Sail plan planning

When we first bought Nymeria, we were given a several sails. We had the main sail and jib that were in the boat, but also a spare main, a storm trisail, a spare jib, a small staysail, and an asymmetrical spinnaker. For us new boat owners this was a bit overwhelming. Why so many, what are they all for?

Our first several outings we only used the sails that were already rigged. For the most part this worked fine, but as we got better at sailing we started noticing deficiencies. First thing we noticed was the main sail didn’t go all the way to the top of the mast. The boat was 30 years old so this was unlikely original, was it made short? We had also noticed quite a bit of weather helm so we often reefed early, maybe the short sail was to compensate a bit for that. The main was old and well used so it was a bit baggy and stretched as well.

After several months of sailing with just those original sails, it was time for the first major upgrade. We needed new standing rigging as the existing rigging was seemingly good, but it was also 30 years old. With that upgrade in progress we also took our first look at the overall sail plan for Nymeria. We had met several sailors and racers so we solicited as much input as we could. Most of the advice was about the weather helm that we couldn’t seem to trim away. There are a few basic causes of that. Too much power behind the mast, or too little ahead. The main was already short, so that didn’t seems like too much power, but with it so blown out and old, it was unlikely we could trim it well enough to stop “catching” too much air. After looking at the other spare main we had, it looks like it had been repaired, but wasn’t going to last too long, so we decided to have a new main made custom.

We had the sail designed with 9.8oz Dacron, making it stronger than a normal main. Full battens for strength and shape, and three reef points. This will make this sail more than capable of handling most if not all storm conditions we never plan to be in. We did this to allow us to get rid of the storm trisail and save space aboard the boat. It’s also far easier to reef the existing main than to take it down and put up a different sail.

The boat was originally rigged as a sloop, but a new removable forestay was added at some point to make it cutter. With this design choice, the jib we had been using was quite small. Most sloops these days have a genoa that is quite a bit larger. If we were to add the staysail, we could add a bit of power to the bow to counteract the main. We pulled out the staysail we had, determined that it was not designed for this rig, and was way too small. We decided to have a new staysail made as well.

Turns out the new main made a significant difference. With the better shape, not only was the weather helm reduced, but the boat just sailed better. Because of that we still just would sail with the baby stay removed and just the jib and main. Even for Harvest Moon, we didn’t use the new staysail.

Now that we’re back sailing again after more repairs, we started experimenting with the sail plan. Last weekend we finally spent some time to rig the staysail. It was a fairly light wind day, but I was blown away (pun intended) at the difference it made. We had so much more power on the rig that even with only 10kts of wind Nymeria was at a nice solid heel, and cruising along at nearly 5kts. Not only that, but the helm was almost balanced!

We still have a bunch to learn, but every time we set sail we get a little bit better. We’ve reduced the sails needed onboard, learned how to better balance the boat, and are better prepared for the weather.

Now we just need to get that spinnaker flying!