cutter rigged sailboat for sale

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New and Used Cutter Boats for Sale

The cutter rig sailing boat is a great boat to start sailing with. It has a flexible, easy to handle inboard rig, which is why many cruising sailors -are such a fan of it. Typically a cutter boat is a small, but in some cases, a medium-sized, watercraft yacht designed for speed rather than for ... learn more about Cutter Boats

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168 New and Used Cutter Boats

Tayana 37' Cutter

Marina Del Rey, California (United States of America)

OFFERED BY:

Seattle Yachts

SPECIFICATIONS Price: $59,900 Boat Name: Morning Star Make: Tayana Model: 37' Cutter Year: 1978 Condition: Used Category: Cutter Construction: Fiberglass Length: 37 ft Display...

Rafiki 37 Cutter

Oak Harbor, Washington (United States of America)

Seller has taken great pride in getting this one to be a beauty!!! Lots of new items!!! Seller Notes: Seller Update: New Volvo Penta forty horse, new water heater, never hooked...

Bruce King Raised Deck Custom Cutter

Dataw Island SC (United States of America)

Brewer Yacht Sales

Antonio Stradivari is considered the most significant and greatest artisan in the field of instrument making the world has ever known. His instruments are true masterpieces that have been emulat...

Corbin 39 Cutter Pilothouse

Longview, Washington (United States of America)

Custom LIVEABOARD Pilothouse Cutter built in Nova Scotia with Tons of Upgrades Is now the time to go cruising to Hawaii and Points South? Or you might want to live inexpensivel...

Bruce King Custom raised deck Cutter

Port Royal, South Carolina (United States of America)

Antonio Stradivari is considered the most significant and greatest artisan in the field of instrument making the world has ever known.His instruments are true masterpieces that have been ...

Custom 47 Steel Cutter

Suisun City, California (United States of America)

Beauty and safety come with this Herreshoff-inspired design. The Interior is open, well lit, and nicely ventilated. Lightwoods with Bristol finish Prepare to sail the seas aboa...

Bristol Channel Cutter Sam L Morse

Brooklin, Maine (United States of America)

SPECIFICATIONS Price: $129,500 Boat Name: Jolie Brise Make: Bristol Channel Cutter Model: Sam L Morse Year: 1985 Condition: Used Category: Cutter Construction: Fiberglass Length...

Tayana 52 Aft Cockpit Cutter

Honolulu, Hawaii (United States of America)

Wonderful Yacht to Explore the Pacific Islands!!! Beautiful Woodwork Below Deck! Solar Panels! Solid Throughout! This magnificent sailing yacht is in amazing condition for her ...

Hans Christian 38T

Gig Harbor, Washington (United States of America)

TIMELESS ELEGANCE AND STYLE ARE ON FULL DISPLAY WITH THE SOLID BUILT 1985 HANS CHRISTIAN 38T BLUE WATER CUTTER Welcome aboard this spectacular 1985 Hans Christian 38T, fully eq...

Island Packet Boats 37

pt charlotte, Florida (United States of America)

Pier One Yacht Sales

THIS VERY POPULAR AND COMFOTABLE CRUSING BOAT IS IN EXCELENT CONDITION ISLAND PACKETS HAVE A GREAT REPUTATION IN MANY AREAS THEY ARE VERY WELL BUILT AND PROVIDE A LEVEL OF S...

Bruce Roberts Offshore 44

Key west, Florida (United States of America)

This 2014 Bruce Roberts offshore 44 is the perfect vessel for those nurturing the lifelong aspiration of blue water cruising and embracing a live-aboard lifestyle. Should you b...

Tayana 48 CENTER COCKPIT

Redwood City CA (United States of America)

Introducing the “Gypsy Pearl,” a stunning Tayana 48 Center Cockpit Cutter designed and built for world cruising. This beautiful boat is ready to take on any sea with its under 1,700 hours on th...

Willard Boats 30

Emeryville, California (United States of America)

This Willard is a Rare Find as There Were Only 30 Built Beginning in 1973 This Willard is ready for just about any adventure on the water that you have planned. She is a nice s...

Southern Cross 28

Warwick, Rhode Island (United States of America)

Price Drop! Ocean Rose is a classic double-ended cutter rigged 1978 Southern Cross 28, which Sailingmagazine described as a "sturdy cruiser that is capable of mighty blue water passage...

