 40 deg out from the boats centerline, for full control of leech tension and twist over a wide range of sailing angles and wind strengths. Here is an early maxi-tri IDEC that not only had a very wide traveler track with a rear beam curved to suit, but I also just noted it shared a drop down spade rudder like the W17! These huge boats use their tall, fully battened mainsails more like a rigid wingsail that rotates about the mast. Twist is negligable but the leech load is high. The traveler control lines are then used more than the mainsheet, controlling the angle of attack while the sail holds a semi-rigid shape via mainsheet tension.

This highlites one of the main advantages of the curved track that other mainsheet systems just cannot match ... the ability to pre-set any (or zero) twist for the current wind conditions and then leave it set while the traveler is adjusted to suit the attack angle and boat heading. This assures the best overall mainsail trim and efficiency.

Later IDEC models also showed-off a wonderfully wide track with the mainsheet winched down hard, with sail angle of attack controlled by the traveler position. (Hard to argue with her efficiency as she is the fastest ocean racer on the planet, holding the Jules Verne circumnavigation record since 2017 at just under 41 days. In 2025, she will try to break that .. but with an all-female crew skippered by Alexia Barrier).

But back to reality now. For smaller boats, there will always be a compromise and curved tracks are then a rare luxury, so the W17 trimaran is quite unique to enjoy one. It does come with 'quite an added chunk’ to the cost of outfitting though … but for me it’s worth it for the added control and efficiency. (Installing the Barton ‘box’ track that you can bend yourself, offers a healthy savings over the Harken option, especially when pre-bent track shipping of the latter is factored in).

So how should we use such a traveler?

As it is basically to allow the best leech tension and twist for the conditions the boat is sailing in, we need to discuss what these are.

Let’s start with the most common moderate wind conditions of say 5-15 kts (though this range may vary somewhat with different boats)

For the typical multihull, this most common mid-range requires high power with high pointing ability and typically this is achieved with a straight, flat leech sheeted down just to leeward of the centerline. Again, how far to leeward varies with different boats with the W17 seeming to work better with the traveler out vertically over the transom corner, about 12”(300) off-center.

If you bring it farther to windward the sail can stall. Adding telltales to the leech will allow you to visually see this … you want those leech telltales to be flying straight aft. (Which reminds me: when I was learning to race among quite a few dinghy (mono) experts, they would often repeat to me ... "If in doubt, let it out")

If you have the traveler farther out, you will lose some power and pointing ability, although speed can be marginally higher. It should be noted however, that when sailing a wiggly course in and over waves, that a flat sail with no twist is at risk of stalling as its not practical to keep changing the boom angle to suit the constantly changing course. In this case, a little twist allows more of the sail to be effective so is generally needed when sailing a wiggly course over waves.

So what about in lower winds? First of all, we need to slacken off the clew and push it forward to give more sail camber … particularly low down where wind speeds are lowest. But high camber is at risk of stalling, especially as the variation of the apparent wind from the deck to the mast top is highest in low winds. So to counteract this, we need to allow a little twist in the sail and this comes from applying less down-load on the boom. To achieve this we bring in the traveler but ease off on the mainsheet itself. This allows the boom to swing up and for the leech to fall off higher up. But as we can see from this diagram, the twist required from wind gradient variation is not high.

In high winds, we may be ‘on overload’ so now need to depower the sail. This is also possible by removing the down component of the mainsheet, but in this case, we do not bring in the traveler but we can let it out a little and then just ease the mainsheet for the top of theleech to fall off. Newer sails with square tops achieve this more easily as the extra area at the top now has a leverage aft of the mast that will twist the upper sail to leeward as that part has a couple of battens, keeping it quite a stiff panel.

When sailing somewhat off wind, we can keep the mainsail nice and flat to the wind with the traveler fairly far out but with the mainsheet quite hard down. This is efficient and fast. But again, if we need to depower we can ease off the traveler and then the sheet. But if we need to play the boom angle for gusts or change of sailing angles, just playing the traveler will be more efficient on a curved track, rather than easing the mainsail that allows twist that will lose power. (While playing with such sail adjustments, it's also very important to make small tiller adjustments simultaneously, so that the speed is kept up as far as possible. Accelerating a slowed boat takes time and your average speed will definitely suffer).

So you can see that organizing your boat to be able to readily move the traveler even under load, can add to improved performance and control.

It’s never a good idea to have TOO much twist especially downwind, as then you add power to the head of the sail that will roll you side to side. A flatter sail (made possible by a circular track) will make for a steadier ride.

Although this might be considered another subject, adjusting the tiller of a rotating mast can also factor into this, as when going downwind, you can add considerable more power with more mast angle, as this then works as a vertical end plate to the sail. But also, you can DE-power the sail when sailing on a deep reach by removing the mast rotation and adjusting the tiller to place the mast straight or even have the mast nose slightly to leeward. Of course, you can only achieve this if your mast tiller control lines are independent of your boom, which is typically the case when there is a flat cabin top or deck to arrange the mast tiller tackles.

When gybing with a stable multihull, it's common to use the track control lines to bring the traveler to the centerline. You can then sheet in the mainsheet bringing the straight tensioned leech near the eye of the wind and then a small movement of the tiller will drop it over to the other tack and the new windward control line can then be let out to absorb the slight shock. This is much safer and more controlled than the wild gybes one often sees on monohulls, so choosing to gybe instead of tacking in certain conditions is a much more common event on a multihull than on a mono where the knockdown often causes the boat to broach.

Here is one half of the Barton track on a W17. The doubled line coming towards the camera is the 2:1 control line tackle that limits how far out the traveler can go. There is one each side and to prevent them from falling in the water when slack, there is a small trapezoidal net held up with soft wire hooks, to catch the control line. It’s light and effective.

Having explained the advantages of a wide traveler, one may ask why more boats do not have them ? Monos only have a narrow beam to mount them, so the gain would be small compared to use on a multihull. But generally, it's a lack of space plus the extra cost that persuades a builder (private or pro) to compromise performance perks and use something simpler. A higher percentage of multihulls have them though.

My associate Andre Baetz thought it would be handy to add a set-up procedure for those using a track for the first time.

Here is how Andre sets up his Farrier using his own traveler.

Good practice for main sail trim using the traveler and the sheet: [by AB - Aug 2024]

On a given course, pull in the traveler until the leeward telltales above the boom start to stall. Then let out the traveler a bit and cleat it.
Now pull in the main sheet until the leeward telltales at a height of 2/3rds up the mainsail start to stall. Then let it out a bit and cleat.
Now you have the perfect trim for the mainsail over the complete height with a well fitting twist for the given conditions.
With a wingmast, the trim will also depend on the adjustment of mast rotation and the Cunningham. There is a kind of “circular optimisation”. If you change one adjustment you need to go around and check all the others to see if they still fit. (You can see why us racers are never bored on board ;-)
Optimal trim is achieved once all telltales on the leeward side attach well to the sail. The leech telltales may flip to leeward from time to time.

Having given the above, it's actually important to start sail trimming from the most forward sail and work aft just as the air also flows aft. Otherwise you would be in another never ending circle. So first, start with your jib. (write me if you are not sure how to set up the jib)

Mast Angle Adjustment

Lighter winds require a sail with greater camber, meaning that the wing mast will need more angle with the boat's centerline, with less camber and mast angle needed in stronger winds. We can also see (from the above diagram) that the chord measure of the wing-mast significantly affects the required mast angle relative to the boat's centerline, with small masts needing greater rotation.

So with an auto-tacking mast-tiller that’s cleated to the boom (as used on the W17), the tiller will be tightly cleated in high winds and far less so in light ones.

When sailing directly downwind, the relative mast angle can be eased off to advantage, as then the mast can act as a vertical fence to slow the loss of air off the forward edge of the sail, though this may happen seldom, as most multihulls are more efficiently sailed downwind on broad reaches, by tacking and gybing.

Mikelin

While a wing mast can add control to the camber of a mainsail, only jibs with some form of boom offer control of the camber for the lower part of say a blade jib of less than 100 % the foretriangle. Being someone who thrives on sailing efficiency, I searched for a way to solve this. This came from an experience back in the 1980’s when I was racing sailboards. Here is the background story if you're interested.

Back in the 1980’s, it was hard to not notice the large flat area of the standard ‘windsurfer’sail below the wishbone, which resulted from the outhaul tension required to achieve a straight, flat leech area. In high winds, this was ‘a no-issue’ as the wind deformed the sail enough to give some camber. But in low winds, the foot of the sail was really ‘straight’, giving a flat sail low down with virtually no camber at all. So as an experiment, I rigged an adjustable line from the boom-end to the mast foot and by tensioning this, I could induce whatever camber I felt was appropriate for the lower part of the sail, without affecting the required tension down the leech. My sailboarding mates simply called it ‘mike's line’.

One summer soon afterwards, I entered a series of 6 sailboard races over a period of 2 days and despite the very light winds for the whole weekend, the regatta went ahead as planned. So I rigged ‘my line’ and proceeded to race. After winning the first race by a significant margin, I started to realize just how efficient my sail had now become, with this increased draft low down. But after winning the first 5 races, competitors started talking. (I knew this had little to do with any personal skill). They debated, ‘was my board faster than theirs or was it my sail?’ (They had not noticed the small line at the foot that I had cast loose to come ashore).

So for the last race, I decided to have a little fun. I had taken the series anyway so had nothing to lose. To the two sailors finishing just behind me, I said “look, one of you take my board and the other take my sail and I’ll make up a rig from whatever you don’t use”. So they were happy, and eager to beat me for at least the last race. So I cobbled together a so-so board and sail which were really not too great, but I again rigged a ‘mikes line’ to take tension off the foot of the sail. But it was the same result, as I again finished ahead of both. This totally convinced me that this line was indeed a great addition for light weather. (However, on a sailboard, a tape might be better as the small rope did cut into my shin!). Sorry for the long story, but figured you deserved to understand the history ;)

But now, on my W17, I started to notice the same issue with the lower part of the jib so I rigged a similar line from the tack to the clew of the jib in light weather and measured the result. From what I could tell using my GPS, it gave me (on average) about 0.3k to 0.4k more speed in very light airs.

Now, that may not seem like much, but it’s actually huge, representing at least a 10 % increase.

So after sailing 2 miles upwind, this would place me about 1000 ft ahead of a boat without this line, whose name I had now shortened to a ‘mikelin’ (and most easily pronounced ‘mik-a-lin’).

These images show two different ways to rig a mikelin to achieve the same result, and its effect on the foot camber. On the left is a loose foot-line with a central tension line to a cleat on the weather side, while on the right, is a sketch of the two options, with a direct adjustable line, between the tack thimble and the jib clew shown at the top.

Once the jib sheets are released, the mikelin goes slack and just rolls up on the furler without problem. No, I do not rig it or need it in winds over about 8 kts but it sure helps in the lower ones. Readers should try it and it should not be long before serious light-wind racers catch on to its advantage. In future, I plan to make new blade jibs for my W17 & W22 with a tab extending 25mm downwards at the clew, so that an attached mikelin does not foul with the foot when tacking.

Now the jib clew can be sheeted quite firmly at the right sheeting angle and also apply vertical load down the leech to keep that as flat as needed …, yet the lower 1/3 of the sail now has the ideal camber for these very light conditions. This mikelin is useful up to about 8kts of wind but above that, there’s typically enough wind force to create the 12% camber needed. The photo above shows it working to give a far better camber to the lower part of the jib than we would normally see, and the difference in performance in low wind conditions, is quite measurable on a GPS, as noted above. Just a note though. The mikelin is less effective with a genoa as the longer foot automatically gives more camber than a shorter blade jib.

I set mine up with some loops so it can easily be tensioned and tied off, so that when the jib clew is pulled tight towards the rear, the foot has the right camber for the wind condition.

This final photo shows how efficiently the mainsail can set behind a rigid wing mast with the right rotation. This mast was the prototype for the DIY carbon fiber wing mast design that I now have available here: CF wing mast Manual

Tell-tails and Related Efficiencies

As a teenager learning to sail and compete, I had never seen or heard of ’tell-tails’. As far as I can tell, they first appeared in the 1970’s but have now become almost ‘standard supply’ for most sailmakers – at least on race sails. Prior to this, we learned to adjust our sails by ‘how they looked’ and through a ‘seat-of-the-pants feeling’ of how we sensed the boat was performing. But having lots of boats to race against was a major help for an efficient adjustment process.

Today, these little flying tails, most prominent down the luff of foresails, give us a visual way of seeing what the airflow is like at that point on the sail or whether it is stalling or luffing, so it’s worth paying attention to them. If you don’t have any, it’s a good idea to add a few, so let’s start with finding good material and then, some recommended positions.

