Mainsail and Trysail

While the trysail is a smaller version of a mainsail, it is not to say the same thing as a heavily reefed mainsail.

While some people advocate that a third reef in the mainsail is the same as a trysail, I would like to counter that point.
I personally have a mainsail with three reef points and a trysail, I can tell you that they are not the same animal!

A mainsail, no matter how reefed, will always include a boom. As seas toss you around, the boom can begin to swing around, especially if it looses wind pressure when you go down into the trough between waves. The boom can easily injure parts of the rig and kill anyone it hits! Try sails do not use the boom.
By not being boomed out, they also can be shaped with more ease. A reefed mainsail will always have a flat foot that will extend out over the side of the boat as it follows the boom that is eased. The trysail will remain mostly over the deck. When on a run, the sail will remain with the clew over the deck and simply billow forward a bit. If you jibe, it is no different from a headsail flipping from one tack to another. No drama and no damage!

When on a run, the center of effort of the sail is closer to the middle of the ship which means less weather helm which means it’s easier to maintain control in a storm. If you change course and want to beam reach or go slightly to windward, all you need to do is sheet the sail in and it will flatten out.
We find the trysail to be incredibly versatile, even in non-storm conditions. If we are going downwind and need to ease the mainsail far out, the torquing from the boom holding the sail so far to the side of the boat will give tremendous weather helm and it will steal wind from the headsails, compounding that problem!
The trysail will let air go by to the headsails which will pull the yacht downwind and keep the center of effort over the deck to reduce weather helm.
If the trysail is so versatile, why don’t people use it more?

The answer is simple, they have a single tool but not the complete set. This means they can use it but it’s not easy to do so. For most, a third reef is simply the next reef after the second reef. Easy enough to do and they are well practiced at it. But the trysail requires removing the mainsail and sliding the sail onto the track, switching over the halyard and running the sheets to the clew. Doing this in a storm is impossible and dangerous which is why they simply put in a third reef and call it a day!

For me, having the complete kit means that putting up the trysail involves releasing one halyard, pulling another, and tying on one sheet.
Our trysail lives hanked on to its own track with its own independent halyard attached and ready to roll. The trysail track is to starboard of the mainsail track, so the starboard sheet is always attached. All I need to do is toss the port sheet over the boom and tie it to the clew and hoist the trysail up! If the weather is really bad and I don’t feel like messing with the port sheet, then we raise it with only the starboard sheet and just stay in port tack.
With the trysail up, I can get everything tucked away and tied up while the boat sails along comfortably in horrible conditions. If it gets too nasty out there, I can also easily and effectively heave to with the trysail.
This sail is so versatile, I never leave port without it set at the base of the mast ready to hoist at a moments notice. The difference between me and everyone who avoids the trysail is I have created a method to deploy it easily and that convenience means that I can use it easily.

Transatlantic: Azores to Portugal: Day 19 [Day 67]

July 1, 2019 and we finally see land, even better, we TOUCH land!

Our last day at sea was incredible! The wind was behind us and slowly building allowing us to sail incredibly quickly in the still relatively calm seas. Without the waves stealing our movement in an up and down direction, all of our speed can be spent shooting forward at great numbers (for our boat).

With the weather system North of us and approaching, we were trying to outrun the clock. and make it into port before the weather got really nasty! Normally, when we see a system like that on the horizon, we drop the working sails and raise the storm sails. Then we sit and wait and when the storm finally makes its way to us, we are ready. The storm rages and then passes on by with us comfortably floating in the ocean. The thing that was different is we were very close to land at this point and reasonably able to make it to port before that storm system reached us!

For this reason and this reason alone, we did not reef. We actually remained full sail well past the time that we would normally have had those sails up. The old expression of “Fly as much sail downwind as you would be willing to fly if you were going upwind” was being grossly ignored.

The idea is if you are in 25 knots of wind and moving at 5 knots, if you are going down wind the apparent wind will be 20 knots but if you are going upwind the apparent wind will be 30 knots. There is a huge difference between 20 and 30 knots and therefore a huge difference in the sails you would be flying for these two conditions.

We kept the sails up for as long as we felt was stupid to keep them up until I had the main eased all the way and were still overpowered while on a run. I went forward and tucked in two reefs with a full belly and a loose outhaul to keep the speed up along with the control of the boat. When running downwind with the mainsail far out, the boom acts as a lever arm trying to turn the boat to windward. Reefing helps alleviate this issue as the sail becomes smaller and closer to the middle of the boat instead of out on the end of the boom.

