Robert Leask wrote:I may be obsessed with self steering, but that's because hand steering at sea is a Very Bad Thing, it's shaking hands with the devil, and I never want to do it, ever. That's why I've chosen a 3 masted rig like Alan Farrels China Cloud, because it should be very easy to balance and may have inherent self steering qualities in some conditions, at least. If I could sail without any rudder at all, I'd be delighted.
The ideal self steering system would be none at all, like Spray. I built my boat hoping to achieve that, but it didn't work out. Now I'm hoping the 3 masted rig will free me forever from hand steering but I won't know until it's done and I've logged a few miles. Setting up for sheet to tiller is a simple matter of making a couple of attachment points for blocks on either side of the tiller with a clear line of sight to the sheeting points, not much to it and not much lost if it doesn't work, so for sure I'm doing that.
Regarding the problems Donald had on Eric the Red with batten compression due to easing the foresail sheets too far - could that be relieved by double sheeting and placing the sheeting points as far outboard and forward as possible? China Cloud had double sheets on all 3 sails.
I have made two passages where we hand steered, 3 hours on, three hours off. Never again! Anyway, I usually sail alone, so self-steering is essential, even when coastal cruising and anchoring most nights. Luckily for me
Arion is a very easy boat to balance and my windvane/autopilot system works well. I remain unconvinced that sheet to tiller will work with a single sail. Rigging a small jib forward, like Roger Taylor did on
Ming Ming (though he didn't use it for self-steering) might work, but I don't like the stresses it places on an unstayed mast. Three masts will give you plenty of options for adjusting balance, as long as the mizzen does not preclude a windvane. I would not like to make a long passage alone without one. Reading Brian Platt's book, and his struggles with this issue on
High Tea's Pacific crossing, confirms this view for me.
With regard to attaching the sheets to the tiller, one of my friends had a track running along the top of the tiller, so that he could easily move the attachment point fore and aft (further aft as the wind increases). Re double sheets with the attachment point further forward along the battens - this will certainly improve the situation but I still think the compression loads will be unhealthy. Once the battens have gone beyond athwartships, when you pull the sheet in you are putting tremendous compression loads on the battens. PJR states that you MUST round up and spill the wind from the sail before sheeting in again. The problem with doing this while running wing and wing, is that you have to gybe one of the sails first with slack sheets, risking a fan up, especially if the sails are already reefed. I think the only safe way to use sheet to tiller downwind is to broad-reach with both sails out the same side. I am quite sure you will be able to make this work in moderate conditions when you have a well-balanced sail plan. In gale-force winds, with just a scrap of sail up it may not be so easy. However, I am delighted that we have a member with a passion for this approach to self-steering and look forward to reading of your results in due course.
PS: I have just finished reading Brian Platt's account of his crossing of the Pacific on
High Tea. He was able to get the boat to self-steer on a broad reach by sheeting the foresail in tight, easing the main, taking a line from the foresail to the weather side of the tiller, with shockcord on the other side. He used a variation of this, which he called tinkering, when sailing dead downwind. He squared the main out, pulling its luff back towards the mast so it did not blanket the foresail quite so soon, usually reefing it sooner than necessary, but occasionally the boat would gybe when the wind eased. This caused some rig damage.
After he lost the mainmast mid-Pacific, he squared the mizzen out and sheeted the foresail fore and aft, with equal tension on both sheets. A line was taken from the middle of the foresail on both sides back to the tiller, which was loosely lashed. No matter which way the boat veered, the tiller twitched the boat back on course when the foresail filled with wind. Occasionally a wave threw the stern around and the boat hove to beam on, forcing him to go on deck and put
High Tea back on course. He could not broad reach with this system, but the boat would self-steer with helm lashed when the wind was abeam.