Mystery Sail

[RainDog]

I just bought a PS34 (#142). It has all hank on sails. It came with a 135% genoa, staysail, storm staysail (54 sq feet), spinnaker, and one more sail.

The other sail is 20 ft along the luff and about 8 feet deep.. It has a 6 foot wire attached to the head. The top of the wire has a hank and a spliced eye. I am guessing this is a third staysail that is between the regular staysail and the 54 sq foot storm sail.

My questions:

- What is the purpose of the wire at the head? Seems like this would be dangerous trying to strike the sail in a blow.
- The luff of this sail is at least 26 feet. Is that too long for the staysail stay? It is possible it was designed to sail from the fore stay, but I cannot imagine a situation where you would want to fly a sail of this size from the fore stay.

[RainDog]

After some more thought I am sure it is designed to fly off the fore stay. This sail on the fore stay allows almost any 75 sq foot increment of sail area between 100 and 600. Plus it allows you to get the big genoa bagged before the wind is too rambunctious. I still wonder about the wire at the head.

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by RainDog

I just bought a PS34 (#142). It has all hank on sails. It came with a 135% genoa, staysail, storm staysail (54 sq feet), spinnaker, and one more sail.

The other sail is 20 ft along the luff and about 8 feet deep.. It has a 6 foot wire attached to the head. The top of the wire has a hank and a spliced eye. I am guessing this is a third staysail that is between the regular staysail and the 54 sq foot storm sail.

My questions:

- What is the purpose of the wire at the head? Seems like this would be dangerous trying to strike the sail in a blow.
- The luff of this sail is at least 26 feet. Is that too long for the staysail stay? It is possible it was designed to sail from the fore stay, but I cannot imagine a situation where you would want to fly a sail of this size from the fore stay.

Hi. Congrats on your new boat!

It would seem odd to have three 'staysails and only one headsail (the 135 genny). So my hunch is that this is another headsail, i.e. flown off the headstay rather than the inner forestay.

This would yield a more balanced approach, allowing a second high-wind sail to fly off the headstay in combination with one of the two 'staysails. If I had to guess I would say that sail is a heavy air/storm jib, because the dimensions seem too small to be a yankee or working jib. The 6' lead with a hank may have been necessary to avoid having such a long length of untethered halyard, which would likely flap/slap/wrap along the headstay.

Anyway, that's my best guess. My second best guess is that it could be a storm trysail.

P.S. Your second post above was not there when I started typing. I'm skeptical that it is intended to fly off the forestay, but maybe?

[JohnRPollard]

Just as a follow-up...

Looking at his PSC Crealock 34 Sailplan, the description of the sail does sound similar to the depicted storm jib.

[BirdBrain333]

Dear folks, I was surprised when looking at the sailplan of the PS 37 that the storm jib flies off the forestay. I somehow thought it would be on the staysail stay to keep the rig centered. Anyone have experience flying it in both locations? Many thanks, Jay

PS 171, Kenlanu

[JohnRPollard]

Originally Posted by BirdBrain333

Dear folks, I was surprised when looking at the sailplan of the PS 37 that the storm jib flies off the forestay. I somehow thought it would be on the staysail stay to keep the rig centered. Anyone have experience flying it in both locations? Many thanks, Jay

PS 171, Kenlanu

I'm not sure which sailplan you're referring to. The one I linked above is for the Crealock 34.

On this drawing of the Pacific Seacraft Crealock 37 sailplan, it looks like the storm jib flies from the inner forestay, not the headstay.

But I imagine there are arrangements that allow for a storm jib to be flown from either, since these boats came rigged both as cutters and sloops (and yawls).

[Also, just for clarification, in these posts I refer to the foreward stay that spans from the stem to the head of the mast as the "headstay". This is the stay from which the "headsails" such as the genoas are flown. I refer to the intermediate, shorter stay that only reaches to a fraction of the mast's height as the "forestay", from which can be flown the "forestaysails", referred to in shorthand as " 'staysails ".]

[RainDog]

I indeed had my terminology confused. In my previous post I was referring to the headstay when I said forestay. I am convinced this sail is intended for the headstay.

I think BirdBrain333's question was aimed at the 34 sailplan you linked. It does show the storm jib flying off the headstay.