Tell-Tail Material & Installation

You need something very light that still has wind resistance, yet something that does not absorb and get heavy with water. It also needs to be a dark color to be visible through the sail, as the air flow will be different on each side. Often sails have a small round window to be able to see the leeward (downwind) tail and these really help. Personally, I like the old 1/4” plastic tape that was once used for audio recordings, but when it’s raining, it needs to be crumpled up a little, or it can stick flat to the sail. The other good option is a dark colored virgin wool that has enough natural oil on it to prevent absorbing water. If you’re using recording tape, you can attach it yourself with circles of waterproof strong-adhesive tape (like top quality duct tape) and bond the end of the recording tape to this about 2/3rd across a 25mm dia round patch of tape and then bond it to the sail after first cleaning and drying it. 100mm (4") length on each side normally works fine, but can be a little longer on a tall sail to be seen easier.

If you’re using wool, it’s best to sew it through the sail. Cut the wool at twice the final length (so 220mm) and tie a single knot in the center of that length. Then thread one end through a needle to pull it through the sail material at the chosen location and then tie another single knot on the other side so that the wool will stay central. Work the single knot close to the sail before tightening it a little. Another approach is to make a single stitch back through the sail about 3mm forward of the previous hole and then back into the first hole, but check periodically to see it has not slipped with too much wool on one side.

Tell-Tail Locations

There’s no doubt that one could cover sails with tell-tails and see a lot clearer how the air was flowing over the whole surface, but this would drive most of us ‘nuts’. Such a layout is really only required for prototype tests, as experience has shown we only need a few tell-tails at critical spots to be able to adjust the sails in an efficient manner. For the foresail, you need one at ¼, ½ and ¾ height up the luff on each side, located far enough back from the luff wire and seams so that its end does not get caught during its ‘gyrations’ while tacking .. so typically about 100mm back from the luff.

Personally, I’ve never found as much need for a tell-tail at the luff of a mainsail (unless there is no jib) so avoid them rather than find them entangled when reefing. But there’s another useful location that applies to both sails and that is on the extreme rear edge of the leech - about 70% of the way up on the jib and even in two locations on the mainsail ... say 40% and 75% up, but clear of any batten ends they could become entangled with. These will show how the air is leaving your sail – which should ideally be straight back in most cases.

Using the Tell-Tails To Sail Better

Perhaps the first thing to answer is, what are we aiming to do for which tell-tails might help us ? Let’s first consider sailing upwind - and downwind is another story.

Sailing Upwind

First, we want to keep the airflow on both sides of the sail as ‘attached to the surface’ as much as possible. This is most important on the leeward (downwind) side where the greater distance is creating a slightly higher air speed, that in turn, lowers the pressure and creates lift – particularly true at the forward edge of the sail which has the most camber (One reason taller sails are more efficient upwind).

Wind tunnel tests have shown that when sailing upwind, about 75 % of the total lift comes from the leeward side, so always give this side priority. I used to be concerned about the vertical seams of radial sails and even the roughness of some new synthetics sails with encapsulated fibers possibly disturbing that smooth flow, until I remembered the success of the dimpled golf ball ;) Those dimples cause small eddies that in turn suck and hold the passing air closer to its surface, so that the overall resistance through the air is less. Perhaps we will one day see special fabrics that hold the air flow closer to it in a similar way. But meanwhile, even small horizontal puckers and pleats in the luff may hold small vortexes that may be more beneficial than destructive pleats that some even call ‘speed wrinkles’ for perhaps justified reason.

But the larger eddies at the leading and trailing edges are more of concern here. If our sail is hauled in too tightly, or if we are sailing too far off the wind for the set of the sail, there’s a high possibility of stalling the flow, and then significant eddies on the back side of the sail will kill the drive and boat speed will die. At the rear end of the sail, we want the airflow to come straight off the sail like a jet to give us ‘a parting push’ as we move forward.

With a single mainsail and no jib, sailing to achieve this ‘sweet flow’ is actually harder than when sailing with a jib, even if a single sail is theoretically more efficient with its longer luff. It just requires a greater concentration as ‘the groove’ to efficiently sail in, is now narrower. By adding a jib, this helps to keep the air flow attached to the back of the main; at least when its leech is correctly aligned. The very worst scenario is when the leech of either (or both) sails is/are curling to windward – a ‘no-no’ to avoid, as this not only kills the jet flow but actually acts as a brake … like putting your rudder hard over …. and it can halve your speed or worse!

Sailing in very gusty conditions or in waves that are throwing you around, can rapidly change the direction that the air hits the front of the sail making a perfect ‘in line’ interface almost impossible. In such conditions we need to widen the interface angle to be more tolerant and easing off the Cunningham (luff downhaul) will generally help achieve that. Also, if you have the luxury of a wing mast, a slight increase in rotation can have the same effect as what is sometimes called a NASA Droop on part of an airplane wing nose … a physical addition to help guide the air ‘up, over and around’ the upper side of the wing, to avoid the deadly stall.

In calmer conditions, the ideal entry of the mast and sail is when it’s perfectly parallel to the apparent wind – which will obviously move more forward as you pick up more speed. And to get the best from the rig, we want to be sailing as close to the wind as practical but without actually luffing when the drive will disappear. That ideal spot is what we call ‘sailing in the groove’.

This air flow is taking place quite invisibly, even if we can clearly sense the effect on the boats performance. So here is where the tell-tails help … to give us a visual view of what’s generally happening with the air on both sides of the sail.

As already identified, the flow over the leeward side is the most critical …. so we need tell-tails there and they need to be kept flying straight back, because it they start swirling around they are showing you that this part of the sail is stalling or already stalled. On the windward side, it’s also possible to have all the tell-tails flying straight back, but may not be the ideal situation as you could be sailing in an almost impossibly narrow slot and we’ve already identified that it’s the leeward side that needs to be given priority. So just try coming a degree of two closer to the wind and you’ll generally see the top windward tell-tail start to point up a little and as this is typically the first indication of luffing .. it’s also an indication that you are now sailing on the safe side of that narrow slot …. away from the greater risk of stalling that would happen if you had steered slightly away, downwind. It’s fine to sail like this and it’s efficient. But if the top windward tell-tail is frequently flickering up, the jib leech is probably too loose and you’ll need to add a little more vertical tension by bringing the jib sheet lead slightly more forward, but don’t overdo this, as its better to sheet too far aft than too far forward (unless the wind is very light). Obviously, if the bottom tell-tail collapses first, you’ll need more foot tension, but this is less common.

The other important driver upwind is the way the airflow leaves the sail at the rear. Here is where a flat leech is very important and also demanding that you adjust the mainsheet (and kicker/vang if you have one), so that the leech is straight up & down with minimal twist, and also in a plane parallel to the boats centerline Having a tell-tail on the extreme edge of the leech of both sails, fairly high up, will give you a visual guide as to whether this part of the sail is working correctly for you. Such tell-tails should be streaming straight back, with an odd flicker being normal.

While checking below this ‘going away’ photo of my W17 Magic, note the straight leech that is parallel to the boats centerline and if you check the top of the mast, you will see an angle of mast rotation that is slightly higher than the luff of the sail – making

sure that flow is directed to the leeward side of the sail for the most lift and least risk of stalling. The jib is also tightly cleated and the windward jib sheet is being used to pull the clew (after corner) slightly in towards the mast, helping to keep the flow smooth and fast over the back side of the main …. so adding to the lift that is part of your forward drive.

In stronger winds, it’s better to feather the sails to prevent excessive heeling than fuss over tail-tails. But in lighter winds, they should dictate your adjustments.

This photo shows high mainsail efficiency when coupled with a stiff wing-mast.

Off The Wind

When reaching, just get the mid-height tails flying horizontal as the foresail will typically have too much twist to get all 3 tails to flow well. When easing off the mainsail for a reach, the mainsail will luff if too far out, or stall if too far in. This is where the mainsail tell-tail high on the leech is useful, as it will go a little crazy if you’re stalling, due to being hauled in too far in or if your leech has that dreaded hook to windward (see sketch above).

In all winds, the ideal longitudinal sail shape (camber) is more important than having the ultimate area, so in light to moderate winds it pays to slacken off the mainsail clew a little, but not before first slackening the tack, permitting the fullness to move back a little. Then adjust the clew outhaul to give a fairly full shape down low but as the sail will twist more when let out, the fullness needs to be less towards the top of the mainsail. Adjusting batten stiffness can help to achieve the ideal camber for each height, and adding a few strips of UNI carbon-fiber/epoxy is one easy way to do that.

There will be a little more on downwind sailing in Part 4.

Popular sayings that are worth remembering:

“When in doubt, let it out.”

Watch how the wind enters & leaves your full sail plan i.e.:

“Trim the front of the jib and back of the mainsail,”

“First find speed - then point.”

“Highest tell-tails, tell tales first”

“We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust our sails”

“Miss a shift – lose a gift”

“Tiller to the side of the fluttering tail”

(ie: pull tiller to windward to correct a windward tell-tail flutter)

Sailing In Waves … Upwind and Downwind

First, permit me a personal flashback. My first introduction to this fascinating subject was around 1955. If I close my eyes, I can still visualize a table in a local British pub, with the noted British small boat designer Ian Proctor^[3] and the local ’golden boy’ John Oakeley, discussing Ian’s newest designs and how to sail them in waves. At 22, John was a crack 12ft National and Merlin-Rocket skipper based at the Hamble River SC where I sailed. Here’s a pic from those days of how I remember John (He went on to become one of Britain’s finest sailors, later knighted and was a skipper chosen to represent Britain in an America’s cup challenge). It was a fascinating ‘meeting of the minds’ that encouraged me to pay attention to the subject over the coming years.

Both Ian and John went on to become authors of their own books and some still sit in my bookcase. Ian also encouraged me with something else.

“While you cannot see either wind or current, you can certainly see their effects; so use your eyes to learn all you can from how things that you can see, interface and are affected by them”. Ian constantly did that, so I know he would appreciate the small video clips I’ve included below ;) His books became full of illustrations of curling winds & currents and how they can dynamically affect our sailing efficiency. His 1953 book on Sailing Wind & Current is still a fascinating read.

First, let’s agree that even though there are both good and poor ways to sail in waves, sailing in flatter water is almost always faster (except if surfing downwind), so keep this in mind when planning your course. The effect of waves on a boat will also vary with boat shape and weight, with slim vertically-sided boats like the W17 doing relatively better than others with more vee’d sections and higher keel rocker.

Before we get into the ‘how’ of sailing with waves, we need to grasp a basic understanding of what waves are and how they move, both real and apparent, so let’s dig right into this.

Wave Basics

First let me say that despite all the theories out there, there’s really NO ‘standard’ wave in the real world, even though we’re going to try and simplify things by showing one here. Each one varies in height and length and they can grow and dissipate in remarkably short time. Open water waves are in fact one of the most complex bodies to analyze on this planet and, like leaves on a tree, not only do they both grow and die repeatedly, but there are probably no two exactly alike.

Although wind is the prime driver, they are also affected by numerous other factors like varying gravitational forces, proximity of the seabed, magnetic fields, water temperature, specific gravity and so on … all subtle forces and influences that we cannot even readily see, let alone evaluate accurately.

Even in the photo of this small wave sample, one can hardly find 2 waves alike and the sample ‘contour chart of ocean waves’ certainly further confirms the variation to be expected.

One of the most common forces that upsets ‘the perfect theoretical wave’, is another wave that moves over the same surface from a different direction, caused perhaps by reflecting off steep cliffs, some nearby headland, strong turbulent winds, or even by a large boat passing. Even in the open ocean away from land, waves vary constantly and sometimes unexplainably compound in height to create the occasional ‘rogue wave’. All we can really be certain of, is that ‘natural waves will grow and decay’ and are primarily a response to wind over the surface.

“Whew!” … with that intro, one may wonder if it’s even worth writing about this at all! Well, I still think so, as there are certain characteristics of waves that need to be understood, with ‘better or worse’ ways of dealing with them, regardless of their variable size or irregularity.

First, let’s consider this typical quote that I’ve seen on line in several versions.

“Just took one look at the waves travelling past my harbor entrance at 7-8 knots and I knew it would be useless to go out, as I can only make 5kts with either my motor or sailing to windward”.

So where do you stand on this? If it makes sense to you, then read on. If not, then jump this section entirely as you’ll not need it.

Versions of the above quote are surprisingly common from those new to sailing but even persist with a few sailors who have not studied the subject. This section should help.

What I will try to show the reader is this. The problem with the quote is that while waves may ‘appear’ to move at 7-8 knots, the actual water you will be moving through is hardly moving at all and most of the resistance you will feel is from wind resistance, not adverse wave speed.

So here goes

First, let’s do a little visual experiment.

Imagine something like a clothes-drying rack with a strip of heavy plastic or tarpaulin hanging over it. Let it sag as per this sketch, to look like the trough of a wave with the end rods being the crests. Now take a free length of rod and starting at the end ‘A’, sweep the rod under the plastic, horizontally over towards ‘B’. You will create a simulated crest travelling from A to B, but the surface, although moving slightly back and forth as it moves up and down, does not itself move with the visually moving simulated wave crest. While a real wave is more complex than that, the surface affect is somewhat similar.

