Fed up with the difficulties of handling your bermudan rig? Don 't be downhearted! There is (very nearly) a much better alternative.

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Beneteau have realised what a massive turn-off the bermudan rig is, to those who are new to sailing:
The Beneteau Sense 43 Wing sail prototype
and:
Matt Sheahan 's YW article

and for the DIY-friendly, user-friendly, downmarket, low-stress alternative, my own offering:
Soft wing Sails for Cruising
I 've been sailing with my new wing sail on the W coast of Vancouver Island; not much sea time yet, but it 's looking promising. This is a single sail of 54 sq m, as opposed to the ketch rig with wing sails that I sailed with on Tystie for 40,000 miles.

No, really, this is the future. I predict, with my tongue only slightly in my cheek, that in 50 years time, the bermudan rig will be looked back on, much as we look back on gaff rig, as being "well, as good as they could manage to invent and make at the time, and as suitable as they could make it for cruising, with the technology and materials they had, but oh! what a relief it is to sail the way we do now..."

David
I find this fascinating and you are obviously well versed in the theory and practice. Would you like to write a technical article for Flying Fish?
John

[quote="alshaheen" post=1497]David
I find this fascinating and you are obviously well versed in the theory and practice. Would you like to write a technical article for Flying Fish?
John[/quote]

Yes, I will, as soon as I 'm sure that i have everything as good as I can make it, sound, strong and reliable. I 'm getting the performance I wanted, amd the ease of handling I needed, but there are still some question marks over the structure of the battens.

Two days ago, I ran up the Juan de Fuca Strait, which was in its usual summer mood, ie, fog and near gale in the afternoon. I needed to haul down reefs whilst on a dead run (can you do that with most bermudan rigs?) and the battens found a way to capsize, rotating on their axis, and getting damaged in the process. I retired into Sooke Inlet for a day of deep thought, and I believe I know what I have to do. It 's back to something similar to what I left England with, in 2006, but now in CFRP, lighter and stiffer, easier to assemble - and, I hope, stronger. The perils of being a pioneer.

Yes, when I have everything sorted out, I 'll write. But not until then.

Reefing on a dead run.
We can, and often do this, but I agree that it is unusual with a conventional bermudian rig. We are fortunate to have a Mike Pocock designed rig and reefing system.

We have a low friction Fredricksen track on the mast and a fully battened main with reefing at the mast and a powerful reefing winch on the deck just aft of the mast.

Procedure is to haul in the mainsheet somewhat to keep the bunt of the sail off the aft lowers as far as possible, keep the vang taught to keep the sail as flat as possible, then to lower the luff in possibly 3 tranches pausing after each tranche to partially wind in the reefing line to take some slack out of the sail. When the luff is down to the gooseneck, hook the cringle into the horn on the boom (we have cut off the standard Selden horn and welded a Wichard sprig clip in it place so that once the cringle is hooked in it stays there).

To finish off, tension the halyard and wind in the reefing line until the leech cringle is close to the boom and free off the mainsheet. Job done.

Inevitably the upper part of the sail drags across the spreaders as it comes down and the full length battens tend to bend across the aft lowers but we haven 't broken one yet. The biggest danger is when there is slack in the luff and it sags off forward, there is a tendency for it to get hooked behind a mast step and it is a devil of a job to untangle it....

Yes, John, it can be done, if you have quite a lot of expensive hardware, do things exactly right, and put on foulies, boots and harness to go the the mast in the rain and rising wind.

Compare with junk rig - ease away the halyard, trim the sheet. Job done.

Compare with my wing sail, when I 've got my batten issues sorted - ease away the halyard, hand-tension the downhaul, trim the sheet. Job done. Single-handed (literally, while I steer with the other), from the companionway.

I know which I 'd rather be doing.

Hi David

Has the future arrived yet?

How is the development work going? Do you have any new developments to report - I am eager to hear how you are progressing.
Regards
John

John,
I 've been off the water and away from Tystie for two months, visiting family in the UK and then going on safari and climbing Mt. Kenya.

There is thus nothing to report at the moment. As well, there is a little sea ice to be seen, here at Oak Harbor, and I feel disinclined to be working outside. I expect to be in a position to work on the rig at the beginning of February.

David,
I can 't imagine a rig much easier to use than a Bermudan rig so I am not sure what you are referring to when you speak of all the problems with a Bermudan rig. I suppose there are those who do not have their mainsail properly set up, but reefing should never take more than a few minutes. With slab reefing, your main, even deeply reefed should be perfectly shaped. I choose to do the first 2 reefs from my cockpit which I can do alone in minutes. For the third, I do have to go to the gooseneck for the tack. I reef and douse going downwind and do so up into full gale winds safely and easily and without all the fuss you refer to (I consider being able to reef the main going downwind a huge safety issue).
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy