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