Formosa Boats 44 Spindrift

Green Cove Springs, Florida (United States of America)

Most of the Work Is Done!! Lots of Upgrades and Improvements!! Tune the Rigging and Sail Away!! Are you looking for a spacious liveaboard that can easily sleep 5-6 people comfo...

Essexville, Michigan (United States of America)

Beautiful Sailing Vessel In Very Good Condition, Very Loved And Well Maintained! This 1977 Rafiki 37 designed by Stan Huntingford is a solidly built bluewater boat that is curr...

Gulfstar Boats 44 MK II

Atlantic Beach, Florida (United States of America)

***SALE PENDING*** Tons of Updates!! Great Raymarine Electronics w/Auto Pilot and Radar!! Set Up for Single Handed Sailing!! Dinghy w/4 Stroke OB!! Must Be Seen!! If you are lo...

Grosse Pointe Woods MI (United States of America)

Atlantic Yacht & Ship Inc

Preliminary Listing Shannon Boat Company was founded by Walter Schulz in Bristol Rhode Island in 1975 with the intent to design and build offshore yachts to the highest quality standards. "G...

Key West, Florida (United States of America)

A Great racer/cruiser! a Doug Peterson (Americas Cup winning builder) designed and built This classic Choate is an America's Cup Hall of Fame inducted, Doug Peterson design. So...

Deerfoot 74 Pilothouse

Reno, Nevada (United States of America)

SPECIFICATIONS Price: $649,000 Boat Name: Interlude Make: Deerfoot Model: 74 Pilothouse Year: 1986 Condition: Used Category: Cutter Construction: Aluminum Length: 74 ft Displa...

Jeanneau Espace 1300

Saint Petersburg, Florida (United States of America)

Rare Cutter rig with pilot house, inside and outside steering, Perkins engine, recent $12k bottom job! European quality design and construction with a spacious, 3 cabin design,...

Cheoy Lee Cutter

Fort Lauderdale FL (United States of America)

53' Cheoy Lee Cutter Rarely does a vessel of this caliber arrive on the market in such exceptional condition. Over $450,000 spent in the last few years to bring her back to her true majesty. ...

Island Packet Boats 35

Seabrook, Texas (United States of America)

***SALE PENDING*** Spacious and comfortable liveaboard boat that is also safe and secure in blue water! 1990 35' Island Packet 35 Cutter rigged with Yanmar Diesel engine. Covet...

Pacific Seacraft Crealock 37

Port Charlotte, Florida (United States of America)

Manufacturer Introduction: The Pacific Seacraft 37 is a superb high-performance cruising yacht that incorporates all the qualities an experienced sailor looks for in "a proper...

Ketchikan, Alaska (United States of America)

Set sail for new adventures aboard the Cascade 36 with Yanmar diesel power! Built in the Portland area, the Cascade 36 models are very much enjoyed by nearly everyone who has o...

Gulf Craft 32

Oxnard, California (United States of America)

Wheel Steering Stations, Auto Pilot, Roller Furling Jib! This 1987 Gulf Cutter Sailboat is 1 of 400 built in the USA by Gulf Marine Products/Capital Yachts, Inc. Bill Garden de...

Southern Cross 31

Bowdoinham, Maine (United States of America)

Wow, Rare Find! 1979 Southern Cross 31! Ready to set sail! Sail the Gulf of Maine and beyond with this classic 1979 Southern Cross. A variety of sails will get you through most...

Pacific Seacraft 37

SPECIFICATIONS Price: $115,000 Boat Name: NALU Make: Pacific Seacraft Model: 37 Year: 1986 Condition: Used Category: Cutter Construction: Fiberglass Length: 37 ft Display Leng...

* Price displayed is based on today's currency conversion rate of the listed sales price.

ABOUT CUTTER BOATS

The cutter rig sailing boat is a great boat to start sailing with. It has a flexible, easy to handle inboard rig, which is why many cruising sailors -are such a fan of it. Typically a cutter boat is a small, but in some cases, a medium-sized, watercraft yacht designed for speed rather than for capacity and traditionally a cutter sailing yacht is a small single-masted boat.

