Glide Rig: A Hybrid Rig for Rowing Sailboats

 

MUSTELID gliding along
Full Foresail - Roll Reefed Main - Driver

All I wanted was a tall ship

And a star to sail her by

  Through the night.

  Through the night!

-- Motherlode?

Glide Rig: A Hybrid Rig for Row/Sailboats

Why name a rig? Any technical description is a mouthful, and few people appreciate mansplaining. A good name is evocative, calling to mind traditional associations. Or suggestive, offering a clear clue to the nature of its subject.

Gaff Rig, for example, suggests the spar itself and the sail's quadrilateral shape follows. It evokes robust working sail standing against the gale. The more initiated might recall its ability to scandalize—dumping half its area in a sudden gust. They might recall peak and main halyards, running backstays, and the tack-to-peak creases that indicate a correct set.

So, here is a rig in search of a name...

But first, the mandatory get-in-the-door question from The Commitments: “'Oo are your influences??”

Phil Bolger (of course) observed that most of us aren't out to win a race or even do much sailing to windward if we have any choice in the matter. Outboards and engines mostly handle the windward hemi-circle, so why expend design effort, gear and $$$ on maximal windward ability? He accordingly started to offer simpler, cheaper rigs.

That got us thinking. For a rowing, mostly downwind sailboat, we want a long, slim hull. These  are easily driven but offer relatively low form stability. Ultra-shoal draft limits ballast stability. A snug, low-center-of-effort sail plan that is easily handled and reefed pairs perfectly.

On a row/sail craft, we primarily want the sailing rig to pull us down- or across the wind. Positioned well forward as a foresail—clear of a forward rowing cockpit—it should provide powerful lee helm and steady, balanced traction. For sailing upwind, however, the balance picture changes. We want the total CE moved aft to for weather-helm and good tacking.

Quadrilateral and spinnaker-like sails work, but don't transition easily between the two modes.

Enter Frederick Ljungström, inventor of Ljungström Rig a boomless, double Leg o' Mutton (LOM) triangular sail attached along a shared luff to a  rotating mast. Off-wind, it sets and handles much like roller-furling twin staysails, and like them, provides considerable upward lift.

Sailing into the wind, the sails are doubled, overlapping on the lee side and sheeted as one. This constitutes a half-reef, and a large aftward jump of its CE.

To reef, the mast rotates (we prefer righty-tighty, lefty-loosey), furling the sail snugly around the standing spar. No halyards, tack or clew downhauls, bunts, or nettles. Just roll it up and carry on! As a bonus, simple flat-cut LOMs furl tightly with minimal windage, forming conic sections similar to a Crab-Claw rig.

Since a slim hull cannot spread wide sheeting angles, we re-introduced booms along a loose foot. The result is a doubled variation of the Holopuni Quick-Rig (a great name!) which is similar to a setup offered on the SeaPearl 21.

Finally, three-masted junk schooners (e.g., CHINA CLOUD) inspired us with their fine control of their relatively low total CE, bow and stern maneuvers, and reduced area on each mast. Even on a smaller vessel (within reason), the advantages of multiple masts are striking.

Why Balance Matters When Rowing: Multiple sails give fine control over the balance of the helm. Especially when "motorsailing" (row AND sail), good balance leaves our hands free for the oars and reduces steering by stroke with ensuing fatigue. Even over a short haul, that makes a big difference! A driver - often set while rowing when the others are stowed - helps hold the bow up toward the wind. Where the bow want's to 'blow off' this is an asset.

A Problem on the Side—and a Solution

There is a catch with standard booms. They are fixed at the mast and sheeted toward their outboard end. As the sail is reefed, the clew moves inboard of the sheets, pulling laterally on the mid-boom, bending it toward the CE. Heavy spars and compromise arrangements are the usual fix.

Our solution? The Gliding Grommet.

We use a rope grommet that glides along a lightweight boom, with both the clew and sheets attached directly to it. A light clew/sheet outhaul is led through a turning block at boom's end, spreading the sail as desired.

When reefing, ease the outhaul, roller furl the sail as needed and make the outhaul fast. The grommet, clew and sheets are move inboard along the spar. The active, loaded portion of the boom automatically shortens, increasing relative strength. It absorbs the load purely in compression, avoiding mid-span bending stress. Cheap, DIY, and it works like a charm.

Glide Rig Specification

Mulling all this together, pulling out the main points and generalizing, we arrive at...

