Solent Stay

Ever since we first got Circe we have struggled to find a good way to trim the Doyle 130 genoa for the wide variety of SF Bay wind conditions we routinely experience. The sail is in excellent condition and we fly it on a Shaefer 2100 roller furler with good results up to around 15 kts of wind. In those conditions, dependent on point of sail,  we can carry it fully deployed or rolled in a couple of turns (photo above) and have fairly good sail shape and pointing ability. 

However, beyond 16 - 18 kts  things start to become marginal and at 20+ kts, which can be a daily occurrence on SF Bay in the summer afternoons, the fun stops and the stress starts. In those higher wind conditions, anywhere above a beam reach, we can easily get overpowered and our choices are either to reef the main and roll the genoa in further, causing both the shape and our pointing ability to deteriorate badly, or we have to constantly play the gusts with the mainsheet, which gets old fast! Neither option is satisfactory so we started looking for other answers. 

The most obvious and simple solution would be to buy a smaller head-sail and put it on the existing furler, but then we would lose the excellent light air performance of the 130 when we needed it, particularly off the wind. We could change back to the 130 as necessary, or even add a Code Zero spinnaker to restore the light air capability, but that would mean new $$$ails plus the additional rigging for the chute and would create extra work for Old Matelots on the deck. Next, we started looking at a double head-sail rig where we could leave the furled 130 in place and fly a smaller hanked-on staysail or jib on a new,  inner forestay. We have seen that solution successfully executed on a couple of Freeports but, in addition to a new $ail, going that route also requires a new tack strongpoint, a permanent or semi-permanent inner fore stay and possibly running back stays to support it plus a new halyard. More 'strings' to pull and more difficulty tacking the 130 when the inner stay was in place. A third option was to fit a detachable Solent Stay and, after some extensive research on-line backed up with discussions with local riggers and sail-makers, that is the route we chose.

Circe's new #3 jib on new Solent Stay.











A Solent Stay is a way to fly a small and relatively inexpensive heavy weather $ail (like a #3 jib) without requiring much in the way of extra rigging and hardware. The foot of this new stay is anchored with a detachable toggle onto a suitable strong point a few feet aft of the headsail furler, with the top anchored close to the head stay at the masthead. In this configuration the existing back stay provides adequate counter-support and no running backstays are needed. Our recently installed extra halyard is used to hoist a new #3 jib on the Solent Stay and because of the position of the existing Freeport sheet car tracks we still get pretty good sheeting angles to it. We considered making the staysail self tacking to solve the issue of two sets of sheets (genoa and staysail) and only one set of winches but, as there's rarely any performance advantage to flying the two headsails together and it might tend to overload the backstay, the extra cost and complexity didn't seem worthwhile. Also, with the staysail tack strongpoint already a bit far aft, making it a self tacker would limit the sail size. In reality, even if the load on the back stay with two sails flying together wasn't an issue, because the Head stay and Solent stay aren't parallel, adjusting the slot between the sails and trimming them flying together is fiddly and likely wouldn't add any positive performance to the boat.

As this project was beyond our competency level we took Circe to Hansen Rigging in Alameda to get the job done properly, by experts. A big thanks to Glenn, Jesse and Jack for a job well done. We also had them build us a new, stronger boom and goose neck assembly together with some other rigging repairs and upgrades, all covered in a separate post elsewhere on the blog.

Step one was to identify a suitable strong point to anchor the Solent Stay. Popular wisdom suggested the best anchor point would be a couple feet aft of the head stay, but the center of the Freeport windlass and anchor locker didn't seem a good spot (Duh!) so we went with the back wall of the anchor well. It was a little further aft than we would have liked but that location gave  us the added benefit of being able to tie into the bulkhead underneath, for extra support.

To ensure maximum rigidity, the narrow interior space between the back of the anchor well and the rode locker bulkhead below it was filled with G-10, a fiberglass and epoxy composite laminate, bonded to both sides.

Here is a shot in the head showing the through bolts holding the upper and lower tangs for the Solent Stay. Not very pretty but not too ugly either......definitely STRONG!

Here is the upper tang assembled to the G-10 reinforcement.

To add even more strength, another strong point was built into the hull at the bottom of the rode locker to hold the end of a tie rod from the underside of the stay tang.

Here is the finished assembly with upper and lower tangs tied down to the hull.

The top of the Solent Stay mounting and halyard block. Simple, clean and straight forward.

The toggle ready to be connected, the single most expensive piece of hardware in the whole project.

Toggle and stay hooked up, ready to re-install the windlass.

A small notch was cut in the edge of the anchor locker lid to clear the tang.

Headsail back up, Solent Stay halyard reeved through, ready to hoist a sail.

Although not ideal, the location of our Solent Stay, at the back of the anchor locker and close to the forward edge of the cabin top, means that either set in place or stowed, it is not intrusive to the  fore deck. The location also helps keep the protruding tang from being a serious trip hazard when the stay is stowed.

We looked around for a good used sail but couldn't see anything that would fit without a lot of re-cutting so we went to Domenic and Sylvain at UK-Halsey for a new one. We chose an 8.2oz Dacron #3 jib. Here it is going up for the first time. The new jib together with the first reef in the mainsail should eliminate any drama in 20+ kts, making summer afternoon trips around The Bay more enjoyable. All we need now is a stiff breeze to give it a good work out!