The cutter rig yacht will have two jibs, the foremost one usually a high-cut Yankee set on the forestay and the other a staysail set on an inner forestay.

There are two options of the cutter rig sailboat ; the 'bowsprit version', where the Yankee is set on a bowsprit and the staysail attached to the bow, usually found on heavier displacement sailboats or the 'no bowsprit' type where the whole rig is contained inboard, with no bowsprit.

You also find this type of rig on sloops , ketch boats , and yawls too.

MANUFACTURERS IN CUTTER BOATS

Cutter boats by make, cutter boats by country.

My Cruiser Life Magazine

Cutter Rigged Sailboats [GUIDE] Advantages, Sailing, Options & Features

Cutter rigs are often more prevalent in boating magazines and theory than they are in your marina. Most cruising sailboats are Bermuda rigged sloops with just one permanently attached headsail. So, are two headsails better than one? Or, are they double the trouble?

Table of Contents

• History of Cutters 

What is a Cutter Rig?

Cutter features, cutter rig options, sailing a cutter rigged sailboat, 5 popular manufacturers making cutter rigs, it takes two to tango, cutter rigged sailboat faqs.

History of Cutters

Cutters became popular in the early 18th century. These traditional cutters were decked (instead of open) and featured multiple headsails. Smugglers used cutters to smuggle goods, and the coast guard used cutters to try to catch the smugglers. 

Various navies also used the cutter rig. Navy cutters featured excellent maneuverability and were better at sailing to windward than square-rigged ships. 

Navies used cutters for coastal patrol, collecting customs duties, and “cutting out” raids. These “cutting out” operations consisted of a boarding attack. Fast, maneuverable cutters could stealthily approach an enemy vessel and board it. This type of attack was common in the late 18th century. 

US Coast Guard ships, now powerful, fast, engine-driven, steel vessels, are still called cutters today as a nod to their past.

A cutter rig sailboat has two headsails instead of just one. The jib is located forward and is either attached to a bowsprit or the bow. The inner sail is called the staysail and is attached to an inner forestay. 

Traditional cutters were built for speed. Today, cutter rigged sailboats are popular with ocean-crossing sailors, cruisers, and sailors looking for an easy to manage, versatile rig for all conditions.

It’s important to distinguish cutters from other types of boats with a single mast. Cutters regularly fly two headsails on nearly every point of sail. Many sloops are equipped to fly different-sized headsails, but it is unusual or unnecessary for them to fly more than one at a time.

Solent Rig vs Cutter Rig

A solent rig is traditionally called a slutter–a little bit sloop and a little bit cutter. This configuration features two large headsails mounted close together. The solent rig is good if you do a lot of downwind sailing. You can pole out both headsails and go wing-on-wing, with one headsail on the starboard side and one on the port side. 

If you are on any other point of sail, you can only use one solent rig headsail at a time. If you use the inner sail, the wind flow is disrupted by the furled forward sail. And, if you use the forward sail, you’ll have to furl it to tack because there’s not enough space between the forestays.

The solent rig is a way to add more sail options to a standard sloop. Most solent stays are not required rigging to keep the mast up, so owners remove them when not in use to make tacking the primary headsail easier. 

Advantages of a Cutter Rig

There are a lot of reasons to like a cutter. A cutter rigged boat has redundant rigging and spreads the sail load across its rigging. And a cutter rig offers increased sail options–it offers increased sail area in light winds and easy and efficient ways to decrease sail area in heavy weather. 

In heavy weather, a cutter will drop or furl her larger headsail – usually a yankee or a genoa. That leaves just the smaller inner staysail. This arrangement is superior to the standard sloop, which sails in high winds by reefing her headsail. The staysail, however, lowers the center of effort on the sail plan and maintains draft over the reefed mainsail. That makes the boat more stable, maintains performance, and reduces stresses on the rig. 

If you imagine the sailor going to sea and needing to reef, it’s easy to see how many more choices they have than the sloop sailor. While each sailor can reef their mainsail, a cutter skipper has full control over both headsails as well. 

Because a cutter rig spreads the load across two headsails, it’s easier to manage. There might be more sails, but each sail is smaller and has smaller loads on it. That makes cutters the preferred option for sailing offshore when short-handed, as are more cruising couples. 