The "glide" emphasis is on downwind sailing and a strong balance shift for upwind sailing, supported by the working rig (I.e., without sail changes):

• Foresail in 'cat' position (well forward) and,
• Sets large area for off-wind sailing
• Reduces area and moves CE aft for upwind sailing
  
  
• Main near amidships and/or,
• Backs up the foresail for downwind sailing
• Becomes the driving upwind sail
  
  
• Driver well aft
• A smaller sail for balance and riding

"Glide" can be used adjectivally in the usual manner... where we would say "That's a junk schooner, ketch or yawl", we can say "That's a glide schooner, ketch or yawl" or combine them, "That's a glide junk schooner, ketch or yawl." 

Generally speaking, we wouldn't apply the glide adjective to schooners, ketches and yawls that don't pass drive from the foresail to main when switching from down to upwind sailing, and vice versa. Ditto cutters, sloops and catboats.

But any schooner, ketch or yawl is arguably a glide rig. It's a threshold, as is often the case. Boundaries are fuzzy and often the subject of over-heated tavern debate. Personally, I find it a simple matter of personal perspective... we each get one and to each their own.

With this in mind:

• Two- or three-masted schooner, ketch, and yawl variants may qualify.

• Main and driver with other planforms and rigging may qualify.

• Rig particulars—such as specific sail planforms, unstayed masts, roller furling, the Gliding Grommet solution, and such—are handy but optional.

NOTE: We call the stern sail a driver... it seemed the better option among mizzen (confusing), jigger (???), dandy (too high-brow?) and spanker (let's not go there).

MUSTELID's Glide Rig

I would now call MUSTELID's a three-masted glide LOM ketch rig. Fore and main sails are of equal height. LUTRA's main will be slightly taller (also quadrilateral with a sprit in the mix), so I'd call her a three masted glide hybrid schooner rig.

We tested Glide Rig extensively in MUSTELID over a wide range of conditions, as documented in the video series, MUSTELID Venture.

MUSTELID's foresail is a Ljungström sail (double LOM) rigged and positioned as described above.

Her midships main is a single LOM boomed as described and set aft of the forward cockpit. In this position, it becomes the heart of any windward sailing we might do, with the foresail reefed (moving the combined CE aft) and doubled over to sheet as an LOM. We offset this one to clear the BIRDWATCHER cabin's mid-line companionway.

We set a small LOM driver dead aft for offwind sailing, to 'crank in' weather helm, hold the bow up when drifting and serve as a riding sail. It is a big help when rowing in headwinds, especially when we must row at an angle to the wind. This sail was offset opposite the Main to clear the rudder and tiller. In this position, it can be squared across the transom for a mid-line, downwind push.

It is sprit-boomed in pretty much the standard manner. The boom is longer than usual, extending forward of the mast. A U-sheet leading forward attaches one leg to the inboard end of the boom and one to the outboard. This gives us leverage to trim and make fast. The sail is fixed to the mast (no halyard)... to stow, we release the snotter and raise the outboard end of the boom alongside the mast. A light line fixed to the masthead is used to wrap and secure the boom and vertical, hand-rolled bunt of the sail.

Roll yer own and glide on, Friends!

Guest Post: MARY H by Chris George

 

MARY H
All photos supplied by Chris George

Lord, it was day and night and night an day work when in season!

- Some Old Salt

MARY H
  Guest Post by Chris George

In 2022 Massachusetts announced a small business grant for Green Innovation and Climate Resiliency in the commercial seafood sector. I won the grant and built a scow for my shellfish farm. Having read the Triloboat Blog for years, I had formed the idea that a sailing scow could be useful. The book Trade Winds by Christiaan de Beukelaer implanted the idea of using sail, and maybe electric, to power my work on the farm for climate reasons. The idea was born and I received $25,000 to build and work the boat. She is named the MARY H, after my wife, and her mission is to carry and deploy aquaculture gear and pick up oyster and quahog seed and drop off harvests to a hatchery facility about one mile away across part of Cape Cod Bay.

The design already existed in Howard I. Chapelle’s classic American Small Sailing Craft as the Cape Cod Bay Pound-Net Scow. In the old sailing days, these boats mainly fished herring - and fished the species out! They look like the TRILOBOAT StudyPLAN SANDBOX, but evolved slightly curved sheer lines helping with the “roll to the sea, as there often is on the Cape shore” and historically carried a pile driver. I sent to the office of ship plans at the Smithsonian and for $60 they sent me a tube full of diagrams of old scows -including Great Lakes types - along with Chapelle’s lines, taken off in Provincetown in the 1940s. To start I had Dave’s blog, Chapelle’s book and an awesome picture I found on the internet of a model built locally off the same plan, credit Rob Napier. 

