Page 185 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

sliding car on track

Figure 5-37. Mr. Angleman’s improvement on the
self-tending staysail.

in and lets it slide forward when the sheet is eased, Some modern self-tending designs are based
thus maximizing sail shape variation. As an added on the assumption that a small staysail isn’t much
feature, the boom slides forward clear to the base good off the wind anyway—it’s too flat and is often
of the stay when the sail is lowered, eliminating the blanketed by the main—so they focus instead to
need for luff jacklines. optimize close-reaching and beating efficiency. My
A pedestal, used with or without a track, can favorite self-tending gear for boomless staysails
help optimize sail shape but still leaves self-tending comes from Harken.
rigs weak in the efficient sheeting department. As The Bierig Cambersail (Figure 5-38) incor-
the boom moves outboard when the sheet is eased, porates a pivoting wishbone boom inside the sail,
it also rises, and most tracks provide no more than which simultaneously bears the luff/clew compres-
a modicum of vanging action, so that sail shape suf- sion load and holds the sail in an airfoil shape, one
fers from an excessively open leech. A rising boom optimized for on-the-wind sailing. The boom auto-
and baggy leech also make an accidental jibe much matically flips to the leeward side when you tack.
more likely—self-tending staysails are notorious This sail, used with a forward-curving traveler,
foredeck depopulators. would have good offwind usefulness, but then again
One intricate and expensive way to deal with we’re getting into intricacy.
this is to install a curved traveler with locator blocks So here’s one more option: the Semi-Self-Tend-
to position the sheet for different points of sailing ing Staysail (Figure 5-39). The club is controlled by
(Figure 5-36). This works well, and can be used two separate sheets, in the manner of a regular stay-
in conjunction with a sort of secondary sheet that sail. The deck blocks for the sheets are mounted well
varies the distance of the clew from the boom end. outboard and forward. The sheets can be a multi-
But self-tending staysails, a feature of shorthanded part purchase, or get their mechanical advantage
vessels, are prized because the sailors of those ves- from a winch aft. For maximum sailing efficiency,
sels disdain intricacy and expense every bit as much the procedure is to use the weather sheet as a lat-
as inefficiency. Is there no simpler, cheaper way to eral boom locator and the leeward sheet as a vang
efficient sheeting? (vertical locator) and preventer. When you tack,

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