Lastly, it has to be added that there’s something appealing about the traditional looks of a cutter. 

Disadvantages of a Cutter Rig

While there are many benefits of a cutter, there are drawbacks and disadvantages too. 

Sailors will have more lines to manage and more processes to think through. More sails mean more halyards and sheets. And when it comes to maintenance and upkeep, a cutter will have more standing and running rigging to replace, along with one more sail. 

Cutters are also harder to tack. You’ll be dealing with two headsails instead of just one. Many designs deal with this problem by making the staysail self-tacking. This has fallen out of favor, but it’s a great advantage if you find yourself short-tacking up or down rivers.

Regardless of whether you need to tack both headsails or not, getting the larger sail to tack through the slot and around the inner forestay is sometimes a challenge. Many skippers find themselves furling the headsail, at least partially, to complete the tack. 

Cutters need extra foretriangle room, which can mean adding a bowsprit, moving the mast back, or both. 

Cutter Rig Position

Looking at a cutter rigged sailboat diagram, you might see a bowsprit depicted. Often, cutters fly their yankee from a bowsprit. Bowsprits allow boat designers to increase the fore triangle’s size without making the mast taller. Other cutters don’t use a bowsprit and mount the yankee sail on the bow. 

A cutter sailboat might seem like more work. After all, there are two sails to trim and manage. In addition, you’ll have to perform maintenance on two sails and purchase and maintain double the hardware. 

However, the two headsail arrangement can be easier to manage when the sails are under load. Instead of having one jib or genoa to trim, the weight and pressure are spread across two sails. 

Mast Location

Today’s modern boat designers often focus on providing living space in the cabin. Designers often move the mast forward to create a larger, more open saloon. When the mast is forward, there’s less space to mount two headsails. A cutter sailboat needs a decent foretriangle area. 

A cutter rigged sailboat is also more expensive for boat builders. The deck must be strong enough to handle the inner forestay’s loads. Between the additional building costs, saloon design issues, and customers’ concern over increased complexity, boat builders often favor a single headsail. 

Easier on the Boat and Crew

Since the loads are distributed between two smaller sails instead of being handled by one large genoa. This means there’s less pressure on attachments points and hardware, and therefore less wear and tear. In addition, because there are separate attachment points on the deck for each sail, the load is distributed across the deck instead of focused on one spot. 

Because each headsail is smaller, the sails are easier to winch in, so the crew will find it easier to manage the sails.

There’s nothing cookie-cutter about a sailing cutter. From the cut of the jib to the configuration of the staysail, each cutter sailboat is unique. 

Yankee, Jib, or Genoa

Traditional cutters have a yankee cut headsail along with a staysail. The yankee is high-cut and usually has no overlap. The high cut improves visibility, and a yankee has less twist than a typical jib. By sloop standards, it looks very small, but on a cutter it works in unison with the staysail. 

A jib is a regular headsail that does not overlap the mast, while a genoa is a big jib that does overlaps. The amount of overlap is measured in percentage, so a 100-percent working jib fills the foretriangle perfectly. Other options include the 135 and 155-percent genoas, which are popular for sailors in light winds. 

The problem with using a big jib or genoa with a staysail is that there will often be a close overlap between the two headsails. If flown together, the air over the staysail interferes with the air over the outer sail, making each one slightly less efficient. In these cases, it’s often better to drop the staysail and leave it for when the wind pipes up. 

Roller Furler, Club, or Hank-On Sails

Sailors have many options to manage and store their cutter’s sails. Sailors can mix and match the options that work for them. 

Roller Furler vs Hank-on Sails

You can have both sails on roller furlers, both hanked on, or a mix of the two. 

Buying and maintaining two roller furlers is expensive, but it makes the sails easy to manage. You can easily unfurl, reef, and furl both headsails from the cockpit without having to work on the deck. 

Hank-on sails are fool-proof and offer less expense and maintenance. You can use a hank-on staysail, either loose-footed or club-footed, depending on your needs. Hank-on sails make sail changes easy and they never jam or come unfurled unexpectedly. 

The most common setup on most cutters is to have the larger yankee or jib on a furler, and the smaller and more manageable staysail hanked on.