The original boat in the plan is 36’ and I determined for the scope of the project, and town mooring regulations, to scale the build to 20’ - though I did wonder if proportions would get weird later on. So off this poster-sized plan I made a table in my notebook with an engineering ruler and scaled all the points of measurement for 20’. I also set about making an 8’ mock up with a couple scrap veneer plywood sheets and a cardboard model. Making the model was fun just tracing the plan onto cardboard and adding a chopstick mast and paper sails; at that size my old G.I. Joes look like a person of 5’4’’ height. 

To build the boat I had written some pay into the funding to hire skilled help. I hired a friend of mine, a retired roofer and now bricolage artist with whom I had already worked on a few building projects. The first thing we did was to locate a tree for the mast and let it cure for about a year. It’s a beautiful mast! We found a very straight white pine of about 24’ in the woods on a neighbor’s property. Stripped it with a machete (held like a spoke shave) and then coated it with wood preservative and hung it in my garage. 

Severely squeezed into my garage, the actual assembly and building went straight down the lines of “Instant Boats.” Dynamite Payson virtually dictated the techniques that I would modify. Cutting out the main pieces from plywood was most of the early work. I referred to the notebook table a lot and because the math was simpler to convert inches in decimal (remember the engineering ruler), I made sure to make an extra column for the conversion back to 1/16th inches for my measurements on plywood, transcribing the height of the sheer above bottom. The one caveat is that this measurement required another column in the table because the Pythagorean theorem had to be applied to account for the flare of the hull as the Chapelle plan just shows a profile view. No lofting though! A Kreg brand T-square was used constantly. I made a useful misstep while building the mockup that helped me realize to account for flare because I paid a printer to just proportionally enlarge the plan and I used it like a template. When assembling the mockup (which I may still employ as a standup paddleboard) using stitch and glue with zip ties, it felt scrunched down. This effect was not noticeable at the tiny size of the model. The actual cross section of MARY H is 5’ across the bottom with a 5’6’’ beam on deck. 

The winter months were spent in the garage with a space heater cutting and edge joining the plywood with epoxy and fiberglass. The gunwales were constructed in this way as well as five transverse bulkheads for holding the structure together like a ladder. Striking the fair curve of the bow and stern were the most ancient and nautical feeling part of the process. It was accomplished by laying the measurements on the plywood with nails and bending a piece of PVC edging around them. The curve was hand cut by eye with a buzz saw through the skill of my roofer friend. 

Building a boat was a lot to ask of my family, three children and one an infant. I did a lot of work after bedtime into the night and tried to involve the children as much as possible. One problem spot occurred while attaching the bottom to the sides for tape and glue. We decided to attach the bottom with the boat upright, bending the kerfed bow and stern up with shims and two-by-fours at both ends. The shape of the boat would be held in place for gluing with bar clamps and screws edgewise above the waterline. The deadflat was easy enough and all joints were bonded with epoxy fillets and fiberglass strips. But the ends had to be done in one fell swoop laboriously levering up the ends of the boat like flaps over the piles of shims while running around to make everything even as sealant set between the seams. We went way over time and things were starting to fail as my wife pulled in with all the kids. Seeing them all it was such a sacrifice not to be able to care for my baby at that time. But I left it in the care of my friend and somehow he finished the bottom single handedly. 

With the hull still upright I built the centerboard box up out of clear pine boards and more marine plywood, splurging on bronze screws. Now looking boatlike, I got a group of friends together to help flip the hull over onto its transoms for sheathing the bottom. All were promised fresh clams or oysters. I sheathed the entire hull on the outside only with one layer of thick fiberglass cloth bedded in epoxy. Once painted the same crew helped me flip the boat again onto a trailer which I picked up reasonably from the USACOE via the GSA, a good resource. The garage doors were popped off the hinges and the boat was carried out by hand. I had lined the trailer with an old foam mattress that I saved for this purpose so she would have a soft landing onto the rollers. 

