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MIZZEN MAGIC

There is a trend today towards performance-oriented sailboats with fin keels and sloop rigs. They're more efficient to windward than their older counterparts, which is an attractive quality. Even most offshore cruising sailors now seem to prefer single-masted vessels with a cutter or staysail sloop rig. Mizzenmasts and mizzen sails - ketches and yawls - are not in vogue. But consider that mizzens have been around for a long time. The fact is, they can be useful in ways that most modern sailors don't realize.

The mizzen sail is like a giant wind rudder. Positioned so far aft, it can actually steer the boat, or at least control which way the bow points, which is the same thing. This is perhaps the most valuable function of the sail. When it is raised and sheeted in, it catches the breeze and pushes the stern away from the wind, forcing the bow up into the wind. There are occasions when this is particularly useful.

The Riding Sail

When you're anchored in a gentle current that is running across the wind, such as a tidal flow, the water's movement will have the tendency to turn the boat broadside to the wind and sea. This can be an inconvenient position if the sea is choppy enough to rock the boat, or if it's warm and you want the breeze to flow through the hatches.

With a mizzen, this broaching at anchor can be easily remedied. Hoist the mizzen sail and sheet her in. The "wind rudder" effect will often overcome the current and head the boat into the wind and sea. Cocking the rudder to windward will help, too. (See Figure 1)

Anchoring Under Sail

The usual procedure for anchoring under sail is to head up into the wind with all sheets loose, sails luffing. While the boat is coasting to a stop, you'd drop the jib. Once you've come to a complete halt, the anchor is lowered and the boat drifts backwards. You scope out the rode, setting the anchor with occasional tension on the line. The problem is that all modern, fin-keeled vessels (and many long keeled boats) will quickly fall off broadside to the wind when they begin making sternway. If the mainsail is still up it may fill, and off she goes sailing on her anchor. In a crowded harbor this can be catastrophic! Even if the mainsail is doused and doesn't fill with wind, broaching is awkward and unseamanlike while anchoring. It seems to take forever for the boat to straighten herself.

The solution is to keep the mizzen sail sheeted in tightly when anchoring. The "wind rudder" effect will keep the bow pointed into the wind, even as the boat drifts back. The whole operation becomes easier, neater, and safer with a mizzen. (See Figure 2)

Weighing Anchor Under Sail

In moderate winds, it's fun and easy to get underway without firing up the "iron jenny". Hoist the mainsail, leaving the main sheet slack, and have the jib untied and ready to run up on the intended lee side. Then weigh anchor by pulling up on, or sailing up on the rode. Once the bow falls off the wind, hoist the jib and sail away! The problem is that in close quarters it may make a very big difference which way the boat falls off. You need to positively control that direction; not leave it to fate or fickle wind.

Solution? You guessed it - the mizzen. By keeping the mizzen sail sheeted in hard at first, you're sure to have the boat pointed into the wind when the anchor comes up. Then quickly free the mizzen sheet and grab hold of the mizzen boom. Now push or pull the boom over to the side towards which you wish the vessel's bow to head.

For example, suppose there's a boat anchored close by to port, so it's essential that you sail off to starboard. Push the mizzen boom out to starboard. The wind strikes the mizzen sail, pushes the stern to port, and the bow falls off to starboard. Be sure that the rudder is amidships, or else aimed to port if the boat starts making sternway. (See Figure 3) With practice you can actually back the boat straight astern for quite a distance under sail, to get out of a crowded spot with vessels moored both to port and to starboard, using the mizzen and the rudder for control.

Heaving-to

There's no single correct way to heave-to in heavy weather. Each boat handles differently, but the end result should be the same: The vessel should lie at a relatively safe and comfortable angle to the wind and sea. This most often requires the bow to point between 40° and 60° off the wind. On a ketch or a yawl, all other sail may be handed and the mizzen sheeted in, reefed if necessary. The helm is usually secured amidships or nearly so. The "wind rudder" effect does the rest, forcing the bow up to windward while the bow's own windage holds the vessel in balance.

And More

Another important benefit of a mizzen sail is than it enables the boat to carry the same sail area as its sloop- rigged sisters while reducing the size of the mainsail. A smaller mainsail is easier to raise, reef, and furl on a short-handed vessel. A shorter main mast reduces weight and windage aloft, thereby increasing stability. Splitting up the sail area allows instant reefing - when the wind kicks up you simply drop the mainsail, then continue sailing, uninterrupted, under the beautifully balanced combination of jib and mizzen, or "jib 'n jigger" as the old salts call it. With roughly equal canvas fore and aft, the boat trims easily on any tack.

A mizzen increases your selection of sail combinations in other ways, too. There's the easy-to-handle mizzen staysail for reaching in light and moderate winds. This sail is like a free-luffed jib or drifter except that its head hoists to the mizzen masthead (instead of the main masthead) and its tack secures just abaft the base of the main mast, or perhaps to the windward grabrail. Down wind in light airs, some ketches fly mizzen chutes. Of course, you can always hand the mizzen sail entirely and sail the boat as a sloop, or as a cutter if she carries a staysail. This is especially true of the yawl, which is virtually a sloop with a mizzen added. This "sloop option" is most often used sailing hard to windward, when the air coming off the mainsail may luff a mizzen sail.

Some skeptics describe the mizzenmast and rigging as "something to lean against when you're taking a sun sight". Well, they have got a point. It does provide solid handholds aft, and a good place to clip your safety harness. It's also a perfect mount for a wind generator on a swivel base at the mizzen masthead, and for a small radar unit - half way up to permit flying the mizzen staysail. For the serious offshore cruiser, it doesn't hurt to mount a spare VHF antenna up there. Lightening - or dismasting - may the render the main masthead installation useless.

That's one other thing to keep in mind. If a sloop is dismasted and the spar lost at sea, there had better be enough fuel aboard to motor to port. On a ketch and even a yawl, you can still set sail. The mizzen sail and mizzen staysail will get you there eventually.

A sloop rig is the most efficient to windward and a cutter is handy offshore. You can have those options without sacrificing the very useful mizzen sail. Some say the ideal rig is the staysail yawl. She performs like a sloop to windward, handles like a cutter when the staysail is up, and best of all, allows for a small mizzen which does, after all, have so many uses.

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