First, as the total volume of water is not changing every minute, there must always be a trough below the mean waterline that offsets the raised water in the crest.

(In above sketch, R is radius of a circle that has a circumference of L, and H = wave amplitude).

For well over a century now, naval architects have used the assumption that waves take on a profile as created by a trochoid – the trace of a point on a rolling circle. It’s not 100% precise but close enough (see sketch above) and if one notes the small arrows, clarifies that the direction of surface water particles actually change momentarily as ‘the wave’ passes …. moving WITH the wave near the crest, but AGAINST the wave in the troughs, so that the water mass between each peak effectively returns to its original location before the wave passed. If this trochoidal plot and rolling circle makes little sense to you, think of it this way.

In the above sketch, the wave is coming from the right. So the water-surface-height at any one spot on the wave will soon change to be whatever it is to the right-hand side of that spot. So on the right-hand side of this sketch, the crest will soon replace the trough so the water-surface-height will be rising (just as the arrows show). But on the left-hand-side, the trough will replace the left-hand crest, meaning the water-surface-height must drop … again as indicated by the trochoidal arrows. Still unsure about this?

This short video should also help. Here you’ll see a leaf right at the surface. Light enough to be easily moved by any water movement, but almost totally out of any wind.

[When this YouTube stops, another YouTube may appear on totally another theme! I will try to fix that. Until I do, please hit REPLAY (bottom left) and then again for (PAUSE) to Stop and re-set the video, and then continue reading]

You will see the leaf move forward ‘just a little’ with the wave crest (to the left) but then pull back in the trough (to the right), so overall, it just stays where it is while the crests just keep rolling by … a clear demonstration that those seemingly high speed waves are NOT the moving mass of water they first appear. To see this for yourself, throw in a small 50mm square of plywood and watch it.

But sometimes, a secondary system of waves can come in at a different angle and ride on the back of another wave, creating a steeper one with even more speed. When the wind is also strong, the top crest can be rolled-over, forming breaking whitecaps. Now these whitecaps DO try to stay on the moving crest, meaning that the whitecaps actually DO move at the apparent wave speed, so, for as long as they stay, whitecaps justify a LOT more attention and respect.

Here’s a short video showing this. The crests of these waves are starting to curl over and if a leaf were to be caught in the ‘whitecap’, it would suddenly take off just like a surfer. In the video, you’ll see that the foaming crest or ‘whitewater’ IS now moving with the apparent wave speed, until it falls off the back of the wave and then dissipates.

So why all this explanation ? It’s to help clarify what is happening at different parts of every wave, to better understand the suggestions below, on how to sail both against and with waves to your best advantage.

Sailing Upwind Against Waves

The first thing I would suggest, is to do all you can to have good speed. Trying to ’pinch and inch’ your boat to windward at slow speed just does not work when waves are slamming you back. You need some weight and speed to punch through. A fine boat like a slim trimaran hull with a L/b ratio of 9 or more will certainly help, but if you’re in a mono, keep your weight as far forward as the freeboard will allow, as that weight will not only help you punch through the rough stuff but the hull shape now presented to the waves will also be finer and pass through more easily.

With a trimaran like the W17, I like to keep the mainsheet traveler slightly to leeward and then have the mainsheet tensioned to keep the leech fairly tight. Sail with the upper windward jib telltale slightly lifting to assure you’re not close to stalling the sail and if you DO find you need to bear off a little, ease off the sheets a little to match. If you’re overpowered, ease out the mainsheet more to feather the leech but pick a comfortable speed for good steerage, neither too slow nor too fast. Avoid white crests if you can or cut into them nearly head on … quickly bearing away after you make the initial cut.

With a slower monohull, I’d suggest to have the traveler closer to midships but with fuller, more twisted sails than you might set in smoother water. Easing off the outhaul slightly can also give a little more fullness & drive, but only ease a little.

For the jib, the sheet lead can be slid aft a little, to not only keep a parallel slot with the main but to also permit you to sail ‘up and off’ the waves without risking a stall. (A stall will occur if your sail is too tight or flat, relative to your heading with the wind). As each boat and rig varies slightly, experiment a bit with the above as a base. Particularly with monos, while fullness should not be excessive, slightly fuller sails can work better upwind in waves than having them too flat. The top telltale on the mainsail should be streaming aft all the time. When steering over waves we need to recall what was explained earlier in this article; that surface water is moving downwind at the crest but upwind in the trough. So one needs to sail ‘a wiggly course in order to spend as little time as possible in the adverse crest but more in the quieter trough water that may even be moving with you. The diagram above will show how this works.

Always keep in mind that excessive use of the rudder will add a braking force, so whatever can be done to help turning through boat balance and sail trim, will reduce rudder use and potentially improve your speed. So to luff, allow the boat to heel a little, but to bear off, keep the boat flat by hiking out and ease off the mainsail. If it’s really bumpy with waves and you’re changing direction through quite an angle, you risk to stall the main if you have hammered it down too tight. So ease things out a little in such conditions and set the jib to match. Better to have sails too-far-out than too-far-in.

Sailing In Light Air And A Chop

This is one of the toughest sailing challenges and few sailors have the concentration to excel in such conditions. It also doesn’t help when your telltales aren’t working or that your sails are being thrown out-of-shape by wave action.

Try to keep the flow around both sides of the sail as consistent as possible as this will help to keep your drive and speed more constant. This is more important than just a few high-speed bursts, as being slowed nearly to a standstill and then having to re-accelerate back up to speed, is slower overall. Particularly in very light winds, keep the boat, mast and sails as ‘still’ as possible.

Trim the boat to heel to leeward a little and keep the bow well down and the transom out. This will help you to steer when there’s hardly enough wind for it. Get a firm sense of where the wind is coming from, and even if it’s not always visible on the water or sails, ‘assume’ it’s there unless other signs clearly show it’s moved and move VERY slowly around the boat to not disturb the precious but invisible air flow. Again, keep the mass of your boat moving at all costs even if very slowly. It’s only then you will have steerage to make adjustments to any wind changes.

If there are waves along with little wind, it may well pay to spread out your crew weight to dampen the ends and reduce the bobbing …. the contrary of what you would do in stronger wind, when you generally want to sit close together to keep the ends light. Either way, I suggest to keep the bow down lower than the stern.

Push the jib sheet lead forward and ease the outhaul on the mainsail, making certain that the sail has good camber by manually pushing the clew forward. If you sheet sails too tightly you will see the leeward telltales rise, indicating a stall and a large loss of power. Only trim sails in when you sense a speed increase and be prepared to ease them out again if the speed drops.

In very light wind and a chop, keeping some twist in the leech (particularly with a beamier monohull) will allow for best flow and better suit the varying angle of attack caused by the wave action on the boat. But be ready to tighten the leech and reduce twist as the speed and wind picks up. Follow the general track over the crests as shown in the above sketch and play the mainsheet by tightening a little where you sense good speed but ease off again if you’re slowed up. Keep weight forward.

If the waves are very irregular and you see no pattern to sail across, try to aim for the lower spots and steer to miss the highest ones. It’s crucial to maintain good speed though and not pinch too close to the wind, as you need good steering to able to pick your way through this wiggly course.

Sailing Downwind In Waves

This is another exciting part of sailing. Handling a strong gust … should one luff up or bear away ? This is often a difficult call as there are many variables …... a major one being the angle you are sailing to the true wind. If you’re sailing above a beam reach, it’s generally quicker and safer to ease up into the wind to spill some off the leech, but be prepared to haul in the mainsheet to tighten the leech once the main gust has passed. What is NOT a good idea is to round up into the wind too fast as centrifugal forces then add to the heeling effect of a gust and risk to capsize you. Ease off the mainsail (and any overlapping foresail) until it luffs and then turn slowly upwind until you’re close to 50 deg. off the wind, then, with things more under control, haul the sails back in to keep the speed up to work through the wave tops.

If you’re already heading slightly below 90 deg to the wind, you have the option of bearing off but be aware that if the wind is strong, it will try to bury the bows so make sure your mainsheet traveler is out as far as possible but do not allow too much mainsail twist (ie: keep mainsheet fairly tight but with the mainsheet traveler fully out). Also, move all your weight rearward as you bear off and keep the boat flat. Before doing this, make a quick check of a land reference point and the true wind direction to make sure you don’t bear off too much and accidentally gybe.

Let’s now consider that ‘the rhumb line’ (the line that takes you directly to where you want to go), is directly downwind. With a monohull, you might sail directly on that line, using a spinnaker or boomed-out foresail, but with a multihull it’s generally faster to sail higher, on a broad reach and periodically gybe. Look ahead for flatter areas, especially for the gybe. Riding waves is great fun but you need speed to catch them and if you don’t have it, it’s best to not deviate far from your line to find a wave that just throws you up-and-down. To keep the speed as constant as practical, luff up a little in the lulls and bear away in the gusts. A lot of energy is wasted if the boat has to be constantly accelerated, so striving for a more constant speed is more efficient.

If you’re sailing slower than the waves are coming at you from behind, it can help your speed downwind if you can place your transom in front of the larger waves. But as soon as you start to feel the thrust, throw your weight rearwards to lighten the bow so that it can lift more easily. If you need just a little more speed to stay with the wave, momentarily turn slightly to a reach and once matching the wave speed, bear away again.

If you are using a boom vang, tighten it to try and hold the increased speed. If there’s enough speed to potentially catch the wave in front, look for a low spot to break through. If you do break through, throw your weight forward as you cross the crest and then back again as you start to ride down (Ian Proctor used to say ‘it’s like jumping a horse in a steeplechase’ ;-)

Once you’re surfing, turn more to a reach to stay as long as possible on the face of the wave. If your speed is faster than the wave, look for a low place to break through. If the wave is faster, sail as fast as possible by reaching in the troughs, but bear away as the wave crest reaches the transom and ride as long as the speed is up but go back to a reach as the crest passes under the boat and your speed slows.

I hope I've covered the basics but if high performance sailing really interests you, here are 3 or 4 books worth reading:

Sailing wind and Current …. by Ian Proctor

High Performance Sailing …. by Frank Bethwaite

Go for the Gold …. by Garry Hoyt

This is Downwind Sailing …. by John Oakeley (good for regular spinnaker handling)

Survival Techniques For Handling A Strong Squall

Note: Although this article directly applies to the W17 trimaran, the general techniques indicated should work for most small trimarans in the 5 to 10m range. This is just a guide though, as we must always acknowledge that each design can have its particular quirks, so we need to experiment to learn what works best.

Because a trimaran like the W17 sails very efficiently on just a small sail area, I’ve already warned small boat owners to always reduce sail BEFORE going out if there’s a forecast of potentially strong wind. But even the most experienced occasionally get caught and have to make the best of a potentially bad or even dangerous situation. As I was personally caught this past summer in two such storms, I thought these reflections on the experience might help some readers.

(Incidentally, I totally acknowledge that use of the term 'survival sailing' might well be over-the-top here, but it's to help handle a situation that is 'over your normal limit', whatever that is for you. At least, it got your attention ;)

Here is how the situation unfolded. I was off to visit with a friend about 8 miles away, mostly upwind. I was sailing on part of a large lake that’s locally about 40km x 10 km wide with short steep seas. The sky was full of cumulonimbus clouds but nothing too ominous, so I left with full sail in a steady 10 kt breeze. Sailing alone with the full race sail is typically easy and something I do almost daily each summer. I soon saw that if I took a 2 mile (3.2 km) leg straight out, I should then be able to lay my destination, making about 10 miles in all. Well, I’d only sailed about halfway when a small but very black cloud suddenly appeared over the treetops about 2 miles to weather.

Of course, the thought of stopping to reef went immediately through my head, but the cloud was approaching fast and as I saw clear skies beyond, I decided I’d just work through it. Within a minute, the ‘disturbance’ was throwing powerful wind-jets at me, and from varying angles up to 50 deg. apart. One gust was so violent, that even with the main totally eased, the boat heeled to about 25 degrees, which is about the maximum I normally allow as the ama deck is then low to the water. I jumped for the jib sheet and for about 10 seconds, totally let the jib go to relieve the load, but with the worst passed, pulled it partly back in to cut the flogging and recleated.

At this moment, here is what is important. To retain control of where one is heading relative to the constantly varying wind gusts, one MUST retain good steerage way … but also, to give yourself time to react to wind and waves, you do NOT want to go too fast (unless of course you’re fully under control, have an experienced crew and perhaps racing). Without a crew and no pressing need to go fast, maintaining control is the #1 priority.