Outside in the Spring I built deck stringers out of clear pine strapping and built the mast step of extra fir from the skeg. The boat was filled with 100 empty soda bottles for buoyancy with some sealed plastic water cooler carboys for good measure. The deck was cut from the same ½’’ marine plywood as the rest of the boat and laid as efficiently as I could manage. Between every seam I shot marine sealant or sometimes silicone caulk. A somewhat big mistake was not better sheathing the deck somehow because it leaks during rains. It has to be pumped out after rain and storms now while on the mooring. The hull is tight however so the water inside is “fresh.” One splurge was for EVA foam faux wood decking. Rolls of this stuff were moderately expensive but are a big facet of the historical look, and napably soft. Many people have stopped by the boat and remarked they thought these were actual planks. Rub rails are made of super cheap highly sacrificial lengths of furring strip.

Rigging is piecemeal. I got about 100’ each of tan synthetic rope for the halyards and great thick faux hemp nylon rope for the main sheet, also a historical touch. I made a forestay with hardware store steel wire and shackles. Chafing gear is cut garden hose. The sail was made at a sailmaker in Falmouth, Massachusetts. The proportions are kind of weird as the boom is a real deck sweeper. It will help to reef when I sail the boat more in earnest. At this point she sailed down wind, in the lightest winds three times in the Summer and Fall of 2025. Yet, when I put the sail up, down wind, in the lightest wind, it is still hard to deny we are under sail. And that feels great! I am looking at a potentially life long learning curve so there is plenty of time to perfect it. For electric propulsion she hangs two five horsepower German Torqeedo engines off the stern with some Chinese ePropulsion stick engines for backup.

MARY H now sits on the hard waiting for the 2026 season coming up at the end of March. All the people who helped were essential: a landowner letting us search for the mast, friends and relatives who flipped the boat or shot screws or gave friendly advice, authors - I owe them all a ride or at least some oysters. Spiritually, there have been few journeys as rewarding for me as building this boat. At the Christening, the bottle was smashed by the real Mary H.

Expenses

Dave, here. Chris provided his cost accounting under the grant in response to requests in the comment section. His itemized list can be read HERE. Please click on the spreadsheet image for a more legible pop-up.

Rigged for Success: LOM/Ljungstrom + Quick-Rig Booms

 

MUSTELID's LOM Main and Ljungstrom Foresail

Live life as if everything is rigged in your favor.

-- Rumi

Rigged for Success: 
    LOM/Ljungstrom + Quick-Rig Booms

I'd like to share a suite of ideas toward a family of lesser known rigs for smaller vessels that I think show a great deal of promise. Part historical, part convergent evolution, part innovation, the result is a simple but versatile, robust rig that can be DIYed at low cost.

Leg o' Mutton (LOM) Sails

This tasty moniker simply means a triangular sail. They're commonly used for headsails (jibs, staysails, etc.), mains (often called Bermudan sails) and drivers (small sails set far aft).

Ljungstrom Rig (2 x LOM)

Ljungstrom Rig uses a pair of LOMs, joined along their luffs and set on a free-standing, rotating mast. No booms were used to avoid troublesome impacts with crew.

This configuration works similar to twin head sails off the wind. From a beam reach on up, the sails are doubled over to one side and sheeted as one.

Pros:

• Boomstrike is eliminated (the rig's original focus).
• Light, inexpensive spares and gear.
• Quick set/reef, roller un/furling via the mast.
• Sailing off-wind, one side can be jibed for 'instant' 50% reef.
• Sail area aloft catches higher, upper wind-flows.
• Low Center of Effort (CE).
• Twin sails tend to center down the wind.
• Potential for hands-free operation.
• Sail steering is straightforward (haul to the side you wish to sail).
• UV resistant fabric along luff and foot eliminate sail covers.
• At least in smaller vessels, the furled rig is easy to set and strike, and compact for storage.
  
  

Cons:

• Lack of a boom makes spreading sail difficult (especially on narrow hulls).
• No clew outhaul or vang options.
• In contrast to twin stays'ls (unless the mast is canted) it generates no bow lift.
  
  

Adding a Boom

The addition of a boom set under a loose-footed LOM allows spreading, a clew out-haul and vang, addressing the main cons.

Interestingly, this approach was taken by both the Sea Pearl 21 (adventurously sailed by Stephen and Ginny Ladd, among others), and is marketed as Holopuni Quick-Rig (by Holopuni Canoes). Convergent evolution?

Both of these designs lead their clew outhauls via track along the top of the boom and sheets to the end of the boom. When the sail is reefed, the upward pull of the clew at mid-boom is resisted by the end positioned on the mast and the downward pull of the sheets at boom's end. 

