I have a question for all users of an inner staysail on a SM:

Do you also have and use running backstays and do you use them when sailing with your inner foresail a/k/a Trinkette? 

Since the mainmast is not designed to take a significant load where the inner foresail will mount, I assume that the safe course of action is to do the same thing Amel did with the 54 and add running backstays from the mast attachment point of the added inner staysail. 

I would really hate to see someone buy a used SM which has an inner foresail which was "rigged" by the previous owner, but the owner chose not to rig running backstays. Replacing masts and rigging can be costly.

Best,

CW Bill Rouse
Admiral, Texas Navy
Commander Emeritus
Amel School  http://www.amelschool.com
720 Winnie St
Galveston Island, TX 77550
+1(832) 380-4970

On Mon, Apr 9, 2018 at 2:25 PM, Paul Cooper paul.cooper74@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@...> wrote:

 

Awesome!  That's what I'm talking about.  Good first-hand information!  Thanks so much Peter, Paul and Mohammad.  Very helpful.

Best regards,

Paul C.

On Monday, April 9, 2018, 3:43:23 AM MDT, osterberg..paul.l@... [amelyachtowners] <amelyachtowners@yahoogroups. com> wrote:

 

Paul

Hello!

My thoughts about stay sail.

We did invest in a stay sail, unfortunately the equipment we got was substandard and shape of sail very poor. However we have numerus times encounter conditions when we wish it had worked better. In The Mediterranean wind was often 25 to 30 knots true and “of course” up wind, in The Caribbean we had a lot of up wind sailing between the islands, the same going up from The Bahamas to The Chesapeake bay.  our new Genoa does not furl very well a fot or two, if we furl more the shape is not very good and we lose height. When true wind approaching +25 knots, we do not fancy going up wind but unfortunately, we have had much more of that then expected, so we will in connection with changing of our standing rig when in Le Marine, make sure we get a proper installation of our stay sail, alternatively invest in a smaller Genoa the 130% that has been discussed recently on the forum. BUT the engine in the SM is definitely the Genoa, I say up to 22-24 knots apparent wind a furled Genoa gives much higher speed and VMG then a stay sail, first at higher wind strengths one has a benefit of a stay sail. Concerning tacking we do not find it a problem with the stay sail, even before installing the stay sail we found it easier to tack when partly furling the Genoa, now we have to furl it a little bit more. I found it very rare that we do “short” tacking, I guess the shortest period between tacks on very rare occasions are 15 minutes, we often go several hours on the same tack so if we are forced to furl the Genoa at that time is a very minor obstacle. More of a obstacle is when taking down the Balooner, as one should do that with the wind forward of the beam the ballooner does blow in to the furled stay sail and the friction at high wind make it difficult to take down the balooner, however by furling the twin head sails and unfurl them so that the ballooner are in the wind shade of the Genoa one can relatively easy take down the ballooner.

Paul on SY Kerpa SM#259