Pete in Vermont
Member I
I own an Ericson 26. I'm wondering why this boat has a fractional rig. I understand why lighter race boats, especially smaller ones have fractional rigs, but not sure why the E26 does. Thanks for any thoughts on the matter.
Why fractional rig?
- Thread starter Pete in Vermont
- Start date
Separate from the influence from racing rules, there are some practical advantages to a fractional rig.
Off the top of my head
-- it is easier to "de-power" a fractional rig by bending the mast and/or letting the top of the main twist off. On masthead boats, because comparatively more of the power is in the headsail, de-powering in increasing winds often means an earlier change to a smaller headsail
-- the mast is generally farther forward. Which, besides having some interesting benefits in managing the "center of effort", it also can have benefits in cockpit size, deck layout, accomodations layout...
-- and, headsails and spinnakers are smaller, which can mean both less cost, and less effort needed to sail the boat.
$.02
Off the top of my head
-- it is easier to "de-power" a fractional rig by bending the mast and/or letting the top of the main twist off. On masthead boats, because comparatively more of the power is in the headsail, de-powering in increasing winds often means an earlier change to a smaller headsail
-- the mast is generally farther forward. Which, besides having some interesting benefits in managing the "center of effort", it also can have benefits in cockpit size, deck layout, accomodations layout...
-- and, headsails and spinnakers are smaller, which can mean both less cost, and less effort needed to sail the boat.
$.02
As to "why" they did it, I suspect marketing had a lot to do with it. Fractional rigs became popular with racing boats, such as the J-24, and suddenly lot of non-racing, or non-racing-specific, boats followed suit.
For racing boats, the advantages are pretty clear. More aerodynamic upwind. If they don't reach as well under normal sail, doesn't matter because they're going to reach with a spinnaker anyway. Downwind you have the big main to complement and stabilize the spinnaker. The rig, with the flexible tall mast, is more responsive to fine tuning, can be depowered more easily w/o reefing as early.
For normal recreational sailing, non performance focused, the only advantage I see is the small headsail. Not only is it easier to tack with, it is often easy to set up as self tacking.
For racing boats, the advantages are pretty clear. More aerodynamic upwind. If they don't reach as well under normal sail, doesn't matter because they're going to reach with a spinnaker anyway. Downwind you have the big main to complement and stabilize the spinnaker. The rig, with the flexible tall mast, is more responsive to fine tuning, can be depowered more easily w/o reefing as early.
For normal recreational sailing, non performance focused, the only advantage I see is the small headsail. Not only is it easier to tack with, it is often easy to set up as self tacking.
"Plus One" as they say on the internet. Well said indeed.
Our previous boat we sailed and cruised (and raced some) was a 3/4 fractional rig Niagara 26. Headsails and the spinnaker were indeed proportionally smaller. Our main, OTOH, was about the size of one on most 30 footers. Fun boat and very fast. Really easy to single hand, too.
About the only disadvantage I ever noticed was that if..... you ever lost the main halyard, there were no other halyards available to haul you to the very top of the spar!
Fractional rigs are as old as sailing, in general. About the only occasional drawback was how to get decent tension on the headstay for driving upwind in a breeze. That's why many fractionals have swept-back spreaders to majorly tension the headstay. Our Niagara did, and so do the J's.
In heavy air we could carry on during a windy reach with a spinnaker when the mast head rigged boats around us were rounding up repeatedly. With our large main to drive us,we could let the spinnaker luff a bit and not lose too much speed ( or spin out).
Cheers,
Loren
Also, huge mainsails are a challenge to hoist and handle and reef. One reason why there used to be ketches and schooners.
We sail cutters, by the old standard. Roller furling means a big headsail is a one-girl job.
We sail cutters, by the old standard. Roller furling means a big headsail is a one-girl job.