New Sails for Your Multihull
multihullenthusiast
Here are your best options for a new mainsail, headsail and downwind sails by Brian Hancock
I KNOW THAT I MIGHT BE STATING THE OBVIOUS
here but while multihulls and monohulls are both boats, they are very different not only in the number of hulls, but in so many other ways including the way that their sails are designed and engineered. There are two big contributing factors; rig configuration and the fact that multihulls are considerably more stable than monohulls meaning that the loads placed on the sails are significantly increased. If you are out sailing your monohull and the breeze increases you quickly find yourself rail down and chucking in a reef or two. If you are out sailing your catamaran, it’s much harder to tell if you need to reef. The boat barely heels and as such the loads go directly onto the sails and rigging. So, let’s take a look at how sails for multihulls are different and things to keep in mind when ordering new sails from your sailmaker. Rig engineering is in large part a factor of beam. On a monohull beam is limited 20 Multihulls Today • winter 2021
and the rig needs to be supported by a number of spreaders and in some cases an inner forestay and running backstays. Most modern multihulls have what’s called a tripod configuration. A forestay and twin shrouds that are all the way outboard and quite far aft. Because of the angle that the shrouds connect with the mast they offer much more support to the mast. This much simpler rig opens up some interesting possibilities for sail designers, most important of which is that there is no backstay. No backstay means no worries about roach size. There is nothing for the sail to get hooked up on, so the possibilities are endless. MAINSAILS Many, if not all new multihulls come with some kind of square head main. It’s a very efficient sail plan. Think about a wing on an airplane. They would never be triangular in shape because it’s inefficient. The part of the wing closer to the