One needs to maintain as constant a speed as you can and also aim for a nearly constant angle of heel. This is achieved using the mainsheet and the tiller. Under moderately-strong conditions, I usually opt to play the traveler in and out with the mainsheet firmly down. But under such wild conditions, it’s often too hard to play the traveler and as one also needs to sit forward to keep the forefoot (lower stem) immersed, I find it's best to leave the mainsheet-car far out on the track and just play the helm (tiller) and if need be, the mainsheet. With the tiller, one then sails a very wiggly course that feathers away the biggest gusts by turning up to windward, but only enough to limit the heel; not enough to even come close to stopping the boat. If you DO stop the boat, you can have a violent backing puff hit you side on and you risk capsizing before you even get moving again, so, keep the boat moving. so that you always have the ability to turn into the biggest gusts or waves. But then, immediately bear off a little to get some speed back or you will not be able to luff up on the next big gust. Also remember, unless your boat has a totally unstayed rig, you cannot totally weathercock the mainsail as the leeward shroud will support the eased sail and still allow it to partially fill. But staying still is a ‘no-no’ and should be diligently avoided.

So what IS a good speed? I find that 4-6 kts is about perfect in such conditions. This is about 8 ft/sec and that allows the rudder to quickly react so that you can immediately bear off a few degrees when the boat threatens to slow, or point up a little when the boat starts to accelerate. To keep a steady speed in such erratic conditions, DOES demand constant steering attention, but as such squalls seldom last very long, it’s totally worth the effort.

If you do this correctly (responding quick enough but not over-steering), you will find the boat heel will stay almost constant (10-15 deg) and the windward ama will ride just above most waves. (As the ama will still slice through the high ones, you will come to appreciate why the W17 sectional ama shape is the way it is, as there is almost a total absence of slapping on the underside, a comforting feature that very few small trimarans enjoy). If you now also keep your weight quite forward, the same quiet slicing will also apply to the main hull. If you do get a ‘slap’, it will typically be when you’re a little too far off the wind and an odd wave rides in from the side, just at the very moment that the boat drops into a trough (see photo). In this instance, it happened a couple of times in the 10 minutes this violent squall lasted. Things soon settled down though and I was again happy to have full sail to complete my trip.

But my experience was not over. Later that day I needed to sail the 8 miles home! Once again, I checked the skies and while there were a number of grey clouds, I picked a departure moment when I estimated I had about an hour of predictable sailing but this time, I started out with 1 good reef in the mainsail. A good decision as the weather gods had their own plan for the day. The wind started to veer (move clockwise) about 120 degrees so I was soon sailing nearly on a beam reach, which was fine ...... traveler fully out but with the mainsheet firmly sheeted to keep the sail flat.

But then a large black cloud approached so I quickly donned the only light jacket I had on board. That proved to be an important decision as it started to rain … and that rain was freezing cold ! Sometimes even in mid-summer, such storms can even bring down hail (ice pellets) and it’s no fun to be outside in that! The gusts came in wild bursts and it teemed down with hard rain during which one has to pay particular attention as surfaces can quickly become very slippery. (Some anti-slip on the cockpit floor is essential for such conditions and I typically just use sand, sprinkled into wet varnish).

I took a quick glance of my location just as visibility of land disappeared, but at least the hard rain temporarily flattened the waves. I used this opportunity to roll up about ¾ of the jib, leaving less than 2 feet out to help balance the boat and make tacking possible should I need to.

Rolling up the jib (on a wire that is not designed for reefing) in a high wind is nigh impossible, as the bottom turns without the top. But there are some tricks that can make it work. Letting the sheets TOTALLY free is the first step. Then put ‘a firm pull’ on the furling line, but do not force it or only the bottom part of the sail will furl … and that’s a disaster for the sail. Just hold the line under some tension and wait, and the sail will make just 1 full roll when/if the wind pressure momentarily eases off .... something you can help by slightly luffing into the wind. Then, continue again with ‘another firm pull and a pause’ until a second full-height roll is taken in .. all the time with the jib sheets totally free. After the 3rd one, it gets easier and it will typically 'just roll in', as the exposed area is now much reduced. Once you’re down to only 2ft left out, firmly cleat the furling line and gently sheet in the mini-jib, but NOT tightly – just to stop it flogging.

Though these wire-only furling systems are not designed for ‘reefing’ a foresail, if you sheet as I suggest and the sail is not a big one, you can get away with using a small amount of the jib to help sail balance and tacking. If reaching in excessive wind, you can roll the jib up totally. (If you leave the shore with a partly rolled jib, I would additionally suggest adding ties around it, as suggested at the bottom of this article on storm sailing).

But then, as the rain eased, it really blew and this lasted for a good 20 -25 mins. The weather report the next day gave the gusts at 35kts and I believe them. I still had too much sail for that level of wind, especially being alone and only weighing 70 kg, so I was back again to continuing the same zig-zag path as before. (Compared to a monohull dinghy, the built in stability of a trimaran like the W17, makes sailing in rough stuff as an aging lightweight, far more doable, and safer too). Sailing that ‘tight-rope’ track kept my speed moderate but constant so that I had good steering control and only a steady moderate heel. It kept me so involved that I even forgot I was getting cold, as the rain had driven totally through the light nylon jacket I had on, though my foam lifejacket certainly helped.

Thirty mins. from home it was all over, the wind almost completely gone and what there was left could not make up its mind on direction. Lack of body heat was becoming an issue though. This became very apparent when I finally got to shore and slipped over the side to pull the boat in. The water that had felt chilly when I stepped in that morning, now felt like a warm bath and I estimated it was about 15F warmer than my flesh temperature. But it’s amazing what a good rub down and dry clothes can do.

It’s worth noting from the above examples, that the best survival route was to sail sufficiently upwind that the large mainsail could be feathered into the wind like a flag when a wind gust was really excessive. But enough speed for steering is essential to achieving this. Running downwind is not a safe option unless sail area can be significantly reduced by totally taking down the mainsail as the speed will be too high, adding the much increased risk of either losing directional control or plunging the bows into a large wave that might result in either a violent broach or pitch-pole.

If you DO have to run downwind to avoid some obstacle, I'd suggest this. While still going upwind, slacken the jib a little and recleat, then do a tack and totally slacken the mainsheet. The boat should then lay 'hove to' and be moving at 1-2knts only. Adjust the helm and the now 'backed-jib' a little, to stay about 30 degrees off the wind. Then lower the mainsail. Once rolled away, you can safely bear off under jib alone. Sit a little back in the boat and enjoy the ride. Reading Sail Tips-4 on 'sailing waves downwind' may help here.

Overall, it was still ‘another great day on the water’ and the refresher on ‘sailing the fine line through the rough stuff’ was both fun and stimulating. Maintaining safe sea-room (space between yourself and a potentially hostile downwind shore) is greatly helped by a boat that can still work its way upwind in rough water, something the W17 has proven it can do very well if one sails efficiently and does not panic. And if it's shallow, the W17 only needs about 300mm of board down too!

I hope this will help to add to ‘your bag of tricks’ that we call experience. At least I was still able to slip out my tiny YI-Action Camera and snap a few pics, and on Magic, I didn’t even get it wet ;) Try that on a day like this, on a Windrider, Hobie or WETA !

Lake Champlain - USA, in sustained 30kt winds

Postscript

Not sure about you, but my best think-time for Eureka moments is always when I first wake up. And this morning I woke with concerns that some dinghy-cruising monohullers who read this article will think I’m nuts! The mere thought of ‘slowing down to 5kts while going up-wind in waves’ is hardly something they will relate to, judging by articles I read, YouTubes I view or even youthful memories from my own dinghy cruising days. The difference in upwind performance of a strong, well designed trimaran with good under-beam clearance, adequate ama (float) volume and efficient rig is really ‘night and day’. Couple that to the ‘free’ stability that a trimaran offers and it’s a lot less stressful in such a boat than in a monohull dinghy where your personal location of weight is constantly critical just to avoid a capsize! Although I plan to write a full article next fall on ‘the differences of cruising in a trimaran compared to a monohull dinghy’, let me explain here just one of the reasons I now love trimarans … especially as I get older. I still want relatively high performance, but I’m no longer able to spend an hour hanging over the gunwale and getting soaked, just to get it!

With a trimaran, the leeward float does all the work for me in, by far, the most efficient way. You’d have to load two 300 lb guys on your dinghy gunwale to get the stability my W17 (and others like it) offers and they’d also have to be agile enough to move in and out with the big puffs too. My leeward ama does all that totally automatically … progressively adding more up-thrust from its buoyancy as the sail-load tries to heel the craft. And this up-thrust has a near ZERO weight penalty, unlike the EXTRA 600 lbs of crew on the dinghy rail that additionally sinks and slows the boat. With the trimaran, as the ama is pressed down, the main hull is slightly lifted out … automatically moving the center of buoyancy farther outboard where it’s now far more effective.

Couple that with good wave clearance, slim hulls and a more efficient rig, and you may start to understand how and why these boats are so rewarding to sail. Yes, they can be tricky to tack in rough water but the good ones go upwind like a train. On my boat, 10-11 kts is common upwind in waves below 12” and that’s double the best speed of most cruising dinghies. It’s also effortless and dry, so perhaps this will put the above article in better context. Stay tuned for more on cruising these great boats.

Footnote On Use Of An Action Camera In Rough Conditions

I am sure there are many more experts out there than I on taking pictures, but here is what I’ve learned. First, unless filming underwater, I do not use a waterproof housing as I find they are cumbersome and often mist up inside, making them rather useless if the camera heats up (See here : https://smalltridesign.com/W17/video9.html).

I DO however put them in a thin silicone case, as it makes them non-slip and lightly spray-proof. I can then use one, easily held by one hand, with a conscious effort to keep it level with the horizon. In very ‘busy conditions’ (as for these storms), I do not attempt to take stills, as it’s too ‘hit and miss’. I set the camera to auto-start in VIDEO mode and then just ‘point & shoot’ for 4-5 secs only in the area I want to capture, with the camera pre-set for its highest video resolution. Then later, after down-loading the video, I can pause the screen on ‘the best shot’, take a screenshot and then crop the image to suit. Now compared to a 12Mb still shot that this tiny camera can also take, the screenshot file is WAY smaller, but as pics for a webpage are not very demanding, the 200-800 Kb pic I can capture is sufficiently adequate to illustrate some point I wish to make or share.

Note that most of the tiny Action Cameras cases have loose lens covers. As these are far too easy to lose, I attach a short length of fishing twine between the lens and the camera case so that it can just hang down when off the lens. I find that with the broad view that these cameras cover, there’s little need to use the viewfinder and in my case, my vision is not good enough to see the dark screen anyway.

Fortunately, there is an audible signal for each operating mode, which makes it easy and effective. Of course, the camera can also be set up on a fixed extension and then controlled by either a small remote or even from a smart phone app if weather conditions permit. Please send along anything interesting!

When To Reef … And How

Note: Although this article is primarily for the W17 trimaran, the layout and procedure suggested will apply equally to the W22 and other similar boats. Just because a W17 is very stable, it does not mean that you’ll never need to reef. In fact, reefing will often pay dividends in overall performance and can certainly add an important safety factor in strong or gusty conditions. Particularly when selecting the larger race rig, you will definitely need to reef more often, so getting your boat properly rigged to make this an easy task is a priority. As soon as the bow of a W17 ama starts to often get pressed within about 40mm of the water surface, I know the time has come and on some trimarans, you might need to consider reefing even earlier.

One very important thing to ALWAYS remember is this: It’s FAR easier to shake OUT a reef in easing weather, than it is to take IN a reef in conditions that are getting worse by the minute.

There are many advantages in sailing with a properly reefed sail that still retains an efficient shape.

1: Less leeway and higher speed potential in rough conditions.

2: Boat will sail more level, improving efficiency for both the sails and the hulls.

3: Significantly lowers the load off sails & rigging and makes sailing the boat more pleasurable with less stress for all aboard.

Sadly though, most boats are poorly set up to be reefed and that’s typically the biggest obstacle to reefs being taken in. It’s really not that difficult so let’s see what’s needed and understand why.

Other than the halyard, there are just TWO main lines that will hold the sail in its lowered position … the CLEW line and something forward at the TACK to hold the luff tension.

The aft CLEW line has a critical-location attachment to the boom. You need to get this right when you first rig the boat. Pull the sail right up and then lower it so that the aft cringle for the main reef (1st one) is just at the boom when held up to the right height for sailing (temporarily use the topping lift for this). Now, with the sail gently pulled aft away from the mast, note the cringle position and make a mark on the boom, just 75mm (3”) farther aft than the cringle (eyelet). This is where you want to attach a strong eye-strap on the PORT side and then a small pulley to the boom on the STARBOARD side, so that a rope passing around the rear of the sheave will be in roughly the same alignment as the fixed end will be when hitched to the eye-strap on the PORT side (see photo & sketch below).

