Five sails at once!

[Graham W]

From the front:
Flying jib
Self tacking jib
Mainsail
Mizzen staysail
Mizzen

The flying jib is good for more than 60° apparent (closer if the wind is stronger) and the mizzen staysail (which is a small mainsail turned sideways on) is best for less than 10 knots and more than 90° apparent. At one stage I had close to maximum hull speed in less than 10 knots of wind over the beam.

It's fun doing this sort of thing on a long cruise but would be a nightmare in a short-handed race. The amount of string involved has to be seen to be believed.

[Graham W]

Visibility is not the best with this arrangement....

[Graham W]

Here's a short video http://youtu.be/sxgH0b_gw2A

There was just over 9 knots of wind on the beam and I was making an SOG of nearly 5 knots.

[Michael Rogers]

Well done, Graham, almost up to America's Cup standards.

[Tony]

Hi, Graham.

5 Knots! I could weep!
In the same wind (and possibly on the same day) I would be reaching at 2.5 to 3 knots, at best, under main and mizzen, only.
I'm banned from using the jib, you see, (see photo) as it gets in the way at Taverna lunch stops and the foredeck has more important uses:
sunbathing, dolphin watching, storage for seashells and interesting bits of drift wood, etc, etc.

Hmmm. Might get away with rigging a mizzen staysail - if I call it a sun awning.......

[Graham W]

Tony,

It's definitely a sun awning, not to mention a privacy screen for those that want to sail incognito.  This photo was taken during Race 1 of the English Raid, on a beam reach.

[Graham W]

Here's another view.  Note the tangled staysail halyard!

The good thing about the staysail is that apart from clipping the tack to the windward shroud (which in any case can be done in advance), raising and lowering the sail can be done without leaving the helm. Compare that with grappling with the asymmetric spinnaker.

[Tony]

Hi, Graham.
I've got to have a go at this!
How is it sheeted? Is it take to the Mizzen sprit boom somehow? Can't see from the photo.

[Graham W]

Tony,

The tack is clipped to the windward shroud, just above the lanyard.  The halyard runs through a block on a rope at the top of the mizzen and (very important) acts as a running backstay on the windward side, to support the mizzen mast.  The sheet runs through a block at the end of the mizzen boom on the leeward side.

The attached diagram, which gave me the idea in the first place, shows the overall set up.

[Tony]

Cheers, Graham!
That's great!  ....and it's all done from the cockpit!
I'm going to get a tape measure and some parachute  nylon and start sewing!
How does it tack?  Drop it all, tack, then re-hoist with tack , staysail sheet  and halyard/backstay swapped over ?
Any weather  helm problems or does the flying jib balance it out?
(I love your flying jib , by the way.  Sheeted well aft like that it's  efficient  and makes the boat look very "salty" as Matt would say.)
The diagram looks as if it comes from a book worth reading. 

(I've been patiently waiting for Adlard Coles Nautical  to re-print John Leather's  companion to the Gaff Rig Handbook,  "Spritsails and Lugsails". Good books on rigging are few and far between! )

[Graham W]

Tony,

The illustration, which I found by Googling 'mizzen staysail', appears to come from this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Spurrs-Boatbook-Upgrading-Cruising-Sailboat/dp/0070605548

You're exactly right about how to tack.  Except that as an added and not necessarily successful refinement, I have two backstays (one each side) feeding through one mizzen masthead block.  In theory, the only thing that then needs to be done to the halyard on a tack is to hoist the correct windward side.  In practice, so far at least, it ends up as a bit of a bird's nest at the top of the mast, as you can see from the photo that I posted.

The sheet is double-ended - a long piece of string running through the mizzen boom block with a hook at each end. The boom block itself is on a soft shackle and demountable when not in use. This refinement works better.

I only use the staysail in winds of up to ten knots and with the flying jib up as well, haven't really noticed any balance problems.  According to my GPS, I apparently hit nearly 10 knots briefly during the English Raid.  Either during a much greater than 10 knot gust (and there were one or two) or as a result of a GPS aberration.

[Graham W]

Here's a recent picture, courtesy of Alison Kidd (Storm 17 'Boadicea'), of Turaco's five sails at the Swallow Boats rally in Mylor.  A feeble wind was coming over the starboard beam.

[Graham W]

A benefit of five sails at once - GPS speed of 4.0 knots on a beam reach, propelled by an apparent wind of 3.9 knots.