The ATN Gale Sail

Getting caught in gale-force conditions is not fun.

Getting caught in gale-force conditions with too much sail up?  That's a lot less fun.

You might say, "Well, we plan on watching the weather closely, we'll never be in gale force conditions!" and for that I applaud you.  If you plan on doing serious cruising, however, you will eventually get caught in bad weather.  Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but it will happen.  Storms have been known to show up out of nowhere, sudden squalls are very common and can really pack a punch, and do I need to mention how imperfect the art of weather prediction is?!  I think not.

Anyway...when Scott and I were caught in our last big squall with our full jib out, we wished we had less headsail area up.  To much sail is not only very dangerous for your rig (the amount of pressure in a gust of wind is impressive); but it can adversely affect your ability to steer properly, can lay you on your ear, and - at best - is very uncomfortable.  Typically referred to as "being overpowered", the only solution is to shorten sail.  In most cases, you are better off to have less sail up to begin with and add, than to have too much sail up and remove.  The former is much more prudent, pleasant, and easier (trust me).

Scott and I subscribe to the conservative notion of "reefing early" meaning, we take into account the forecasted weather and current wind conditions, and if we feel there is a chance they will build (like, between islands for example, where wind is always stronger than in the lee) we will reef - typically before we have to, sometimes before we even leave the dock or anchorage.  Too much sail means your boat will heel excessively, and believe it or not, a heeling boat - while it might feel 'faster' - is not efficient (which is why racers always have 5-10 crew members hanging off the rail or "hiking out" as "rail meat" - to flatten out the boat and counter the wind).  Typically - if the wind is consistently 15 knots we will throw in the first reef in our main sail.  If the wind is building and climbs up to 18 knots, we'll pull in the second reef.  This is not a rule of course, it's always dependent on the conditions at hand - but it's a gauge.  This differs from boat to boat, as some boats can sail better than others fully canvassed - so your reefing stages might be different from ours.

I am now 100% certain that the ideal headsail rig for a boat is a cutter rig (this is something we plan on adding next season) which, simplified, is an additional stay (sometimes removable) behind the forestay where a smaller jib is furled.  This makes doing a headsail change either a) possible (we really only have one headsail we use) or b) much easier.  We don't, however, have a cutter rig at the moment - and because our headsail is on a roller furling, we don't change it out.  While we technically do have a "roller reefing" system, it is not recommended for a number of reasons; first, to reef by just rolling in a section of the sail effects the center of effort for the sail and second, if your roller furling system fails and you find yourself in a 40 knot gust with your 135% jib all the way out, you are in trouble.  No bueno.  We knew we needed something different.

Enter the ATN Gale Sail!  After our last (very unpleasant) squall experience, we decided to try this sail in good conditions knowing that it is always better to try out new systems and maneuvers before you have to.  Historically, we've not been so good at this but on this particular day we were feeling proactive.  This sail, appropriately named, is a small jib that can be used over a roller-furling jib when your jib is too much to handle.  You simply hank it on over the existing jib, attach a spare halyard to it (we used our spinnaker halyard), run a couple of sheets from it and - voila - you have a very sturdy and rugged headsail fit for the gnarliest of conditions. 

We have the 100 square foot sail which is what was recommended for our size boat.  In short - we are very, very pleased with it.  It performed very well and our boat was flat, easy to manage, and stable in the 18-20 knot breeze we sailed in.  I felt confident and secure in the fact that we were not overpowered and it actually drew quite nicely and powered Rasmus along at a nice clip despite it's very small size.

The downside?  This is not a "Oh crap, we're stuck in a gale! Let's put up the gale sail" solution.  It requires some fore-thought (aka conservative sailing) because furling the old jib, securing the new halyard, running new sheets, and hanking on the sail all require a decent amount of time and dexterity on the bow.  Have you ever been forward of the mast in gale force conditions?  We have.  It's not easy to keep your footing, let alone actually having to do stuff.  Better to think ahead and do this early, if conditions are better than expected you can always switch it out.  

So, in general - while it is not the "perfect" solution (in our mind, the "perfect" solution requires adding the inner stay I mentioned earlier with a smaller jib), it is "perfect" for now and from now on if we find ourselves in conditions that seem to be building past 20 knots, we will most certainly rig this great little sail.