Autumnal Sailing

Very opposite sailing at the moment. From sailing fully reefed in a near gale to a flat calm, on a beautiful, crisp day.

Personally – I think it’s worth keeping the boat in until December, Autumn does give some beautiful days, so I resolved to make the topsail work, with a proper spar.

I sailed ‘Corsair’ for the 1st time with her topsail this year, at Cantley Autumn Regatta with the Yare Sailing Club. Here’s a gratuitous photo;

I’m not going to pretend that’s set well. In face, given that it’s hanging off my quant pole, which is at least a metre too short, the yard is tangled the wrong side of the gaff, and the peak isn’t high enough I’m reasonably surprised we came 3rd in that race!!

Sticking to my principles, the rig should work, and it should look right. So I resolved to make the topsail set properly. I’ve previous experience of jackyard topsails, having spent a lot of my teenage years sailing a topsail rigged halfdecker;

Dixon Kemp helpfully wrote about jackyard topsails in 1913. https://www.woodenboat.com/sites/default/files/library-content/dixon-kemp-jackyard-topsail1913-finalv2.pdf (pg 3 onwards)

Unlike his counterparts though, I am unable to send a man or two afloat to stow the topsail – neither do I have a clue when he advises us to be mindful of “passing the weather earing”.

So – first hoist of the topsail, and it was apparent that the sheeting angle was wrong – with the sheet being too low on the yard. Even worse – on port tack the yard pulled away from the mast, allowing everything to ‘twist’;

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I appreciate that topsails & mainsails are two separate sails. However, for the purposes of my simple brain – one is an extension of the other. And a ruddy great gap in the middle of it doesn’t help.

So down it all came again!

Rig adjustments are subtle. The sheet was moved by 3 inches, and an addition line was added, which held the topsail spar close to the mast, and ensured it would be parallel at all points of sail. This is tied loosely to the spar – so it just pulls ‘in’ to the mast, I don’t want it to impact on the downhaul, which you can see is caught up in the topping lift.

So next attempt revealed the sheet was wrong (by 1 inch) and the second halyard (for want of a better name) was also ‘out’ by about 4 inches.

Lowered again… Avoila!

So, in my book, that’s not bad. Crease diagonally up and down the main from peak to tack. Topsail yard nicely vertical. Load on the jib & the topsail forestay.

Crucially – I’ve marked everything on the spars, and given that I was knee-deep in rope on the forepeak I’ve had some thoughts about extra cleats, and some rope bags to tidy everything.

I’m pleased with this. Just got to test it all over the next few Autumnal Days.

My ambition to have a rig that works well on ‘Corsair’ have been a constant process if I’m honest. During 2009, I made some alterations to the jib, effectively cutting it parallel to the luff, removing approximately 12 inches of sail up its length.

At that time, I had hoped to resolve some issues with occasional lee-helm, and soon reduced the length of the bowsprit to match. From this photo in 2009, you can see that the jib doesn’t quite ‘fit’ the foretriangle;

To be honest, this set-up worked beautifully for me, at that time. Sailing single-handed I wanted really positive weather-helm. If it all went wrong, I needed to know the boat would luff, and come to a halt.

This was the thinking behind the original hire-boat rig, keep a small jib, so that the boat will automatically luff and stop. Also, for hire-boats any bowsprit would only be a unnecessary damage making implement!

‘Corsair’ has had 4 rigs now throughout her 68 years. She started off a stem-head sloop. First with a self-tacking jib, then a loose footed jib. In 1961 she gained a small bowsprit with the Campbell family, with a larger, high peaked mainsail. In 1989 she gained the ‘large’ topsail rig whilst in the ownership of Joe & Julia(originally cut 1978 for ‘Sabrina’ s/n 71). Joe & Julia actually kept the old sails, and the original bowsprit – enabling them to have either a ‘big’ or a ‘little’ rig.

Finally in 2019 she got her current rig – the 2nd time in her 58 career as a private yacht that she’s received brand new sails, specifically for her!

So, will I keep the rig in its current form? If history repeats itself, she will probably end up carrying this suit of sails for 40 years or so – so who can say?!

I know that for now, the extra string, extra effort and space needed for a topsail is manageable – but I can’t say how I’ll feel about it in 5, 10 years with any accuracy really.

I am glad though, the rig now can be set properly, or as near to as I can get!