The demographics for the cruising lifestyle as a recreational past time are better than ever and the future is bright. The sailboat industry however, needs to be sensitive to the changing requirements of today's cruising sailor. The macho self-sufficient loner is no longer the standard, today’s generation of cruisers want to venture offshore but not without some of the conveniences and safeties of home.

Though tremendous progress has been made in hull design, construction, systems, sails and hardware; rig design has not changed dramatically over the years. Most advancements in rig design have trickled down from the racing community where ease of handling and safety have often been compromised for a rating advantage. or nuance of performance. In the past, technological limitations and the high cost of materials have delayed integration of advanced rig design, but recent advancements in the production and availability of these materials has opened the door for real change.

Let's consider the important features of sailing rig for the cruising sailor:

Ability to sail dead downwind

Sailing to optimum angles offwind is great, but frankly there are plenty of times due to channel limitations, destination, limited crew for jibing, or pure laziness, when the cruising sailor would just prefer the ability to sail deep downwind (between 160-180 degrees apparent wind angle), without chafing the mainsail on spreaders and rigging, and risking accidental jibe.

Ability to reef offwind

Quite often when sailing offshore the cruising sailor is caught with a quickly building breeze when sailing offwind, making it near impossible to reef, unless the vessel is turned into the wind exposing the beam ends to what may be very large seas in the process.

Self-tacking, self-vanging headsail

Again, as a result of racing influences, the large overlapping genoa has become the industry standard. However, when cruising with limited crew, flogging sails and sheets and frantic winch grinding isn't much fun, particularly when multiple tacks are required as when negotiating a channel, or sailing off a lee shore. Setting and jibing whisker or spinnaker poles can be equally difficult and dangerous when sailing offwind. Additional shortcomings of the overlapping genoa, such as poor reefing, wider sheeting angles, limited visibility forward, and inferior offwind performance, all make a strong case for the non-overlapping, self-tacking, self-vanging headsail.

Safety in the cockpit and on deck from boom and main sheet

When sailing short handed offshore a vessel can make unannounced or unanticipated maneuver's without the crews involvement or approval. History has shown that most injuries at sea, have been associated with low booms, mainsheets in the cockpit, and lack of a preventer that can be set from the cockpit.

All sail handling lines leading to the cockpit

Needless to say none of the aforementioned features means much, if the crew is still relegated to going on deck in the weather to pull halyards and stow sails.

To best address these needs the EuroTech SoloRig offers the following features:

Conclusion

The SoloRig™ is practical for monohull or multihull designs offering vastly improved ease of handling and safety. It can satisfy the full spectrum of wind ranges encountered when cruising without carrying additional sails. This concept for sail handling, when combined with modern hull design and construction will ultimately make cruising offshore easier, more fun, and safer.