Club-footed Staysail

A club-footed staysail is attached to a self-tacking boom. Since there is only one control sheet to handle, there’s a lot less work to do to tack from the cockpit. It tacks just like another mainsail. You can tack the yankee while the club-footed staysail self-tacks. 

Island Packets and many other cutters feature this arrangement, which makes tacking easy. 

However, a club-footed staysail takes up space on the foredeck–it’s always in the way. It’s harder to get to your windlass and ground tackle. In addition, it’s harder to store your dinghy on the foredeck under the staysail boom. The boom also presents a risk to anyone on the foredeck, since it can swing during tacks and jibes and is even lower to the deck than the mainsail boom.

Loose-footed Staysail

Keeping a loose-footed staysail on a furler clears space on the deck. Without the boom, you can more easily move around the foredeck, and you’ll have more space when you are managing the anchor. In addition, you can more easily store your dinghy on the foredeck. 

However, the staysail loses its self-tacking ability. You’ll now have to have staysail tracks for the sheet’s turning blocks and another set of sheet winches in the cockpit. When it comes time to tack the boat, you’ll have two headsails with four sheets and four winches to handle. Most owners choose to furl the outer headsail before the tack. Then, they can perform the maneuver using the staysail alone.

The good news is that most offshore boats are not tacking very often. If you’re on a multi-day passage, chances are you’ll only tack once or twice on the whole trip.

Downwind and Light Air Sails

There are a number of light air sails that will help your cutter perform better when the wind is light. Popular options include the code zero, gennaker, and asymmetrical spinnaker. 

Adding one of these sails to your inventory can make it a dream sailing machine. A code zero can be flown in light air. Since the cutter is already well equipped for sailing in heavy air, a light air sail really gives you the ability to tackle anything.

Sloop Rig, Ketch, and Yawl

While some describe a cutter as a cutter-rigged sloop or a sloop cutter, a modern sloop has one mast and one permanent headsail. 

But you’ll also find the cutter rig used on a ketch or a yawl. A cutter ketch or yawl offers a cruising sailor increased sail area and choices by adding the mizzen mast and sail behind. 

Sailing a cutter rigged boat is not that different from sailing a traditional sloop. Sailors will have to pay close attention to trim and tacking. 

Sailing a Cutter Rig to Windward

A cutter usually can’t point as high as a sloop when sailing to windward. The yankee hinders the staysail’s airflow, and the staysail starts to stall. 

Tacking a Sailboat Cutter

If you need to short tack up a narrow channel, and both your sails are loose-footed, you can roll up one of the headsails and just use one headsail to tack. Many staysails have a boom and are self-tacking. This means you can tack the yankee, and the staysail will take care of itself. 

Reefing a Cutter

A cutter sailboat has more options to easily get the right amount of sail. You can add a reef to your mainsail, then furl or reef the yankee a little, and then add another reef to the mainsail. As the wind increases, you can take the yankee in all together, and sail with a double-reefed mainsail and the staysail. Finally, you can add the third reef to the mainsail. Some staysails can be reefed, too.  

A cutter rig offers many options during heavy weather. For example, you may end up taking the mainsail down altogether and leaving the staysail up. Or, you might choose to replace the staysail with a tiny storm sail. 

Adding a storm jib on a sail cutter is much easier than a standard sloop. On a sloop, you’d have to remove the large genoa from the bow and then add the storm sail. This operation places the skipper in a challenging situation, which can be avoided on a cutter. 

On a cutter, you can remove the staysail and add the storm jib to the inner forestay. Working a little aft of the bow will give you increased stability while managing the staysail’s smaller load.  

While many modern sailboats are sloop-rigged, cutter-seeking sailors still have options. 

Rustler Yachts

While many new yachts have ditched the sturdy offshore cutter rig in favor of greater simplicity, Rustler is making a name for themselves by bringing it back. It’s still one of the best options for offshore sailing, and it’s great to see a modern yacht company using the rig to its full potential. 

The Rustler doesn’t need a bowsprit to accommodate its cutter rig. The Rustler is set up for single-handed and offshore cruising with all lines managed from the cockpit. Their smaller boats are rigged as easier-to-sail sloops for coastal hops, while the larger 42, 44, and 57 are rigged as true cutters with staysails and yankees.