As a sail's belly is blown full, pulling the clew strongly toward the tack, the boom resists in compression. If it is deflected from straight by the perpendicular pull of the clew between mast and sheet lands, that strength plummets. Usual solution? A heavy boom or one made with expensive, exotic materials.

Hmm.

What if we oppose sheet and clew tensions by having them meet at the same point? They cancel out, unloading the mid-boom! The clew outhaul - led to boom's end, then turned back toward the mast to the clew completes the picture. A rope grommet - travelling along the boom - is the perfect attachment point... simple, cheap and DIY.

Principle parts of the rigging...
This platform and 'collar' are primitive but functional

How We Go About It

Rotating Mast and Gear

In our small-ish boats, we went with a thumb-sized dowel protruding from the rounded bottom of the mast. This is inserted into a hole in its step - a fixed plate of thick HMD (cutting board plastic). This secures the foot but it allows it to rotate with very little friction. The upper partners are simply a loose-fit, fixed square around the mast. The distance between step and partners should be between 10% (minimum) and 15+% (healthy) of the mast's overall length for adequate cantilever.

A gate can swivel open to free one face for raising/lowering or close and lock to contain it. 'Box' sides at the step hold the foot in place for lowering. A pin led through one side and into a corresponding hole in the lower mast prevents rotation against high winds or rock and roll.

Each boom requires an arrangement that fixes their height above the partners, yet allows the mast to rotate independently. 

Our solution is a platform affixed to the mast with a collar from boom's mast end, around the mast, set above the platform... the collar is not so loose as to slip below the platform, but not so tight as to grip the mast.

Booms

Booms can be quite light as compression span decreases as the sail is reefed, and diameter per unit of span increases - functionally speaking, reefing makes them stronger. Further, they are subject to no significant side forces along that span. Sea trials help settle in on a light boom with comfortable margins of safety.

Each boom has a rope grommet loosely fit around it (sized so it doesn't bind when pulled at a flat angle). 

We fix a pinch cleat for the clew outhaul at the boom's mast end, pinch horn down (10deg) toward the distal end. This allows the line to ride over the non-pinch horn (up and toward the mast), under control hands-free as it pays out while furling.

A ring seized to the distal end of the boom turns the outhaul back toward the grommet.

The outhaul leads from its cleat, through the grommet (helps control a slack outhaul) to the turning ring, and back to the grommet. We fix it to the grommet's upper side, allowing a tail which is tied to the clew. We prefer little play between clew and grommet.

The sheet is fixed to the grommet's lower side and led to deck level. A turning device (multiple or travelling for an improved lead?) leads it toward a clear, handy to the crew. We prefer enough friction on the cleat to hold in steady wind but ease in heavy gusts... no lock hitch.

Sails

We used light nylon fabric to build flat-cut sails. These are responsive, and furl neatly around the slightly tapered masts. They are stretchy enough to take on some belly (camber) when full of wind.

Downside is that camber can't be flattened easily in high winds. But reefing is so easy, we can reduce power that way.

For 2xLOMs we screwed the webbed luffs to the mast, but are now considering a pocket for easier installation and removal. Others have found that a simple lanyard from tack to mast is sufficient for furling.

Handling the Ljungstrom

We set the Ljungstrom sail well forward, where it can pull us bow down the wind. 

We don't typically vang our sails to flatten them. Instead, we vary the sheet leads and/or reef a little more than we might. This avoids extra gear, handling and the heavier booms required. Personal call, however. 

Furled Set Up

When furled, the sail is snugly wrapped around the mast. The boom(s), if any, are vertical. Sheets are left slack and hanging. One clew outhaul is marline-hitched once or twice along the mast, securing all the bits, then made fast at its pinch cleat (low).


Setting Sail

Unhitch the outhaul, then refasten to its cleat. Uncoil sheets and lead aft to their cleats. Both outhaul and sheets will go slack as the sail is unrolled. Unpin mast if locked.

Depending on wind, you might wish to round up. For downwind departures, you may have to work in stages, trimming sheets as you go.

Unroll the sail by rotating the mast (we prefer 'righty-tighty; lefty-loosey' as standard... we do this by hand, but various rope windings are possible).

Once unfurled as far as desired, haul the outhaul(s) for the curve you wish, then make fast. Trim sheets and fall off to heading. Backing sail is easy and effective. If you wish to open the sails, do so.