Once installed, the CLEW LINE will therefore run from the strap on the port side of the boom, up alongside the rear of the sail, through the reef cringle, down to the aft side of the pulley you’ve installed on the STARB’D side of the boom and forward to a cleat on the boom; one that’s easily accessible from the cockpit, even when the boom is swung outboard. Obviously, when the sail IS actually reefed, this line will be tight with the sail held down to within say 40-50mm of the boom top and after cleating, you will need to get rid of about 1.5 meters of rope tail. You can either wrap this around the boom (as the boom will be accessible since the sail is loose-footed) or even Velcro a small cloth pocket to either the boom or the sail adjacent to the reef cringle, to stow it in. The other critical line is one to hold the TACK (or fwd corner) of the sail. While some like to attach this with a line to the main tack location that’s used when the sail is fully up, I personally find that the sail has very low horizontal tension at this location, while the REAL load is down the luff to keep the sail flat and under tension. This is best done with a readily adjustable DOWNHAUL, commonly called ‘a Cunningham’ after the fellow who first got serious about adding this adjustment to the luff of a mainsail: Briggs Cunningham (skipper of the winning America’s Cup boat in 1958). So personally, I do not bother with a TACK attachment itself as it’s redundant once the Cunningham is installed. This is ‘most convenient’ as you will already have an adjustable 3 or 4 part Cunningham rigged and attached to the mast below the boom, for use when the sail is fully up (see photo). So when lowering the mainsail down to the first reef, the Cunningham will ‘fall away’ from its normal position and the hook will become available to be placed in another cringle, located 8-12” (200-300mm) above the line of the actual reef. IF your sail does not have cringles for a Cunningham (always 6-12” above the normal TACK cringle at the mainsail luff … then return your sail to the sailmaker and have them added as they are really essential for efficient sailing. (I specify that ALL mainsails for my boat designs made by HYDE have them.

The height that the mainsail is set when planning to use any reef, should be set so that the AFT cringle and CLEW line are holding the boom at the right height for adequate crew clearance and to also suit the mainsheet. This will typically mean that the Cunningham cringle will be about 300mm above the boom at the gooseneck … a position that will be ‘just’ reachable by the Cunningham tackle. I would mark this position on the Mast with a small arrow of Duct-tape so that when lowering the main to take a reef, you know EXACTLY where to stop and belay (cleat) the Main Halyard.

So now we can quickly run through The STEPS of REEFING .. and as you’ll see, it’s now all pretty straight-forward once you’ve set the rigging up correctly.

Summary – Steps Of Reefing:

First, assuming you are already sailing upwind, totally ease off the mainsheet and pull the jib to windward, so that the front half of the foot of the jib is parallel to the centerline of the boat. This is a fast way to stall the boat and put her HOVE TO, so that you can work on the sail without speed, or running into someone. You may need to slightly adjust the tiller to keep her straight as she’ll still advance at 0.5 to 1kt.

Take up the slack on your topping lift, so that the boom does not fall when you lower the sail.
Lower the Mainsail until the Cunningham cringle is at least 300mm above the main boom – or at the mark you placed on your mast.Secure the main halyard.
Haul on the TACK Reef line (std side) to take up all the slack and cleat securely with the sail now being about 50mm (2”) above the boom.
Return to the forward end and place the Cunningham into the cringle 300mm above the boom and haul down to apply good tension to the luff.(IF you have a really stretchy luff-rope you may need to release the Cunningham and slightly raise the main halyard to give yourself more stretch space, before resetting the Cunningham)
Ease off the topping lift slightly so that the boom now hangs on the Clew Reef Line.

Some sailors would just start sailing again, but as I’m someone who likes to keep things neat, I’ve not quite finished yet. Old traditional sails typically have BUNT Lines hanging down on each side of the sail so that they can tie them around the unused sail using the traditional REEF knot (so where DID you think that name came from ;). But I want to suggest something faster that I’ve used on all my boats for the last 25 years. If there are eyelets with BUNT Lines tied in, I first remove the lines. Then I reeve a 4mm black-covered (more UV resistant) shock cord through the eyelets, in and out through the eyelets from the luff, running one from each side. I thread in a small nylon hook (see sketch) so that there’s one between each eyelet … preferably all on the STARB’d Side that you are working from.

Now you can slab fold or roll in the lower, unused part of the sail and by stretching above the boom but under the sail, you can grab the shock-cord on the port side and pull it under the sail, to drop it over the hook on the starb’d side. (It takes far less time to do than it does to explain this). Here is how it looks on my own boat Magic. Your sail is now neat & compact and when shaking out a reef, this shock-cord is the first thing to unhook.

Then, in reverse for SHAKING OUT a Reef

Get HOVE TO, with the mainsheet paid out & jib partly backed.
Take up the slack on the topping lift
Unhook the shockcord
Remove the Cunningham
Release the CLEW Reef line/outhaul
Haul up the Mainsail
Re-install the Cunningham and add tension
Ease off the topping lift …. and go sailing

Practice Makes Perfect …. so, after setting up your rigging & sail correctly, start to reef far more often. You will be surprised at how well your boat will perform in rough conditions … and you’ll feel a lot more relaxed about the conditions too.

Enjoy!

PS: IF your boat is not a W17 and needs a Boom Vang ... that will need to be removed first when reefing, and re-installed last. Also, some have asked, ‘why not use the rotating boom to reef the sail?’. The main reason is that you need the boom totally free and accessible to attach the mast tiller line that controls mast rotation. Same applies when setting the Storm Mainsail. On the W22, the mast tiller goes forward over the Cuddy, so rolling up the reefed portion of the sail on the boom IS then possible, but you would not want to take the sail load on this roll. The CLEW reef-line and Cunningham are still needed to take the sailing loads, especially in high wind conditions as when reefed.

In really high winds conditions, I strongly recommend the safety, comfort and use of a small but efficient Storm Mainsail …. see this link Sailing with a Storm Mainsail

This works so well behind a rotating wing mast, that you can still hit speeds over 10kts. with the W17.

(Correction ... just hit 12.6kts with the storm sail and jib, July 2018.

OOPS! yet another correction. This rig is amazing - just hit 13.4kts in August ;-) ... mostly due to the efficiency of the wing mast when combined with this small high-aspect sail.

September 2018, yet another update ! ... while surfing downwind with this storm sail up and 4 sqft of jib, hit 14 kts on a gust .....ya-hooo ;)

Sailing with A Storm Sail

After proving that the W17 hulls and folding system could take some pretty rough conditions without problem, I decided that carrying a storm mainsail that could be rolled up in a small bag, would be a great way to get home should conditions turn really ugly. So I drew up a fairly high-aspect ratio sail that measured barely 1 meter along the foot. It ended up being less than 4m2 (43 sqft) in area, but I was not looking for speed. What I hoped for however, was a sail that would work efficiently behind the rotating wing mast, to still give excellent performance upwind. I had the sail cut very flat and fitted with 5 full-length parallel battens that permitted it to be rolled up to about 6” (150mm) diameter. As such, this sail will easily stow in the forward compartment under the shelf, as does the similar-sized tent package. A short tack pennant permits one to easily adjust the boom height.

The result was highly successful and with only 90 sqft feet of sail in total, the boat was still nicely balanced and on trials we achieved a surprisingly steady 8kts upwind and hit 11kts on a broad reach. For a couple of days before we headed out, winds had been blowing 25 to 35 knots, so the seas were well established and as is typical of large lake conditions, they were also close and steep. The local meteorological office was still reporting seas of 3 to 5ft in height, but the wind had started to moderate a little by the time we headed out and was down in the 20-25kt range, though some waves were certainly still a good meter in height. Video of such conditions always tends to make things look calmer than they were, but here’s what my crew managed to capture with his handheld smartphone. I really hope that some of you who watch this are hardened dinghy cruisers, just as I was as a young man cruising in the UK Solent. I still remember as you will, battling wind and waves while constantly being thrown off course by unpredictable crests, and struggling to make even 3 knots upwind while constantly bailing to keep the boat from becoming swamped. I see many such videos taken on board traditional dinghies but its now getting hard for me to watch. This video excursion below, with the high aspect storm sail on a W17, is such a totally different experience! As the three hulls of a W17 average 16 foot in length, compare this ride and ability with one of the most proven 16ft cruising dinghies out there ... the Wayfarer ... and I think you will discover there's a whole new way to cruise, even into your 80's!. The W17 is totally self-bailing and goes upwind in this stuff at 7-8 kts !!

Hope you enjoy it. (suggest to view in basic size, as full screen will prove too jerky).

< ---- Use Back Arrow to return to this page.

Storm Mainsail in use behind Wingmast

We thought it was a lot of fun and the boat felt safe and secure the whole time, even if the short steep waves can throw you around a bit. As you can see in the video, any slamming was rare and even then it was gentle, with the leeward ama just slicing through waves like butter.

I always check that the hinges have no slack before heading out in rough conditions and if need be, one can just gently tap in some thin cedar wedges. These swell up as they get wet and from my experience, stay nicely in place all season.

All you additionally need for conditions like this, is some good clothing. Apart from the essential life-vest, a ‘dry suit top’ or semi-dry paddling jacket plus a wind-resistant hat (or wool ‘tuque’) with good booties, work just fine for me. While we were out, both water and air were around 57F ... so starting to get pretty cool.

IN EXTREME CONDITIONS

If it’s really howling, say over 30kts, it’s still possible to ‘get home’ unless wave conditions in your particular area are really extreme. First, you need to accept that ‘SLOWER is safer’. Sailboats need time to negotiate steep waves. Too much sail will force you through them unnaturally fast, with the bow unable to respond in time .. and if you’re surfing too fast downwind, there’s always the risk of stuffing the bow into the wave in front and pitchpoling ANY multihull. With large boats, the time-honored way is to reduce sail and tow something resistant behind to control the speed. An old car tire with a little chain was one classic solution, but far too much for a small boat like the W17. But one could still drag a small 8” trailer tire … or if I were stuck, a plastic gall of water tied securely to a spare lifejacket (to prevent it sinking too far down) could work, all payed out on at least 50ft of line. But as you’d also want to reduce sail, you’ll need to furl the jib. While the boat sails fine with only the storm main, tacking is tricky in steep waves, as you really need a little sail up front to pull the head of the boat on to the new tack.

Unfortunately, the furling we use on these foresails is NOT designed for reefing so if you tried to use the sail half-unrolled, the jib sheet load would pull the sail unnaturally around the wire luff and damage the sail or even the wire. But one can try this.

First furl up the jib as firm and tight as practical. Then add a tie (ideally a cloth strip) securely around the rolled jib, as high as you can comfortably reach from the foredeck – say 6ft (1.83m). Now unroll the jib until the sail is nearly at the tie and then add a second tie near the base of the sail - just below where the foot is leaving the rolled jib. Make sure the furling line is well cleated. To prevent these ties from damaging the jib leech, do not sheet-in this small triangle of sail tightly, but this little ‘handkerchief’ of sail (about 4 sq.ft) will still be enough to help you complete a tack in rough conditions. If you are caught out with too much sail and then need to furl the jib to this reduced size, a regular furling gear can really struggle to do this. But check out this article on Survival Sailing for a tip that may help you.

The other way to ‘change tack’ would be to simply gybe around. This is easy with a trimaran and particularly with the storm sail, quite safe and efficient to do at speed, as there is then less wind in the sail. Keep your weight aft during such a maneuver. But of course, if you’re trying to get upwind, you will lose a few boat lengths with a gybe. Stay within your experience … and have fun!

See also: "When to Reef", for surprising performance figures with this sail.

UPDATE: February 2020

WARNING NOTE: When sailing with the Stormsail, the load on the boom changes, requiring some operational adjustment and care. Normally, with the mainsail leech-load and the mainsheet being almost vertically under it, the only boom load is a slight compression in the boom, but when you set the Storm mainsail, that vertical leech-load is now applied only about 40% back from the mast. Although the load is barely half the normal, your boom-end mainsheet has a long leverage-arm and it will be very easy to accidentally over-sheet and overload the boom in bending. In fact, you will have enough power there to potentially even break the boom!

So just be aware of the risk and keep an eye on the boom deflection when sheeting in firmly. A 20mm bend is probably the maximum I'd recommend for the standard W17 boom, though if you really think you want more leech load, you could strengthen the boom for 600mm both fore and aft of where the stormsail clew is attached by adding UNI-CF along the four edges of the '+' sectioned boom, though if your boom is of mahogany (as the Manual suggests), it can take the load IF the mainsheet is not abusively over-tightened. The twin-ply stormsail leech of a W17 Stormsail does not need excessive loading to remain fairly straight, so just keep an eye on your boom bend and ease off if needed.