We screamed along in the calm following sea, watching the waves slowly build as we scooted our way towards shore in preparation for our arrival. When we finally got there, the tide was just beginning to fall and the winds were light in the marina. We were able to sail in through the breakwater and come into the marina under sail. We lowered the sails at the last possible moment and used our electric motor to bring the boat into her slip.

Our long voyage across the North Atlantic Ocean is now complete! We made it!

Alternative to a Tack Horn

Part of reefing is getting the tack cringle onto the tack horn, it’s how you secure the tack of the sail while reefing! How else would you do it? 

The struggle with this old method is that the horns can hook and poke holes in the luff of your sail as you raise the sail, and you have to get your tack cringle over the horn in foul weather. When you combine the situation of high winds, a flapping sail, and a pitching deck; suddenly getting a little ring over a little horn doesn’t sound like a fun idea. 

Alternatives exist, where a strap with rings on the ends will be sewn through the cringle, so that you can simply place the ring on the strap over the horn, as the strap is easier to manage than the stiff luff of the sail. 

All this got me thinking about alternatives to this debacle. What about taking a very strong dyneema line and simply tying the tack in place? 

I used a 7mm length of SK-78 dyneema with an alpine butterfly hitch tied in the middle to give the tack line an appropriate purchase point. The line simply passes through the tack webbing, through the bight, back through the tack webbing and back through the bight, then through the webbing one more time to tie off just below the alpine butterfly hitch.

Having a long length of line means that I can reach the tack webbing with ease from a distance, and the purchase system lets me pull the tack down tightly.  The dyneema is very strong and able to hold the forces of the sail with ease.

It is imperative that the tack line run down and forward to keep the forces mostly vertical on the luff of the sail. If the tack line does not have a forward component to it’s pull, the luff of the sail will be pulled aft with no countering and it will rip your luff off the luff track.

What we do is tie the tack line, tension the halyard with the winch, then set the clew line for the reef. This way, the clew line is acting on an already tensioned and set tack, resulting in a stable reef setup with zero risk to the sail during sail raising. 

Reefing When Ocean Crossing

The biggest distinction between ocean crossing and coastal sailing is the lack of help. If something breaks close to shore, there are plenty of people around who can help you. They will tow you back to a marina where an army of skilled labor exists to get you back out there sailing! In the ocean, if something breaks, you better know how to fix it yourself with the supplies you are carrying on board your yacht because no one is coming to help you!

This lack of aid is precisely why you should reef early. If you see a storm coming, don't wait for it to hit you to then start adjusting the sail plan! Reef now and wait for it to pass over. Once it has passed and completely cleared you, then shake out the reefs! This will ensure that you and your gear are exposed to minimal risk during the ocean crossing.

Maddie and I sleep in the V-Berth up in the bow and our third crew member sleeps in the quarter berth. At night, we rotate watches accordingly. Maddie has first watch from 9 to midnight. I have second watch from midnight to 4:30AM and the third crew member has the morning watch from 4:30AM until we all get up. Since we are up in the bow, we hear the sound of the stem cutting through the water, and we can also feel how much we are heeling over. I have frequently poked my head out of the forward hatch to see dark and stormy looking clouds all around us and notice that we are full sail! I assume that the crew member on watch is keeping an eye on them and tracking their movements with the compass. A storm that is not coming at you is not a storm you need to worry about. Then we pick up speed and begin to heel over to an extreme angle and I hear a desperate cry from the helm.

"It's time to reef!"

Yes, it is time to reef, and it was time to reef a long time ago! The two of us run up to the mast and begin taking in the sails while Maddie works the sheets and helm to keep us safe. I quickly tuck in a few reefs in the main while he lowers the jib entirely. After all of this, he will usually say something like, "We reefed at the perfect time" and I don't understand what he is talking about.

Now, he knows how I reef. I track the storms on the horizon and if I find one that is coming at us, get ready to reef. I will also reef if everything looks fine but the temperature just dropped significantly. I will reef at the first hint of anything getting stronger, and the reefing is so easy to do!

The boat is stable, the winds are light and manageable, and I easily tuck in a reef or two in the main without really needing the winch handle. The jib is easy to pull over the deck by tugging on the lazy sheet and releasing the halyard. There is no fuss about it, this is the perfect time to reef!

Once we are reefed, we wait for the storm to strike and when it does, nothing happens! We do not heel, we do not panic, and most of all, we do not risk ourselves or our boat in the process.