On the Wind

Here the sails are overlapped and are sheeted as one (outer one generally the focus of our attention). They handle pretty much as any boomed LOM.

Off the Wind

Sailing off the wind, the sail is typically balanced like a delta kite. All things being equal, it want s to hold the bow centered downwind. More belly is often a good trade-off against more area.

To steer using sail, haul the sheet on the side toward which you wish to turn (easy, now!). This shortens its force vector and directs it to that side. The opposite sail, now relatively stronger and with a longer lever-arm, works to rotate the hull that-away. Like the reins of a horse!

In a heavy gust, you have a 50% reef at hand. You can jibe one sail (lapping one over the other) or let it fly (this can be harder to retrieve... get a wide angle). But if this comes up, consider roller reefing ASAP. Consider that, in high winds, you don't have to set them wing and wing... they sail well as one.

Odd Situations

If a sudden squall has invited letting both sails fly (they're trailing down the wind from the bow), calmly roller reef until you can bring them in and under control.

If such a situation has reversed their usual sides, don't panic... just hand the sheets around the mast, or refasten them for a fair lead and carry on. The sails won't care.

The whole mast, sails and all, can be furled, hitched up and let over as a sea-anchor.

All in All

We found these LOM/Ljungstrom + Quick-Rig Booms to be simple, cheap, versatile and powerful. Each piece is DIY-able from scavenged materials. Nothing about them couldn't be made in the field, at a pinch.

The lightness of the spars is a BIG advantage, especially as we age. The masts should be manageable for as long as we're likely to be able to row.

In researching the history of the rig, the few who have used it are soberly impressed by its virtues. It is not the fastest rig out there, but its no slouch, and pays its way with easy handling and quick reefing.

I'm hoping to see more of these on the water in the coming years!

Full Ljungstrom / Reefed LOM
Sprit-Boomed LOM Aft

References

Sea Pearl 21 Review by Josh Colvin

About Holopuni Canoes by Nick Beck

Rigging MUSTELID and MUSTELID Voyage by Anke and Dave

Musings on Design for Solo Sailors

Capucine Trochet single-handing TARA TARA

The only way to see true reality is in solitude. One of the tragedies of human existence is that reality cannot be shared. What's real to you may not be to someone else.

― From A Steady Trade: A Boyhood at Sea by Tristan Jones

Musings on Design for Solo Sailors

As an adherent of the Buddy System, I look askance on solo, live-aboard cruising. That being said, many things - including simple inclination - can set us on a solitary course. Not just for the moment, but as a way of life. So it bears thinking about.

Sailing solo asks much more of us, and we need more from our vessels. What follows are my personal thoughts. They hardly amount to advice, much less any kind of yagotta. I offer them for your consideration.

To me, there is a big difference between ocean sailing and inshore that bears on a solo sailor’s needs. While offshore sailing has its own challenges, inshore has most of those plus constraints from proximal shorelines, rocks and reefs, highly variable wind and currents, and generally higher traffic. There are no inshore weeks of balanced sail and helm with little more than lookout duty for the single-hander. Inshore sailing is much more active.

A motor is a help, and at its best, goes a long way toward standing in for crew. It allows planned moves in mostly predictable time. The energy it consumes saves some of that drawn from our own, limited budget. Still, engines have their own costs, and sometimes fail or run through their own available energy. For the lone sailor, I would recommend considering it as an option rather than a codependency.

IMHO, the biggest threat to the single-hander is fatigue.

When sailing alone, there is no other to relieve the watch. To prepare food or drink. To lend a hand. To give a second assessment. To offer courage and moral support. We must guard our strength and sieze the opportunity to rest.

The second is hypothermia. Being in the wind means calories are blown to lee and gone. We can’t be relieved to go below and warm up. Even putting on extra clothing takes an extended moment away from the helm. Good clothing, put on ahead of need is essential, but also can be hard to manage, with sudden downturns of conditions or opportunity putting us in peril. Worse, hypothermia is insidious, dulling the mind and impairing decision by easy-to-miss degrees. As solo sailors, there is no other to note its symptoms. We must be alert to its signs and stay ahead of its advance.

These considerations and others can be helped by good design.

