Stay Sail

[sunexec]

New to Grand Banks and in fact new to Trawlers. Wondering about the effectivness of the Stay Sail. Worth raising underway to help prevent yaw or watse of time? Any opinons, comments, instruction will great greatlt appreciated.
Vessel is a 49' Grand Banks, I guess you folks refer to them as "woodies".

Also, getting rid of lot's of bad wood in the main cabin head. I was told I would be better off recovering with a vinyl material. Any thoughts on this?

[GBNI]

Originally Posted by sunexec

New to Grand Banks and in fact new to Trawlers. Wondering about the effectivness of the Stay Sail. Worth raising underway to help prevent yaw or watse of time? Any opinons, comments, instruction will great greatlt appreciated.

I appreciate this is resurrecting a very old thread but I am interested to know the effectiveness of the stay sail in different sea states.
Does it make any difference?

[OldDan1943]

GBNI and Sunexec, you have the mast and boom to launch and retrieve the small boat so, if you put up a steady sail everyone will think you are cool.
Based upon previous discussions here, the conclusion was, "maybe a little bit when at anchor." The steady sail was never designed to act as a 'get home', it is a 'flat sail' but, if the wind is just right, "maybe" it will get you closer to land and within a 'tow boat'?? Better than doing nothing.
Per using the sail while under way on the main engine? I do not recall anyone bragging about the effectiveness of the sail to reduce the roll. Basically too small.
So, we have nailed it down to 2 'maybe'.
One additions recommended was, adding an electric motor to launch and retrieve the small boat.
I hope that helps.

[psneeld]

People have mixed results.

Generally the steadying sail on our trawlers is too small to work in all but some conditions. Probably why the mixed results.

A properly designed and used steadying sail will be a lousy sail for propulsion as they are cut flat and always sheetfed in all the way. If not, they will do little for roll.

They are for reducing roll, not yaw. Even then they will slow a snap roll a tad , even if they can't eliminate it.

[jgtrucking]

Mine does a good job, but it is not oem. Po designed and installed it in the early 90's

[markpierce]

At least staysails can be pretty! My sails provide some propulsion and stability effect.

[Comodave]

Originally Posted by markpierce

At least staysails can be pretty! My sails provide some propulsion and stability effect.

Yes, but yours are not the typical staysail.

[psneeld]

"A staysail ("stays'l") is a fore-and-aft rigged sail whose luff can be affixed to a stay running forward (and most often but not always downwards) from a mast to the deck, the bowsprit, or to another mast (the mast is item 13 in the illustration right)."

https://www.google.com/search?q=stay...obile&ie=UTF-8

[SteveK]

I would expect a beam of wind and waves would show best value from stays'l to reduce roll.

[RedRascal]

This question was asked of a cruising family on a GB42 that was exploring the Caribbean. They thought it was helpful, see YouTube video comments for their response. They claim value, so maybe it takes being in the open ocean before the value shows up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ExiV...rFamilyonWyRow

[OldDan1943]

Originally Posted by markpierce

At least staysails can be pretty! My sails provide some propulsion and stability effect.

are both your sails 'loose foot'?

[Caballero II]

The GB mast and boom provide a place to fly a riding sail (not a stay sail). There is not near enough sail area to provide a steadying effect, but allows the boat to clock to the wind direction, if that is your desire. The sail needs to be cut flat, and will also not provide drive. I personally like a riding sail, like traditional New England lobster boats sometimes use. Those were often made in traditional tanbark color.

[Caballero II]

I meant to say allows the boat to clock to the wind at anchor.

[psneeld]

Riding sails are for pointing into the wind at anchor, steadying sails are to lessen roll while underway.


Most trawler masts and booms are for multi purpose but because of their location are best suited for steadying sails....and then most are not really large or tall enough.



However a small sail flown in the aft part of the boom if long enough may provide reasonable riding assistance.

[Caballero II]

Umm. I think that was the point of my post. Maybe I didn't articulate clearly enough. Rig a riding sail, and don't expect a steadying sail derived from the square footage of typical taiwan/chinese trawler's mast and boom configuration.

[SteveK]

For those that have a riding sail. Is it more than a three points attachment?

[Caballero II]

Not often, but I put a sail track up the mast to make it just a bit more flat and efficient.

[CharlieO.]

Originally Posted by Soo-Valley

For those that have a riding sail. Is it more than a three points attachment?

The one I found on our boat only has three grommets on it.

[mvweebles]

Most, if not all, Willard 30s and 36s came with a sail. To my eye, spars were longer than a typical GB or Taiwan trawler so sail was somewhat bigger.

Its a common topic on the Willard forum. Very few argue a sail is worth the effort to set.

As to riding vs steadying sail, I think most people assume a boat wants to point up into the wind much the same as a windvane atop a barn. Not so due to interaction in water. Left to its own, a boat will set roughly beam-to which is why a boat "sails" at anchor as it fights against the rode in one direction then the other. Given the hull, superstructure, and flybridge of many powerboats, a sail has its work cut out for it unless large and well aft to achieve leverage.

Bottom line is I think 99% of sails on trawlers are feel-good gimmicks.

Peter

[Steve1.0]

My 46 has a bolt rope for both the leech and foot.