Speedwell of Rhu has a ketch rig. The main-mast is keel stepped with a masthead rig, the mizzen is deck stepped (so there’s a compression post in the aft cabin at the foot of the bunk, which turns out to be a handy point to secure a lea cloth).
Changing to Slab Reefing – Main Mast Upgrade
Speedwell was originally fitted with an in-mast mainsail reefing system. I’ve sailed various boats with in-mast mainsail reefing and developed a strong dislike for this system ( why I don’t like in-mast reefing ).
We’ve decided to change to a slab reefing mainsail. Since the original mast was specifically made for in-mast reefing this means we have to replace the main-mast. We always knew that we’d want to convert the boat to slab reefing so we’d budgeted for a new mast when we bought her.
The new main-mast will be from Selden and will use their MDS batten car system. The old mast was painted white and the finish was starting to bubble up where corrosion had set in, the new mast will have a plain anodised finish.
We’ll be mating the mast to a fully battened main sail from Quantum .
To go with the new mast we’re replacing all of the standing rigging. We think the current standing rigging is original so it’s making our insurance company nervous. The main backstay will be insulated so we can use it as an SSB antenna (because it’s a split stay we end up with three insulators so that one half of the split and the upper single section form the antenna). Fox’s rigging manager strongly recommended fitting a backstay adjuster, well actually one in each half of the split stay, so we’ve taken his advice.
Rig Upgrade (or how we acquired a triatic stay)
On the delivery trip some fittings pulled out of the mizzen boom, so we started to think about replacing the mizzen spars as well. Discussing the rig and options for fitting a bimini with the guys at Fox’s it became clear that with the original main boom it would be difficult to arrange for a binini because the boom end is above the aft end of the cockpit, meaning that the main sheet would foul on a bimini. The length of the main boom is set by the need for it to clear the mizzen’s forward shrouds.
The rigging manager at Fox’s suggested that if we replaced the mizzen mast the new spar could be of a different section that would allow the rigging attachment points to be moved which in turn would allow us to fit a longer main boom. A longer main boom should give sufficient clearance for a bimini and also moves the main sheet away from the helmsperson’s head, improving safety during gybes. A longer boom would also give us a little more sail area, and replacing the old white painted mizzen would give us two new plain anodized masts so the boat would look better.
All of the above added up to a convincing argument so we decided to go ahead and replace both masts. The new mizzen will also be a Selden spar with MDS batten cars so Quantum are now making us a new fully battened mizzen sail.
Selden provide a design service to select the correct mast section for a given boat and rig layout. There’s been quite a lot of back and forth between Fox’s rigging and Selden to come up with a solution for our mizzen. Moving the forward shroud attachments aft increases the loads on the rig and can ultimately get to a point where they don’t provide any worthwhile support once the mast has some rake. Unfortunately the furthest aft point that could be used coincided with a hull window so it wouldn’t have been possible to reinforce under the shroud fixing. In the end the only solution that allowed a worthwhile increase in the main boom length without needing major structural work on the hull was to support the upper section of the mizzen with a triatic stay .
In an ideal world I’d have preferred to keep both masts rigging independent, but pragmatically we gain a lot from fitting the triatic so I’m going to have to learn to love it. Because the main mast will have an adjustable backstay we’ll also need to be able to adjust the triatic stay, the loads on this aren’t particularly high so the stay is going to run through a sheave in the upper section of the mast then come out near the deck as a rope tail through a jammer..
Other Rig Changes
While the boat is being re-rigged we’re having a few other changes and upgrades.
The old rig didn’t have a spinnaker pole, the new rig will have a pole stored on the mast. Although we probably won’t be using a spinnaker very often a pole is really useful for poling out the genoa on a run.
We’ll be fitting a removable forestay to take the storm jib. Hanking onto a stay is by far the best way to set a storm jib. The uphaul for the spinnaker pole will run from just above the top fixing for the removable stay so that it doubles up as the storm jib halyard.
The main mast will have a separate track to take a storm tri-sail. The topping lift will double up as the tri-sail halyard (the boom will be supported by a rod kicker as well as the topping lift and in any case if we’re flying a tri-sail we’ll have the boom lashed out of the way).
The mizzen mast will carry the radar scanner, radar reflector and our Rutland 913 wind generator, for which the yard will make up a custom mounting bracket.
Possibilities for the Future
The main mast will have fittings to take a cutter stay and its associated running backstays. We won’t be rigging Speedwell as a cutter during this re-fit, but we’ve got the option to do so in the future if we change our minds. A cutter rig would need an additional pair of sheet tracks on the forward coach roof and an extra pair of sheet winches, together with various turning blocks, so we’d need quite a lot of additional deck hardware if we decided to fit the cutter stay.
A more tempting option is a retractable bowsprit for the cruising chute. This can be arranged to slide back on deck when it’s not in use. Some systems allow the pole to be swung from side to side so that the chute can be flown at deeper wind angles. We’ll see how much we use the chute over the next few years before making a decision on this one.