So what would I look for in a vessel that I can manage alone, actively sailing by day and anchoring by night, year-round? Here’s a wish list:

• Small Size - Small affords the best strength-to-boat ratio, both in terms of my own and the vessel’s. A smaller vessel has less mass, momentum, leverages and surface area reducing the stressor forces involved. At the same time, its greater mass-to-stressor ratio increases its relative strength. My required effort is reduced, both in terms of manipulating my vessel and onboard mechanics. Gear (e.g., anchors) and outfit (e.g. rig) are much smaller and lighter at every turn. Small is beautiful! (- E.F. Shumacher).

• Seakindly Motion - Easy motion with reduced, or at least smoothed (damped), roll, pitch and yaw, and lower angles of heel (stability) help keep fatigue down. These are primarily due to hull features, but weight distribution also plays a role.
  
  

• Ultra Shoal Draft - Every inch we shave from the hull opens options for shelter. When single handing near rope’s end, the ability to duck out of conditions can mean life or death. The simple ability to ground our vessel in a hard chance, in wading-depth water and its resourcesn in reach, saves a desperate swim ashore with the only the shirts on our backs
  
  

• Simple, Robust Everything - Single handers, even more than other sailors, are vulnerable to gear failure. A situation that arises is met by one person, rather than a team… when SHTF, we can only do so much alone. Simple, robust gear reduces risk of failure, and eases both assessment and subsequent address. If a quick fix is all that can be managed in a crisis, simple systems are more easily patched with a wider range of options. Redundancy increases safety-in-depth, and helps scale down crises.
  
  

• Handy, Balanced Rig - A rig that is easy to set, strike and balance are essential to the inshore single-hander. Time and energy are precious, rationed and not to be squandered on involved procedures. A balanced rig eases any self-steering system, freeing us from the helm and reducing the adrenaline rush when they are overwhelmed. Easy reefing with a good range of options reduces fatigue from transitions and sailing over- or under powered.
  
  A bonus is a rig that can be raised and lowered completely, if not by hand, then by easy, on-board, mechanical means (e.g., Thames Barge Rig, scaled down). This lets us reduce windage, especially at anchor, for better sleep.
  
  Consider Junk Ketch Rig for excellent reef and balance control. Not as easiliy lowered as some, however.
  
  

• ‘Efficient’ Human Propulsion - The ability to move through calms at an easy pace gets us into and out of harbor for both shelter and sleep. Options include oars, sculls and the Doi PowerFin. Pedal units are also possible, but much less simple. These need to be accomodated, not only by a design, but in terms of use and stowage.
  
  A hull’s shape determines how efficient - how easily driven - it is through water. Generally speaking, more slender, shallow hulls are more slippery, as are curvy ones. Retractable lateral resistance (consider off-centerboards for simplicity) can be cleared from the water when rowing or sailing offwind to reduce drag.
  
  Since rowing is upright, while sailing into the wind is often heeled, design constraints look for a balance according to priority.
  
  

• Interior Handling (Steering, Sail, Propulsion) - The ability to steer and manage sail and oar from within shelter is, I think, a huge advantage. We are far less exposed to the elements, less encumbered by gear (think foulies and PFDs), our galley is near at hand without the need to transition from deck. Eliminating the need for a cockpit potentially shrinks the boat.
  
  To my knowledge, this approach was pioneered for single-handing by ‘Blondie’ Hassler (JESTER and others) and extended by Phil Bolger (BIRDWATCHER and others), Sven Yrvind and Matt Layden.
  
  

• A Comfortable Interior - Inside the vessel is our ‘hole in the weather’. There should be a comfortable, warm, dry place to sit and sleep and cook. If an intimate guest is to be accommodated, they’ll need the same. If these areas overlap, they should transition smoothly, without much time or effort.
  
  Consider a simple, dedicated galley arrangements handy to the helm. At a minimum, space for pre-prepared food storage + thermos.
  
  

• Ample Carrying Capacity - The ability to carry plenty for any given leg of a voyage, including enough for unforeseen delays, takes pressure off any crew. Lone sailors are especially vulnerable if forced to press on for lack of provisions. Our safety margins are narrower to begin with… a forced march can quickly use up what’s left.
  
  
  

All these points work together to enhance and extend our physical ease, resilience and reach while reducing exposure and fatigue. Some, however, work at odds with one another. We seek a dynamic balance to meet expected conditions, leaning this way or that according to where and how we intend to sail.

Every vessel is a compromise, and these are no exception. The single sailor, even more than is generally true for two or more, must put themselves first and foremost among the vessels’ priorities. Exchanging ergonomics for lesser priorities (speed, windward excellence, size, etc.) is a fail-dangerouser bargain. Safety margins are vital, and trading them away is a poor bargain.