ADDED Aug 2024

Although initial tests were made with the regular mainsail stripped off the boom for direct access to the mast rotation tiller on a W17, the storm mainsail CAN be readily hoisted with the normal mainsail still rolled on the boom. If your mast rotation tiller is controlled with lines to the deck or cabin top, (as on most Farriers etc) there is no conflict. But if your tiller is normally cleated to the boom, then you will need a strong strap around the sail with added lines to keep it in position. The mast tiller will be lashed to a D ring on the underside of the strap.

As this is the case for the W17, the added strap must be synched up tight and the D ring at the bottom be attached to a line going rearward to the boom end (or clew), as there is a high load trying to pull the strap forward.

Here are some pics and a sketch to show how I use mine and this works acceptably well. This allows the mainsail to stay on the boom. The inexpensive strap needed is now a standard item with HYDE who make the Storm Mainsail to my design. Future orders for W17 Stormsails will include this strap. The positioning lines are for you to supply.

If you sail a multihull with a rotating wingmast, you will find a high aspect-ratio storm mainsail will allow you to sail far more efficiently upwind in storm conditions than with a conventional TrySail or a Reefed main. Write to me or directly to HYDE SAILS for a quote on a Waters Storm Mainsail to suit your boat and send in your regular SailPlan and mast info. It should ideally be matched with a smaller jib, or a regular blade jib half-furled. On a small boat under 7m, if a tight lashing is made around a regular jib half-furled at the upper limit of your reach, they will typically enable it to be used as a storm jib. If its set on hanks, then get a smaller jib made and use that.

Mike

Anchoring a small boat.... particularly a trimaran

QUESTION: Can you advise me as to what sort & size of anchor equipment I should shop for? Richard-W, CA

ANSWER: Here are some suggestions and guidelines.

While the basics are similar to any sailboat, the extra windage of multi-hulls becomes especially noticeable when at low or zero speed, so this is something you will need to adapt to.

There are really 3 levels of anchoring to consider, so as far as an anchor choice, each level will have a different requirement.

For starters, I am going to throw this rough guide out for you. For a main anchor, a weight (in lbs) equal to L^2 / 30 is generally about right, assuming this is an anchor of efficient design (not a folding or mushroom anchor!). A common and inexpensive one that still works well is a Danforth … but they do take space on a very small boat, with sharp pointed flukes and rod ends poking out, and it might need to be 10% heavier than the formula gives. The lowest level picnic anchor can certainly be a one-piece Claw anchor of about ½ that weight (L^2/60), while a storm anchor should be at least double your regular weight (L^2/15).

On a small boat, I personally prefer an anchor that is one piece and non-articulating, as the articulating types tend to catch a finger or jam up with the anchor line. So a small Bruce or Claw anchor can do the job. While these two look identical, I’ve noticed some subtle differences in fluke (blade) angles , so if using this type for your main anchor, you might want to make sure your getting the most efficient Bruce.

Today there are also many claims for ‘new-generation’ designs and anchors like the Mantus, Rocna and the ultimate Ultra in 316L stainless. Though these certainly perform very well they are typically only available for larger boats - or in the case of the Ultra, just very expensive.

NOTE: anchor cost always needs to be balanced against risk .... to the boat and the crew. The latter may not be very high with a small boat, but could be massive for a large boat that you cannot fend off with just manpower. So if you are fortunate enough to own a large valuable yacht ... then IMHO, only the very best available anchor and chain should be fitted. A drifting anchor in a storm in a crowded bay can cost you WAY more than your anchoring gear).

But back to small boats. The Delta are just a level lower but more available in smaller sizes. They may permit you to lighten your anchor by as much as 20% compared to the weights noted above, but I would take claims of double/triple-the-holding-power with a grain of salt as different locations will give different results, even if the new anchors are quite likely to be one level better overall than the older styles. Depending on their past experience (& luck), you will have sailors who swear by their own choice of anchor so it’s impossible to pick one type as always superior. Regardless of the anchor, the reality is that the greatest variable is the actual sea-bed and you can be lucky or unlucky with that. Typically a boat with power can back-up their boat to pre-test the holding, but a lightweight sailboat seldom has that reverse ability, so only a good pull has to suffice and then a close observation of any drift.

So for a W17, (using +/- 10% as an acceptable range), my guide line above gives roughly 2kg, 4kg and 8kg for the lower end anchor weights for the 3 uses. Particular hi-tech might allow a further reduction, but there will be times you will need the weight, though more chain can help compensate.

You may never need the storm anchor, (I presently do not carry one), but that will depend on where you sail and how you use your boat. Many experienced sailors that live on their boats will need one though and then, it never seems heavy enough. This can be a real ‘clunker’ to stow on board and old timers used to swear by the classic old heavy CQR anchors that have indeed performed well. However, I’d highly recommend one of the new style anchors that are made of 3 parts that all bolt together, as then you can dismantle it for stowage and only need to assemble it when a serious storm is forecast. The 3 parts are the stock, the flukes and a roll bar and they look like this. See the Mantus M1 shown here.

For your main anchor, I again personally prefer an anchor that’s not articulated, but it needs to be well designed and solidly built. While a good galvanized hook is fine, I tend to lean towards an anchor of stainless steel that is both strong and easier to clean, and in the small size needed, are available below $100.

Here’s a pic of the stainless Delta anchor that I personally use as my main anchor even if a bit underweight. To compensate, I added a little more chain and I do tend to ’choose my spot’ and accept to relocate with a major wind shift.

In all cases, you want to have a few feet of chain shackled to your anchor. This serves two purposes. One is to keep the end of the rope mooring line away from the anchor and bottom where it can get prematurely chewed up, but the most important thing is that the relatively heavy weight of chain will help to lower the pull angle on the anchor itself, making it more efficient in its grip of the bottom. Just 3ft is fine for a picnic anchor but I’d suggest 5ft for your main anchor and at least 8ft for your storm anchor. For a small boat, chain size could range from 3/16” for your picnic anchor to 5/16” for your storm hook.

Your anchor line can be 50ft x ¼” for your picnic hook but 100ft x 5/16”dia (or 3/8”) nylon for more serious overnight use. For your main anchor, I suggest to measure off 10’ and 25’ …. (include in that your anchor & chain) .. and then put markers around your main line …. either with a whipping in black nylon or using 1” wide black Gorilla tape rather than plastic insulation tape as it stays put longer, assuming the rope was dry when you taped it. These markers will allow you to use your anchor as a lead line to precheck the depth when choosing an anchor spot. To prevent the anchor rope from chafing on the deck edge, install a handed pair of bow chocks up close to the stem. These are available in strong but lightweight nylon from www.Duckworks.com

But having splashed out on an expensive anchor, you now need to make sure you don’t lose it! Nearly every long time boater has lost an anchor at some point .., I remember having lost at least two. They can get hooked into ‘something’ just too far down to see or reach … be that a rock crevice or some old steel junk that found its way there and you can pull on that line all day, but it will NOT come free. Ultimately, you’ll generally have to give in, cut the line, tie the end off (to prevent it unravelling) and go shopping for a replacement. SO, what can be done to prevent this ?

That’s where a trip line is important and unless I can see that the bottom is either soft sand or is of accessible depth, I now almost always use one. An anchor trip line is basically a small line with a snap hook .. capable to withstand about a 50-100 lb pull. When lowering your main (or storm) anchor, you snap this on to the back-end of the anchor (that will be the farthest from the boat when anchored), so that the anchor can be extracted out backwards when there is no load on the real anchor line. Typically there is already an eye or small loop on the anchor for this purpose, but if not, get one welded or bolted on.

For a small boat like my W17, there’s seldom any need to anchor in water deeper than 25ft (8m) so that’s the length of my trip line. But this thin line (1/8th braided polyester) can get all tangled up with the anchor and rode, especially if you’re anchoring in water of less depth, so we need a solution.

I call this my ‘PaddleReel’. You can make one out of ½” or ¾” rigid foam (styrofoam is fine) and cut to the shape shown here. I fiberglassed mine each side with one layer of glass to give it a decent lifespan, and it works great. Paint it a bright fluorescent yellow or orange – you will appreciate why later. After well attaching the end of the line permanently to the flat reel, you wind up your trip line and slide the snap hook either under the layers, or bond an eye to the reel edge so that you can snap it there. This way you can store it by your anchor or in some adjacent compartment without it coming undone. So now for the magic ;)

When lowering your anchor, snap the tripline to your anchor eye, drop the reel in the water beside the bow and lower your anchor. Your PaddleReel will go ‘flop-flop-flop’ as it flips over ½ a turn at a time, but as soon as the anchor hits the bottom, it stops like magic, and the unused line stays happily on the reel. Not only is this ‘very neat’, but your highly visible fluorescent reel now shows you exactly where your anchor is, regardless of how far away your boat finally swings. It also gives a nice visual of where you will need to be to recover your anchor. Pull in your line, lift in your anchor and grab your ‘PaddleReel’. Wind the line back-on for the next deployment. You don’t even need to unclip the trip-line, so it will be ready for the next set.

Although each boat will show you its own needs, trimarans often lay quieter if you arrange a bridle from the ama bows. S/S strap eyes on the ama bows work fine on a small boat under 1100 lbs. (500 kg).

The above guidance notes apply to boats under 8m, though the larger boats will need more chain But if you need guidance for anything over that, I recommend checking out this YouTube by Richard Macfarlane that makes fair sense to me.

Mooring a trimaran vs a monohull

QUESTION: I am coming from a monohull and considering my first trimaran. Are there any differences I should know about as far as anchoring and mooring are concerned?

ANSWER: Yes, a few things to note and prepare for. But first let me clarify that there are many different ways to moor a boat and certainly some that I'm sure work well that I've not yet tried, seen or even heard about. So please send in your own tips and if pertinent and interesting, I'll feature them in this chapter. Meanwhile, I will tell you what has personally worked well for me.

The first thing you might have to do, is to pick up your mooring! If there's plenty of water around your buoy, then practice coming in on a beam or close reach and then rounding up head-to-wind and see how far your particular boat travels. You will most likely find that a multihull approaches much faster but also decelerates faster than a monohull of the same size. It will depend a lot on whether there is a chop and how much wind, but once into the wind, the boat may not advance more than one boat length. A lighter boat will decelerate (and accelerate) faster than a heavier one whose forward momentum will help the boat carry on into the wind.

For the approach, I generally make sure the main is slackened off to slow the boat but work with the jib sheeted to retain good forward motion and steerage until I am ready to round up. Keeping in mind that I mostly do this solo (even if there is someone else on board), so I'll bring the tiller back to the center before running forward.

You'll probably find that once slowed to nearly a stop, your multihull will quickly pick up some serious side drift and soon be bearing off, sails filling and off sailing again before you had time to even think about it — so you need to either be ready and organized to catch the mooring first time or at least have a plan for sailing past it, bearing off and making a fresh approach. If you sail over the mooring buoy, try to keep it closer to the ama than the main hull. There, it will not hang up with any brackets or waterstays.

Picking up the mooring

This will depend on how the mooring is set up but first, let me say that I almost always 'sail' up to a mooring, rather than motor. (I just find it more controllable, as having learnt to sail in England just after the war, we almost never used motors or even owned one and believe me, the narrow rivers and estuaries were packed with small boats too). If there is a small dinghy moored there already and it is low enough*, I prefer to round up and sail a trimaran right up over the dinghy, so that it passes between the ama and the main hull. I can then go on the tramp to the forward aka and grab the dinghy's mooring line (painter) as it passes under.

* I specifically recommend a low, punt shaped dinghy with straight sides and flexible gunwales. This style of dinghy is easier to 'sail over' and having straight sides, lays parallel to an ama, either outside, or inside under the tramp of a tri. In my past boat, my dinghy would lie quiet under the tramp, it's movement nicely dampened by the trampoline. The soft 'flexible gunwales' help to absorb any accidental collision shocks, without damage to either the dinghy or parent boat.

If for the first time, you're not sure the dinghy will pass under, then take it on the outside of the leeward ama, grab it's mooring line and then walk it quickly to a cleat on the main hull of the trimaran. Once you're attached you'll have time to get more organized… first lowering the jib and then the mainsail.

If it's a rubber dinghy, you're not taking much risk by trying to steer the boat so that the trampoline sails right over it, but you'll need to watch the antics of the dinghy carefully as you approach as they have a habit of turning 90 degrees just as you come up to them! If so, aim at brushing the dinghy bow with either the main hull or ama, so that it is turned fore-and-aft again where it should be.

If there is no dinghy, then take the mooring buoy between the main hull and the leeward ama. If the buoy has a loose mooring line already attached to it, you might find it helpful to use a boat hook to grab a line and then cleat it. If you really come in too fast, then you might just take the line up over the forward aka and hold it firmly down on the trampoline close to the main hull for a few seconds, until the boat decelerates and stops and then walk it forward for cleating. If your main hull is really too high above the water to reach the buoy even when kneeling or lying on the deck, then you can also pick it up off an ama but in this case, be ready to slip a line through the ring and walk it quickly to the main bow once the boat has come to a stop.

