What is a cutter rigged ketch?

What is a cutter rigged ketch?

If the ketch is rigged with a staysail, this is mounted on the inner forestay and creates a slot between the headsail and the mainsail to provide extra lift. This is known as a cutter rig (both ketches and sloops can be cutter rigged).

What is a cutter ketch?

A cutter is a sloop with 2 foresails(jib, staysail) and a mainsail. A ketch has 2 masts. It has a foresail,main and missin. It could have a staysail, if it is a cutter ketch. A yawl has 2 masts, one behind the rudder post.

Which is better a ketch or a cutter?

By adding a smaller mizzen mast aft, the boat becomes a ketch, (unless the mizzen mast is positioned aft of the steering position, in which case it is a yawl). A cutter rigged ketch provides even more flexibility in sail area. The mizzen boom works well as a crane for lifting the dinghy or engine onto the aft deck.

What makes a cutter rig?

A cutter rig has more lightly loaded attachment points on the deck and mast – the heads, tacks and sheets of the two headsails are taken to different locations, spreading the loads more evenly.

Are cutters faster than sloops?

With the invention of lower stretch sailcloth and geared winches, cutters quickly lost their earlier advantage. Today sloops are generally closer winded and easier to handle. Their smaller jibs and larger mainsail sailplan are easier to power up and down.

Whats the advantage of a ketch?

Advantages of a Ketch Ketches have smaller sails. These sails are more easily managed and hoisted on a larger boat, which is why ketches are preferred by many older sailors. Using only two sails at a time provides multiple options for managing different sailing conditions, such as strong winds.

Whats the difference between a cutter and a sloop?

In this modern idiom, a cutter is a sailing vessel with more than one head sail and one mast. Cutters carry a staysail directly in front of the mast, set from the forestay. A sloop carries only one head sail, called either the foresail or jib..

Can you turn a sloop into a cutter?

It is a popular upgrade, particularly on bluewater boats, and of course being able to hoist a staysail can also be handy on a coastal boat. If you’d like to convert your sloop to a slutter (or even a true cutter), or if you are pondering buying an already converted boat, there are few things you should bear in mind.

Can a ketch rig be used as a cutter?

A ketch rig comes into her own on reaching or downwind courses. In heavy weather owners love to sail under jib and jigger (jib and mizzen). Upwind the ketch suffers from backwinding of the mizzen by the main. You can add additional headsails to make a cutter-ketch.

What do you call the aft spar of a ketch rig?

The mizzen, as the slightly shorter and further aft spar is called, makes the resulting sail plan incredibly flexible. A ketch rig comes into her own on reaching or downwind courses.

Which is better a cutter or Solent rig?

OK, before a war starts, if you prefer a ketch, a sloop, or a some variant of a cutter, like a solent rig, that’s just fine and I’m sure that your preferred rig is great for you. Having got that out of the way, do read on because there is no question that a properly set up true cutter rig is insanely great for short-handed offshore cruising.

What makes a cutter a good offshore rig?

So, to me, a true cutter is a boat that is rigged in such a way that the jib and staysail can and will be used at the same time pretty much any time the apparent wind is forward of the beam. And that in turn requires a high-cut jib-topsail (yankee) and a low-cut staysail, both with little or no overlap of the mast.