So there’s a set of criteria that I’d look for. 

If it were me. 

Which I hope it never is.

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Here are some current live-aboard, cruising solo sailors I admire and  from whom I’ve distilled the above approaches. The word that pops to (my) mind as the common denominator of these sailors is discipline… each has harnessed their energies and passions to surmount the challenges of singe-handing to forge a joyous lifestyle.

Note that, while some inshore sailing is part of any cruiser’s voyage, all I know of are passage based. In other words, close inshore risks are the exception, rather than the rule, and therefore are more easily managed.

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Matt Layden - Matt is a a designer / builder / sailor who solos long and deep -  with more coastal inshore sailing than most. A minimalist, he expemplifies the smallest end of the scale, down to his SAND FLEA(!)

His PARADOX and others hit all the points above. His approach is affirmed by the many versions built and sailed by ‘mature’ soloists.

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Sven Yrvind - Another pioneer of the small, robust, handy school, Sven has been sailing the course for scores of years. His approaches have kept him actively sailing well into his 80s!

He’s another whose designs merit close study. His rigs, are particularly handy and versatile.

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Holly Martin - Holly is a hands-on cruiser, circumnavigating in GEKGO, fixer-upper she transformed into a capable, cruising home. She’s pragmatic, inventive and ‘chill’.

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Kiana Weitzel - Kiana is soloing a larger Wharram catamaran, learning as she goes from near scratch. She provides a good look at simple sailing with the advantages (and some disadvantages) of a larger footprint.

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Shemaya Laurel - While not strictly speaking a live-aboard, Shemaya is a coastal sailor (considerable inshore sailing) for extended periods. In her case, fatigue and exposure are of particular concern, and she casually demonstrates how far preparation and pacing can take us.

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Yann Quenet - Yann is on his second circumnavigation in his 5 meter BALUCHON! He’s another who makes the very small end of the scale look both practical and inviting!

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Here are some designs that I think would either make good single-handers along the lines above or provide inspiration for them. They’re not by any means a definitive list, but serve as illustrations. Each have features to consider, if not copy!:

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Matt Layen’s PARADOX, showing the well-thought-out approach to a successful and compact cruiser. He sets a high bar! Not clearly shown here are his chine runners… fixed flanges running along about ⅓ of the chine providing enhanced lateral resistance (no keel or boards to handle and no extra draft!).

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BOB is a doodle of mine, inspired by Matt Layden’s PARADOX. It’s the simplest to build and gets the most interior on a given footprint. It won’t be as slippery as some others, but is exceptionally stable under sail, relative to its size. It would be my choice given how I roll.

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Phil Bolger’s BIRDWATCHER (and his enhanced BIRDWATCHER II) are another high water mark. The cabin is see-through and watertight, making this hull self rescuing from inside after a full knock-down!

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OLLIE is an early sketch toward John Harris’ thoughts on adapting Phil Bolger’s DOVEKIE. Note the small, aft cockpit with a dodger bar to set up a sheltered station. Rowing can be done from inside.

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FAERING CRUISER is another by John Harris. This one is exceptionally slippery making it easy to drive under sail and oar. Accomodations are accordingly scant for a live-aboard (a cockpit shelter helps), but a minimilist could do well with this one.

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Godfrey Stephens’ adaptation of Bill Short’s SAN FRANSICO BAY PELICAN. Lots of accomodation on a small footprint, these are surprisingly able sailors in rough water.

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EGRET by Ralph Monroe manages to be a small 29ft, and coud be scaled down if desired. As was, she earned her legendary reputation delivering mail year round in wild, Gulf Stream waters. Early proof that hard chines can produce a slippery, seaworthy hull.

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Fritz Koschmann aboard his Howard Chapelle designed Scow in SE Alaska.

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BALUCHON on it’s first circumnavigation.

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James Wharram’s well proven TIKI 21 and 26… lots of single-hander footprint in a small package. A large deck tent expands living space at anchor.

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MUSTELID is another of my designs… it’s in reach of single handing as is, though I’d shorten the forward cockpit for one rowing station and switch to ketch rig. Inside handling can be arranged. The mast-furled Leg O’ Mutton sails with Holopuni Quick-Rig inspired booms turned out to be fantastically simple and easy to handle (we later learned that SEAPEARL canoes offered a similar rig).