Self-tacking jib experiment - Successful with final photos!

[Stickinthemud57]

Impressive! Gary Hoyt would be proud.

Thank you. I plan to go out today and will see if I can get some video of the rig in action. I might even experiment with flying the jib more off the wind and perhaps downwind with this same rig. Not sure it will clear the stanchions. I guess I will find out.

[Stickinthemud57]

Very enlightening outing today!

Things I learned:

The rig is super easy to put in place or make tweaks. Simply heave to. The boat drifts with no need for course adjustment and the jib sits in the middle of the foredeck. Just hook up the boom, loop the twist control over the boom and attach it to the stanchions, and attach the trim line. I hooked the boom to the tack while I was at the dock and lashed the clew end to the stanchion until time to deploy it. It really is ridiculously easy. I have made the outhaul line much longer than it needs to be. Now that I have the process down, I can trim off the excess.

Heaved to and ready to go (or remove, whichever). Note that the starboard jib sheet is taut, relieving pressure on the twist control line.


Maybe that 1.5" aluminum tube with 1/8" walls was not total overkill after all. Note the 3/4" deflection over about 9 feet.


If I remove the twist control rope, the boom will fly up over the stanchion, so I can sail off the wind, from a close reach to almost directly downwind. In this mode, neither the twist control or the trim line come into play. The sail is controlled using the jib sheets. The sail shape is not ideal in these modes, and if I get too close to downwind, the jib will oscillate in and out of the mainsail's wind shadow. Nothing a whisker pole wouldn't fix, though.


Winds were gusting up above 20 mph during some of the upwind runs and nothing broke. Nice to know it will handle it.

Here's a link to a video of the rig in action. I was able to execute the tack with one hand on the tiller and the other hand holding my phone. Talk about single-handing!

[Russ]

That rig looks like it works well. It must be satisfying to see your plan in action working.

I forgot how much better the boat points with a jib vs. the genoa.

[Stickinthemud57]

That rig looks like it works well. It must be satisfying to see your plan in action working.

I forgot how much better the boat points with a jib vs. the genoa.

Oh, for sure. Genoas are great for pretty much every point of sail except close hauled.

And yes, very satisfying to see it work as I expected/hoped.

I was surprised how well the boat pointed with this rig. The balance is not as good as with my "Big Jib" - the boat seems to heel more with this jib - but you can't do a self-tacking rig with the big jib even the stock jib for the 26S. I'm thinking that it would be better to reef the main when using this, even with moderate winds. If the idea is to make things leisurely, that is.

[PSNA]

Sail shape is actually very nice. Congrats.

[Stickinthemud57]

Thank you! Yes, that was another pleasant surprise. Telltales were flying great on both sides low and high.