If not a storm jib, perhaps a cut-down sail could be made into a "working staysail?" See vague idea of how that would fit into the program at the bottom of the post. (Oh no! A goto!) As far as I can see, Bruce King drew the E29 with a lot of huge light-wind foresails and not much, if anything, in the way of heavy wind sails.
The rule list below is from the international offshore rules. According to my seminar notes, there were other formulae being thrown around, like "25% of the foretriangle" for a storm jib. Which would be 55 - 60 square feet for an E29. And "a working staysail should represent at least 20% of the working sail area" or about 100 - 160 square feet for an E29. I think that's calculated as if flying it on an inner forestay, along with the jib, like a cutter on a reach - except there may not actually be room for that on E29, unless perhaps solent rigged - with the upper limit derived from the ISAF rules. I guess one really needs to spend a day drawing various options on the rig diagram. Carol Hasse also has an
essay posted with some tips on how these things should be made.
Anyway, to follow through, the rule works out to 64 square feet for the trysail. (Hmm... what is the square footage of the mainsail cover?)
| Storm jibs must have an alternate means of attachment to the stay, other than the luff groove |
| A heavy weather jib or (stay)sail should be no larger than 13.5 percent of foretriangle height squared |
| A trysail should have an area no greater than 17.5 percent of mainsail luff length x boom length (P x E) and should be capable of being sheeted independently of the boom |
| If using a reefed mainsail in lieu of a trysail, the luff must be reduced by at least 40 percent |
| A storm jib’s area must not exceed 5 percent of foretriangle height squared, and its luff must not exceed 65 percent of forestay length |
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So, as we know, the goal is to come up some sort of plan like this, though I'm not sure that this is exactly correct:
Headsail Wind Range
Cruising Spinnaker 0 - 10
135% r/f Genoa 5 - 15
Genoa furled to 100% 15 - 20
Working staysail 20 - 40
Storm jib 40+
Mainsail
Full 0 - 15
1st reef 15 - 30
2nd reef 25 - 40
storm trysail 40+
I've been rolling the genoa in to around 50% when the wind gets over 25, which is supposed to be a lousy shape, and the rail spends a lot of time in the water. (Or I just roll up the headsail completely and sail Arcturus like a big dinghy, sheet and stick.) If it worked, the staysail would let the boat sail more upright, and more efficiently, as I understand it.
Hmm, from my rough scribbling, an inner forestay run parallel to the forestay from the v-berth bulkhead would give an inner foretriangle of 96 square feet. Tantalizingly close to that 100 square feet number. Except one would want to cut the foot higher than that. And it lands right on the radar. Oh well, not going to solve this tonight.