If there is only a buoy with a steel loop, then I still prefer to grab it with a gloved hand rather than a boat hook and quickly slip a mooring line through it and back to the boat. If this style of pickup will be a regular one, then I suggest you make what I call a 'clobberhook', which is a large snap hook notched and bound into a rugged wood shaft (to extend your reach), with a mooring line permanently attached (see sketch). You pre-attach the end of the line to your boat's mooring cleat as you approach the mooring and then all you have to do is clobber the ring with the hook and once engaged, you simply let go and you're moored! Well, at least temporarily… see Permanent Mooring below.

I've had a few other sailors make these clobberhooks after seeing mine, but as I almost always have a dinghy left on the buoy, I mostly used the sailover approach where I could grab the buoy without needing the extra reach.

As far as mooring or pick one up... its not difficult ,, just different. First, the lighter boat (with more windage) does not go far head to wind ...perhaps 1 to 1.5m? But it is very maneuverable. You need to assess the drift.. which will be down wind. So you head up not more than 1.5m away ... try just 1m to start with, and you say you are on port tack, you head up to the buoy, placing it 'just' to the right of your main hull bow .. and once head to wind, you steer straight - then let go the tiller and move quickly to the trampoline. Here you should see the buoy coming towards you, between the main hull and the ama.

(You can also leave a yellow, 2m floating polypropylene line in the water from the buoy .. just sail and go straight parallel to the line in the water, with the rope between two hulls and then grab it ... cleat it to the main deck center ... then forget it, and drop the sail. Then get more organized)

You should already have a mooring line attached to your bow cleat on main deck forward .. cleated just about 1.2m from the end you hold, which can have a large snap hook spliced on and for the W17, that's all you initially need to attach yourself. For a larger boat like your L703, I would recommend making up what I call a 'Clobberhook' .. something I invented over 30 years ago for picking up my mooring solo from my D25 . If you enter 'clobberhook'in the Google search on my Homepage, it will take you to an article where there is a sketch. I can no longer take a photo as I gave my last one away to solo lady sailor who was having problem picking up her mooring as she could not reach it.

With this (and a little practice ashore over a large ring mounted somewhere), you just hit the hook down on the ring and once there, you simple let go ..., no panic cleating to do, as you line was already cleated. Now you can rig your bridle at leisure.

You can pre-attach your bridle both port and starboard (making sure the line is forward of all fore stays etc) and have a strong snap hook lashed in the center . You can then pull the boat to the buoy with your clobberline, snap in the bridle and remove the clobberline. (or if it's for a short time a day or so, you could leave the clobberline attached if the wood part is well epoxied and over-painted for water protection).

Where you are moored, you must have a common way of pulling yourself off shore to be moored away from the shore ... perhaps with a pulley at the offshore buoy or something like that.

How do you get ashore afterwards? I am guessing the red yawl in the photos was yours, no? .. being as red seems 'your' boat color of choice ;-)

A short line from the peak of the bridle to the buoy would allow you to adjust where your boat is.

At the stern, I would not use a bridle but simply two aft lines that are crossed. The port one attached a meter or more to the line of the side of the starboard ama at the shore, and the opposite for the other side. This would be more effective at keeping you in position and easier to set up as well.

What beam do you 'officially' have available? Mooring folded in any sort of rough water will be a challenge for both the W17 and the L703, as the hulls are hanging on pivot bolts that can allow too much movement. This might mean you will need a way to strap (shockcord) the amas to the main hull more securely ... with some rubber pads between. Ideally, the W17 should be left open, as then both bolts will be holding the amas. I would try telling the harbormaster you cannot be folded at the mooring and see what he can find for you ;-) Once you say you can, 'you're cooked' ;-)

Propulsion

If you really insist to motor your multihull in close quarters, expect to have a few surprises. As I've said elsewhere in this article, these boats are light and have a fair mount of windage relative to their underwater profile. This makes them tricky to keep going straight — especially when the speed is low — all very different to a heavy, deep monohull. You'll need some good fendering on the bow if coming into a dock, as it's hard to judge the stopping point. I've met some Farrier owners who swear by their system of actually motoring up to a dock by approaching astern-first — a sort of 'frontwheel drive' approach that I can understand might work ok if you can accept all the strange looks you're certain to get. Personally, I've always found sailing in easier if there's enough space to round up and the wind direction is favorable… but I know it's not for everyone. I've always felt that a good solution for a small tri would be two electric fisherman drives with coupled controls that would permit you to back one and advance the other. That way you could literally make circles around anyone else ;-)

While paddling is possible with two, its tricky to get started alone, as you can only paddle from an ama that's way off center. Once you are moving 1.3 kts, the rudder works to keep you straight and I have paddled 'Magic' 5 miles (~2.5 hours) like that in calm water .. just from one side with the rudder a little to the other. But I am confident that my Yuloh will be easier for short distances .. as its more central and you can steer with it too. Great for coming into a crowded harbor or to a dock for some refreshments.

Yes, a small electric motor can be mounted in a couple of ways. ... a raised board from the rear of the aft beam outside ot the track .. or from an extension out through the hull at the transom, with the shaft now lifting forwards instead of aft, as once down, these motor can typically be rotated 360 degrees. Both systems are used and both work fine.

But the motor and battery are not light, so personally, (even though I have an old one at home) I never use it when I am rigged for sailing, and prefer a quiet, lightweight manual yuloh or paddle.

(I grew up without motors and even boats up to 30ft often did not have them back in the 50's in the UK).

Permanent Mooring

Mooring a multihull, tri or cat with a single mooring line, does not work well. The combination of a light boat with nearly double the side windage, will have the boat sailing around from one extreme tack to the other, all day and night if there is a wind.

As for a bucking bronco, using a bridle will definitely help control her. I would suggest to make up two short mooring lines of say ½" nylon, with rugged bronze snap hooks on each end… each line about 70% of the total boat beam in length. I normally leave these lines attached to a sturdy eye on the bow of each ama and 'store' them while sailing, back along the ama deck. Once moored with the initial buoy line, I bring the other end of each bridle line up forward and snap the hooks on to the mooring buoy—one each side of the central line. I then pay out the central line so that the boat drifts back with weight totally on the bridle and then re-cleat the central line with 6–12" of slack, as both a backup as well as leaving it there, ready to haul up the buoy and unsnap the bridle lines, prior to casting off. For larger trimarans, I'd recommend to use a system recommended by trimaran pioneer Jim Brown, and that employs a fairly large swiveling snatch block shackled to the bow of each ama. The bridle then passes through that block and back to a large, solidly mounted cleat on the foredeck. By adjusting each bridle length, one can get the boat to lay at the most favorable angle for anchoring or even when using a bridle with a drogue or sea anchor. In a nasty sea, it sometimes proves favorable to have one bridle line shorter than the other, so that the boat is biased to one side and not eternally switching side-to-side. So having bridle lines adjustable has its advantages, particularly for larger cruising boats.

Anchoring

For a short picnic stop, I prefer (on a 24–27' tri) to use a small Bruce anchor with no moving parts, 3-4ft of chain and a 3⁄8" nylon mooring line. It's simple to handle and a Bruce of only 8–10lbs has a surprising capacity. But if you're in a place where you might experience some wind while moored overnight, you might want to rig up a bridle for the anchor line too. What I usually do then is put out my main anchor of 17 lbs (plus 6 ft of chain) and a scope of at least 5 times the water depth (usually in fairly shallow water). I'll then take a bight in the anchor line and make a loop. I then snap in the hooks of my mooring bridle into the loop and pay it out until the bridle takes the anchoring load. I've found that such a loop in a relatively large diameter anchor line has never pulled tight enough to be hard to undo, so this simple system has worked well for me. If it's windy, having a small flag tied firmly astern, can help the boat to weather vane head to wind. Just 2 sqft can help. For mooring overnight, running a stern line to a tree on shore is a secure way to prevent the boat from sailing around. If that stern line is long enough, you can simply wrap it around a tree and back to the boat. That way, you only have to let go one end and haul in the line, so enabling you to pull away from the beach without having to go ashore again.

See also a 2020 article of Anchoring Tips (coming soon)

Casting Off

While one could say this is a reverse of anchoring, perhaps there are a few things worth mentioning. I'll typically put down all the rudder blade and just a foot of daggerboard, haul up the main first (making sure the mainsheet is loose and free) and then take in the bridle, leaving the boat moored temporarily on a single line to the bow.

Once ready to leave, I'll haul up the jib and decide which tack gives me the most space. A multihull will often drift quickly to leeward for a few feet before gaining forward motion so you'll need to allow for that. If you're leaving a dinghy on the mooring, bring the end of the short central mooring line (that's attached to the buoy) and snap it on to the mooring line of the dinghy, on the outside of what will be the windward ama as you cast off. I'll then hold the mooring line (now uncleated) and watch the natural swings of the boat on the central mooring and as she starts to bear off on the right tack, I'll back the jib. At the same time, I'll hold the single mooring line (now with dinghy painter attached) and pull it aft along the windward ama, (making sure it does not foul with any cleats) and then let go. This gives the boat a good take off and adds enough steerage way to sail off the mooring with good control.

As I said in the preamble to this article, there are many ways of doing this but this one works well for someone who is often sailing single-handed as I do.

Mooring Cleats

While trimaran amas over 20ft (6m) will generally have space for real cleats, deck space is tight for smaller boats, so here is what I suggest and use on my W17. For sure, install a solid 6" (150) cleat on the Main Hull foredeck, as you never know when you will need a tow and this also serves for your main anchor line. But sometimes you may need to moor at a dock and need lines attached to other parts around the boat. For this, I prefer to install a strong S/S eyestrap on each corner of both amas. These have mounting holes for at least 3/16" (4mm) S/S bolts or sturdy screws that can be installed in epoxy if under-deck access for Nyloc nuts is not readily available. The eyestraps have the advantage that other ropes cannot accidentally be caught around them and they are also lightweight and take very little space. For docking itself, you can either use dedicated 3/8" nylon mooring lines of say 12-16ft (4-5m) with one end spiced to a snaphook, or you can simply attach such lines with a bowline to the eye.. These straps are even strong enough to use with a mooring bridle, as you can still have a slack back-up line to the main cleat, as noted above.

For any sort of emergency, the strongest place to attach a rope to a boat like the W17 is to loosely loop it around one of the main beams and tie it off with a bowline.

How to Mark Your Mooring Spot over Winter

QUESTION: As I moor my boat in a northern state where the water freezes in the winter, how would you suggest to mark the mooring to find it in the spring?

ANSWER: Although I will explain what has successfully worked for me, it would be interesting to receive other suggestions on this subject—so feel invited to use the questionnaire ;-)
In a marina where there are many such moorings, I have seen owners link all the underwater mooring chains together and then drop the connecting point down with a white partly-flooded plastic container attached to it, so that it's partly visible on a quiet day once the ice has gone.

I have tried several different systems to have a marker that was still visible on the surface but none of them proved reliable year after year. If the ice is thick then most buoys risk to get ripped away and lost. The best was a vertical tube of black plastic hose that was weighted with the bottom half filled with cement. Two stainless steel hose clips attached a shackle and a sturdy line went down to the anchor chain. By being black, the sun would heat the surface just enough to free up the ice around the vertical pipe and it would slip free when the ice moved off. That worked fine for several years until a snowmobile sheared off the top and it was no longer visible in the spring! In a quiet area with little ice movement, a floating wheel and tire has also worked ok as a buoy—again with the black tire getting enough heat to free itself from the ice in the spring.

Overall, I find the best solution is to prepare a line of say ½" polypropylene (the yellow stuff that floats) and lash on a 4" length of foam tubing of about 3" diameter, like they use for some floating toys. Make the length at least 2 ft less than the water depth at time of freezing and bend [tie] on a sturdy bronze snap hook at the bottom, to snap into a link of your regular mooring chain. When making a knot with polypropylene, be sure you make an extra hitch at the end and then lash it down or pass a long end back through one of the 3 strands. Until it's 'taken the form' of the knot, this fibre has a great tendancy to come undone, but we need its unique ability to float in this case. By passing the upper end through the short length of foam tubing, you'll form a loop that will float just a couple of feet below the surface in the spring. If you then have a light pole with a simple hook on it, it will be easy to fish it up when you're ready. I use one of bamboo and it's worked well for me for over 15 years. (See photo).

Launching dolly for the W17 trimaran and similar boats

While the W17 can best be stored in shallow water on a Boat Lift, it is equally recommended to dry-store the boat (for the longest life) and for this, some users may find a form of boat dolly will better suit their specific needs. In this case, I suggest a 4 wheeled dolly, somewhat as per the arrangement shown below. Wheels and axles should all be of non-corrosive materials and plain bearings of plastic work fine for this if each wheel capacity is at LEAST 150 lbs, ideally 200 lbs. Also cover the two wood planks with old carpet so that the bottom paint is not damaged.

