Cruising World – May 2018

HANDS-ON SAILOR

56

all running rigging coming

down the mast passes through

high-quality, low-friction

blocks, then runs inside a

tunnel in the coachroof and

exits near the aft end of the

cockpit coaming before pass-

ing through clutches. In this

installation, there is no re-

movable cover; the tunnels are

a permanent element of the

deck part. It contributes to

one of the lowest-profi le cabin

tops in the fl eet, matched on-

ly by the Hanse 588. On the

Hanse, the turning blocks are

installed underneath a cover

that runs along the outer edge

of the coachroof, and the cov-

er can be removed by taking

out several machine screws.

Teak decks cover the cabin

tops of both boats. In both

cases, there’s barely a step up

to the cabin top.

The Moody 54 DS, built by

Hanse Yachts on the same hull

as the 588, employs covered

sheet runs to a different pur-

pose. With the Moody’s raised

decks, shin-high bulwarks and

waist-high solid rail all along

the outboard edge of the side

decks, the covered running

rigging contributes to an ex-

emplary clear passage between

the cockpit and the foredeck.

A fundamental reason why

the new Jeanneau Sun Odyssey

440 won CW’s 2018 award for

Most Innovative was its side

decks, which incorporate trans-

formable cockpit coamings and

an uncommonly safe walkway

forward from the aft end of

the cockpit (see “Sun-sational,”

page 72). The Jeanneau’s

covered headsail-sheet runs

were an integral component of

that design.

As an aside, watch for

covered runs that require you to

break a caulk bond in order to

gain access. The Beneteau 51.5

offers a hybrid: caulked covers

over the straight-line runs, but

with separate covers over the

turning blocks that can be re-

moved with fasteners. It’s a

neat solution.

SHAPING THE MAIN

Your mainsail’s shape — both

in its original construction

and in real-time sailhandling —

fundamentally shapes the expe-

rience you’ll have on the water,

whether or not you consciously

recognize that it’s doing so.

A bagged-out hollow-roach

mainsail will positively sap the

spirit of a boat, not to mention

its crew. The boat’s motion will

be sluggish; it’ll heel more than

necessary and fall away off its

mark. That said, with a well-

built sail, the control you have

to move the draft and twist the

leech will spark a boat right

up and take a world of load off

the helm. Some builders offer

plenty of sail-shaping control;

others believe their owners

want the fewest possible

strings to pull on.

For shaping the main, you’ll

get the most control with a

traveler installed at the aft end

of the boom and running as

wide as possible. Of course,

the winners here are the cata-

marans. Every cat in the 2018

fl eet — the Stiletto Xc, the

Maine Cat 38, the Fountaine

Pajot Saona 47, the HH55 and

the HH66 — has that kind of

traveler. On these boats, and

in most cases, traveler down in

the puffs is a more effective

sailhandling habit than easing

the mainsheet.

Of these boats, the HH66

was tuned up for the high-

est performance in the entire

fl eet; its builder even spoke of

fl ying the windward hull. The

builder has placed load cells

at critical positions through-

out the rig. Bail-out buttons

near all the working stations,

including the tiller helms aft,

as well as programmable auto-

matic “release” thresholds are

designed to drop the traveler

in a hurry if need be.

Among the monohulls,

two luxury cruising boats, the

Gunfl eet 43 and the Discovery

58, offered the rare cases of a

traveler at the aft end of the

boom. In each, their center-

cockpit designs kept the main-

sheet clear of the area where

people tend to sit. The own-

ers of the Gunfl eet we sailed

had chosen in-mast furling

for its ease of use. Its main-

sail with vertical battens

offered reasonable shape. Still,

for top performance, there’s

no substitute for the full

roach you can get with a clas-

sic main. Together with this

deck layout and Tony Castro’s

slippery hull, this Gunfl eet’s

performance will sparkle.

The Hallberg-Rassy 412 and

the Allures 45.9 offer a mid-

may 2018

cruisingworld.com

Clockwise from above: The location of the

anchor windlass adjacent to the mast on the

Boréal 47 has two benefi ts: The anchor chain is

dropped to the middle of the boat, and the wind-

lass can be used to hoist the main. All lines are

led aft under an easily removed cover to a series

of line clutches on the Hanse 588. On the Swan

54, lines run back to the cockpit through individ-

ual channels, keeping the deck clutter free.

LINES

TRIM TIP

A bagged-out hollow-roach

mainsail will positively

sap the spirit of a boat, not

to mention its crew.The

boat’s motion will be slug-

gish; it will heel more than

necessaryand fall away off

its mark.

TIM MURPHY