Into the nitty gritty

Two-handed sail wardrobes are developing to meet the task at hand

This month we shall be looking at sail design and handling for double-handed offshore racing. Kate Cope, director of the UK Doublehanded Series, spoke to Kelvin Matthews, who sails the successful Sun Fast 3200R2 Cora with Tim Goodhew. Together they have won the UK Doublehanded series three years in a row, so Kelvin is well-placed to advise on the best sail setup .

There are really two considerations when it comes to designing the best inventory – what is fundamentally fast for the specific yacht design and recognising the limitations and experience of a reduced crew.

Jibs
The usual inventory is three jibs: a full-size light-medium, reduced size medium-heavy and a heavy weather jib as required by the offshore regs.

Structured luffs improve the flying shape of the jib across a larger wind range. As changing headsails doublehanded takes more time than on a fully crewed boat, more time will be spent on the “wrong jib” so being able to get the sail as deep or as flat as possible is very important, while maintaining fast aerodynamic shape.

Reefing jibs can be a compromise on upwind performance but they can minimise headsail changes, reduce the number of sails on the rating certificate and can be useful on shorter legs when a change would cost a lot of time. With a tack line back to the cockpit, the jib reef can easily be dropped in during a tack. Check the height of the clew when fully hoisted and if out of reach, add a small Dyneema strop or loop for the sheets in a Velcro pocket to avoid it catching during tacks.

For windy reaching, it is possible to reef just the leech of the jib and leave the luff full sized. The higher clew position allows the clew to go outboard of the guardrail much further. Jib hanks are easier to manage during hoists and drops but a headsail foil makes peeling between jibs much easier. Sails need to be tough to perform for multiple seasons, particularly the light-medium jib, as they will often get taken out of their wind range.

Mainsails
Kelvin recommends a shallow first reef (8-10 per cent of the luff) for quick and easy sail reduction. A deeper second reef for heavy weather is vital. The need for a third reef depends on experience.

Getting the correct mainsail luff curve and mast tuning is crucial. You must be able to get the full range of depth and flatness on the mainsail for best performance and when you’re under or overpowered on the “wrong jib”. At the end of the race, dropping a boltrope mainsail shorthanded in high winds can be messy, consider movable jackstays that stow at the mast or wrapping spinnaker halyards under the boom to make temporary jackstays.

Spinnakers
Asymmetric sails are popular with doublehanded offshore racing teams primarily for ease of gybing, however plenty of the fleet sails with symmetric spinnakers. Although the symmetric pole is an additional complication during drops and gybes, the sail is smaller and easier to gather into the boat. Also, a symmetric spinnaker can be advantageous for positioning given the wider TWA range, perhaps for avoiding the tide or going low to get a clear lane. Many doublehanded teams use a mixture of symmetric and asymmetrics, using the asymmetric for reaching and heavy weather. An example inventory would be S2, S4, A3, CZ.

A furling Code Zero is a vital and versatile sail which can live on deck with the tack already clipped on the bowsprit, sheets and halyard on, ready to go when needed. This can save vital time when there is already a lot to do.

Dropping the spinnaker straight into a bag clipped in the main hatch saves the time on repacking. You can add hooks to the bag (or the hatch) to enable this.

Thanks to Kelvin for sharing his advice. Cora has had a great start to the 2024 RORC season, winning the DH class in De Guingand bowl and taking second in Myth of Malham. We wish them well for the rest of their season.

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