As the boat will be close to 500 lbs all rigged, the 4 wheels will make sure the boat stays roughly horizontal compared to a dinghy dolly. This significantly reduces the hassle. Pull-up loads are typically in the order of 10-20% of the weight, so let’s estimate 50-100 lbs; quite doable by one with a 2-part tackle, or with 2 for a direct push/pull.

When hauling out and to avoid the whole dolly and boat running back into the water, it’s worth having some wheel blocks available. For this rig, a beveled cross beam of wood slung under the dolly and hung from a light 3mm plaited nylon cord rigged on each side, can be very useful and will simply drag up the ramp or beach behind the wheel, but will be automatically ready to catch the dolly, should one need to stop and pause.

When lowering and launching the boat, this beam blocker can be hauled up above the ground surface to permit free rolling down.

Various arrangements based on what is shown here, can work equally well.

Getting organized in this way can make launching and retrieving so much easier that you’ll find you will get out sailing a lot more. Happy days!

Lightning Protection — some thoughts and suggestions

(Primarily addressing potential needs for small boats under 26 ft in length)

Lightning appears to be like that rogue wave—it's not very predictable, and just as soon as the scientists come up with new theories, lightning strikes at some 'typically safe' area, and more prominent targets around the area are spared. But still, things have been learnt over time, so let's see what we can do.

The first thing to ask yourself is whether you really need protection or not, and that will certainly depend on your area and how 'attractive' your mast top will be.

For some small boats covered by this website, one primary form of protection would be to simply lower the mast for days when strong thunderstorms are predicted. But that is not always possible.

Glance at this NASA map of lightning frequency. I would suggest that if you live in an area that is yellow or orange, then lightning protection is certainly something to consider and if it's red (as in Florida and much of the southern hemisphere), then protection or at least precautions, become a must.

Beyond that, it could depend on whether your sailboat will be moored out in the open or in a marina, where other masts are close and perhaps higher than yours. A study of past hits has shown that boats moored out alone, are many times more likely to be hit than if secured within a marina with other masts close by—such as is possible with monohulls in a tightly packed marina. However, a wide catamaran will open up a greater width of unprotected area within a marina—giving more justification for protecting a wide beamed multihull than a narrow monohull, all else being equal.

Much has been written in the past about 'the cone of protection', wherein conductive items achieve good protection within an imagined inversed 90° cone sitting on the highest mast top, if that mast is adequately grounded.

For each case, one thing to consider is how well one is grounded, as negatively charged lightning will more likely discharge through a positively charged leader that's well grounded. This could explain why a relatively 'low profile' golfer with metal studded shoes on wet ground, might well be at higher risk of being the channel through which lightning passes, compared to a tall tree not far away, that may have greater internal resistance, depending on many factors too complex to analyse.

But for a small sailboat, what sort of protection can help? A while back, it was considered good practice to simply mount a bunch of 'metal whiskers' at the mast head and connect that to a ground wire led to the keel that was underwater. But this has since proven quite unreliable and not only have 'the whiskers' proven ineffective but also a ground passed down through the center of a boat to the keel, has even proven to be dangerous. This is because numerous hits have shown that lightning has a greater attraction to the water SURFACE than to points deep underwater—with the result that side flashes can occur and strikes can jump from the ground path directly to the nearest water surface—often blowing a hole through the hull skin. I have personally witnessed this, as my trimaran Magic Hempel was once hit at night while moored out alone, waking me with a huge bang, to find out the following morning that a hole was blown through EACH hull at the waterline, when the easiest grounding path proved to be from the chainplate for each of the 3 wire stays, directly to the water. As the forestay was of larger diameter than the shrouds, this took most of the discharge, as the hole through the main bow side was about three times the diameter of the holes in the amas—big enough to pass my thumb in fact! Also of interest, was that the main 'discharges' came from inside the hulls (where the chainplates finished almost a foot away) and blew small holes through the composite shell, with the fibres of the outer layer, clearly opening outwards towards the water. All 3 compartments were flooded in the morning, so the holes were actually made just below the waterline, not above it. Further, there was a large tree at the shoreline only 100 ft away and at least twice the height of my mast and with roots certainly going below the water table, but this was not hit.

This experience gave me a chance to see exactly what happened. While there was some minor arcing (flashing) from the mast base to the cross beam, neither came very close to the water, so the main discharge had passed through the 40ft alloy mast to the heavier forestay and then to the forward S/S chainplate that was bolted down inside the stem. But that plate finished about 150 mm above the water, so the discharge sparked right through the side panel of the bow—not only blowing a clean hole of about 18 mm diameter but also creating a mass of cracks in the laminate that looked like a spiders web of about 350 mm diameter. The center of this was also just below the waterline and only appeared on the outside skin and not inside. So in this case at least, the main discharge came from the inside and not from the water (ground) upwards. There was obviously a bunch of smaller stray discharges as the only electronic piece on board (wired to a sensor below the waterline) was also burnt out. In fact, there appears to be NO practical way to give 100% protection to electronics on ANY boat that is hit—although pre-disconnecting them from all wires will give you the best odds—but don't fool with that if lightning is already occuring in your area. It's good to remember that there are 1000s of deaths each year from lightning worldwide so it's important to put your own safety ahead of any equipment that can be insured and replaced. For yachts, I know a delivery skipper who'd put all the electronic pieces in the (steel) oven—providing a 'Faraday Cage' for protection of the delicate electronic circuits!

Experts like "Marine Lightning Protection Inc." (www.marinelightning.com) now say that a system that creates multiple discharge paths as far to the OUTSIDE of the boat as possible, will be the preferred configuration—as shown in this sketch above, of a motor boat. They also now recommend fairly small permanently-installed (patented) grounding electrodes located just above the static water surface, but using a number of them, each connected to grounding loops.

But this is typically for permanent installation on large boats and we are looking at relative small boats here—so what to do? Well, if you're in the green or blue areas shown on the opening map, you might be OK to just forget all about this, as your chances of being hit are probably less than 1 in a million provided you personally take minimum precautions of staying dry and away from conductive material during a storm. But in the yellow, orange and most CERTAINLY in the brown areas or worse, some sort of protection plan is worth considering.

For small multihulls, with alloy masts that are large enough to be left afloat, I suggest to do something like I did for Magic Hempel after she was hit hard in the 1990s. ( BTW: This boat was in a 'yellow area' at the time.)

With an alloy mast, the main current path will most likely pass that way. So this now needs to be 'connected' to the water surface in the most direct way and if possible, EXTERNAL to the boat. [The ABYC (American Boat & Yacht Council) has suggestions in their TE-4 Lightning Protection Report, but I believe that was last updated in 2006.] Various past sources commonly indicated that the discharge plate in the water needed to be about 1 ft² (900 cm²), but in the 1990s I used a small tube that still offered about the same area but was more compact to store on aboard, and I would drop this in the water with the upper connection just above the waterline. This was streamlined enough to even sail with it at speed and this I would do when caught out in a storm with thunder around. More recently, the preferred ground plate has changed, to be longer but of much narrower strips that give more exposed edge. So I now suggest this. Still using a 300 mm length of alum or copper tube of approx. 50 mm diam and 2 mm thick, make many saw cuts up its length, to increase the exposed length of edges, just leaving about 30 mm at the top for physical connection. Another option I've sketched out, is to cut a 2mm plate like a star (adding to edge length) and then bond this to a foam slab, to keep the plate at the water surface. To attach either of these plates to the mast (or forestay), buy a heavy gauge welder's spring clamp and a length of Gauge 4 (5 mm) copper wire (preferable with insulation in this case). If you cannot get wire thick enough, use a duplex wire (2 x Gauge8 (~3 mm) and connect both ends firmly to the clamp—or even use two separate clamps. With the clamp on the base of the mast (or to some part solidly bolted to it), see what wire length you need to run over the deck (hence the insulation) and down to the water surface in the shortest path with the minimum of bends. Then bolt on the metal ground plate or split tube, so that the attachment is close to the water surface when you throw it over the side. This is something that is inexpensive to make and certainly lower your risk of taking a damaging lightning hit, although as always, you can still expect some smaller currents that can destroy delicate electronics in the area. Make a habit of clipping this cable on the mast base and throwing the tube over the side each time you leave your boat and as mentioned earlier, you can even sail with this unit dragging in the water when stuck out in a thunderstorm. Personally, just keep as dry as possible and away from large metal parts and you've probably improved your odds of not being injured or your boat damaged, by a large margin.

If you prefer to purchase something already made, there's now a somewhat similar unit developed by Wally Hall for small sailboats (see zenpole.com) that uses a patented electrode developed by Ewen Thomson of Marine Lightning Protection Inc.

As for cars, boats on trailers are less at risk due to being on rubber tires—unless there is a ready path to wet ground through a metal trailer support. In such a case, one can again clip on the mast clamp and now lay the metal tube on some moist grounded area to at least offer some protection to the boat itself.

But what about a carbon fiber mast? Well, carbon fiber IS a conductor, though apparently not as good as aluminum. As to how effectively a carbon mast will conduct such high voltage discharges, I think it will depend on the actual construction of that particular mast as the continuity of the fibers will play a part and also how tightly they are compacted. Professionally constructed CF masts, built using resin infusion or vacuum-bagging, are probably nearly as effective conductors as aluminum and Hall Spars (for one) report that they've not seen a greatly increased number of masts damaged by lightning just because they are made of carbon fiber. Now, I'm not sure how far spar companies will go with such statements to protect potentially lucrative sales, but one risk with CF must be the possible softening of the resin due to the heat created by a lightning strike. Perhaps it will reharden again and not record any damage—I just don't know at this time, so I'd be pleased to see more data on this. But I can imagine that a CF spar with a relatively higher proportion of resin to fiber might be a higher risk. In such a case, it might be smart to provide some alternative way for high voltage lightning to travel to/from the mast top .. and this could be a heavy gauge (5 mm) wire from a short, rounded-off rod at the masthead. This wire could be loose inside but then you'd have its weight always present. An option could be to haul up a wire to the spinnaker mount with a fitting to assure good mast surface contact, and then bring this wire to the bowsprit and from there to the water surface ground plate or electrode, to keep it as far from the core of the boat as possible.

Another option, could be to electrically connect the upper mast to the forestay and then connect the lower end of the forestay to a grounding plate. This might ultimately sacrifice the strength of the upper part of the mast but at least the main part below the hounds would have some protection. Also, instead of using a copper wire, a small copper tube might be even more effective as it provides more surface and should stay cooler—and there are new but complex theories that indicate material surface area is as important as cross sectional area.

Anyway, I hope these thoughts and suggestions will help, and at least give some ideas to work on for your own solution. Keep in mind, I am hardly an expert on this and these suggestions are really for small boats under say 26 ft, but the ideas offered are based on my own experience and from what I have researched and both seen and heard. Larger sailboats will need either two or more discharge plates and possibly more protective grounding loops to fend off flashes from rigging at the stern—such as from backstays, runners and metal arch structures, so better to contact specialists for this.

The classic inexpensive solution for many cruising sailboats, is to mechanically clip on a length of chain reaching from the water to each chainplate—but of course, the rigging must then be all metal from the mast to the chainplate—no synthetics here. They also need to be installed immediately you hear thunder in the distance, as this could otherwise be a dangerous operation. An arrangement that permits attachment with one gloved hand could be preferable—with the other one by your side not touching anything, just to lower the risk from an unlucky strike.

Past lightning strikes have shown that NOTHING will give you totally GUARANTEED protection, but at least find a solution that provides you with some comfort and personal peace of mind.

In closing, here are some things that can help when making decisions:
Lightning doesn't like to make sharp turns.
It seems to prefer a 'surface' path, so tubes may perform better than wire, other things being equal.
Lightning will not always hit the tallest structure, but seek the path of least local resistance.

If you want to read more about Lightning, here are some references that might help:
mct-electronics.com/threats-to-your-assets/layouts/cs
www.colutron.com/products/cosmos.html Scroll down to 'Atmosheric Electrostatics'
www.marinelightning.com
www.boatdesign.net/forums/boat-design/lightning-masts-20019-3.html
www.marinelightning.com/IEEE.pdf

The National Agricultural Safety Database (out of Florida)
nasdonline.org/document/209/d000007/boating-lightning-protection.html

[1] This is one important reason that multihulls needs sails made by makers who are experienced with multihulls. Also, as a wing-mast is very stiff fore & aft, the correctly matched mainsail will have an almost straight luff, with only the tack (fwd. low corner) cut back a little, so when the foot is pulled forward, this helps give more fullness, forward and low down.

[2] Racing dinghies often use this technique as when the crew come over to the high side and bring the boat up vertical, they briefly create extra pressure on the sails and that accelerates them forward on the new tack).

[3] designer of the OspreWayfarer, Gull, Topper & others, from which over 60,000 boats were built.