Cabo Rico Cutters

Cabo Rico built cutters between 34 and 56 feet long. They aren’t currently in production but often come up on the used boat market. They are beautiful, semi-custom yachts that turn heads where ever they go. Of all the cutters the company built, the William Crealock-designed Cabo Rico 38 was the most long-lived, with about 200 hulls built. The second most popular design was the 34. The company also built a 42, 45, 47, and 56—but only a handful of each of these custom beauties ever left the factory. Most of the larger Cabo Ricos were designed by Chuck Paine.

Cabo Ricos have bowsprits, and the staysail is usually club-footed, although owners may have modified this. Cabo Ricos are known for their solid construction, beautiful teak interiors, and offshore capabilities. 

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Hold Fast Sailing (@sparrowsailing)

Pacific Seacraft

Pacific Seacraft features a full line of cutters. Pacific Seacraft boats are known for their construction, durability, and overall quality.

Just a few of the best-known cutters built by Pacific Seacraft include the following.

• Pacific Seacraft/Crealock 34
• Pacific Seacraft/Crealock 37
• Pacific Seacraft 40

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Island Packet Yachts

Island Packet boats are probably the most popular cutter design available today. Designer and company founder Bob Johnson created beautiful cutter-rigged full-keel boats with shallow drafts that were very popular around Florida, the Bahamas, and the east coast of the US.  

Island Packets are known for their comfortable, spacious layouts. Older models could be ordered from the factory as either sloop or cutter-rigged. The result is that you see a mix of the two, as well as plenty of cutters that have removed their staysails to make a quasi-sloop. 

Island Packet is still in business today, but now favors solent-rigged sloops with twin headsails. 

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Hess-Designed Cutters

Lyle Hess designed several famous cutter-rigged boats, including the Falmouth Cutter 22 and the Bristol Channel Cutter 28. These gorgeous boats are smaller than most cruising boats but are a joy to sail. Lyle Hess’ designs were popularized by sailing legends Lin and Larry Pardey, who sailed their small wood-built cutters Serraffyn and Taleisin around the world multiple times.

These beautiful cutters have a timeless look like no other boats. They have inspired many other designs, too. You’ll find them built from both wood or fiberglass, but a variety of builders and yards have made them over the years.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Professional photographer (@gary.felton)

Cutter rigged boats offer cruising sailors a flexible sail plan that’s perfect for offshore sailing. Sailors can adjust the amount of sail according to the current wind conditions. Traditional cutters were known for being fast and agile, and today’s cutters carry on the tradition with pride. 

What is a cutter rigged yacht?

A cutter rigged yacht features two headsails. One headsail, usually a high-cut yankee, is all the way forward, either on a bowsprit or the bow. The staysail is smaller and attached to an inner forestay.

What is the advantage of a cutter rig?

A cutter rig offers cruising sailors more flexibility. They can easily increase and decrease the sail area and choose the optimum combination for the sailing conditions. While there are more lines and sails to handle, each sail is smaller and therefore easier to manage.

Matt has been boating around Florida for over 25 years in everything from small powerboats to large cruising catamarans. He currently lives aboard a 38-foot Cabo Rico sailboat with his wife Lucy and adventure dog Chelsea. Together, they cruise between winters in The Bahamas and summers in the Chesapeake Bay.

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• Cutter Rig Sailboat

Why the Cutter Rig Sailboat Is My First Choice for Cruising

The cutter rig sailboat has two jibs, the foremost one usually a high-cut yankee set on the forestay and the other a staysail set on an inner forestay. It's a flexible, easy to handle rig, which is why I - along with a lot of other cruising sailors - am such a fan of it.

Admittedly a cutter rigged sailboat is not quite as efficient to windward as a sloop rigged version, but its other benefits outweigh this small mark against it.

Often both foresails are on furling gears, but I prefer to have a furling gear on the forestay only so that I can get rid of the hanked-on staysail and replace it with a hanked-on storm jib if I need to.

The inner forestay (or cutter stay) exerts a forward load on the mast which has to be resisted. This usually achieved by either aft-intermediate stays or running backstays.

Types of Cutter Rig Sailboats

There are two variants of the cutter rig:~

One where the yankee is set on a bowsprit and the staysail attached to the bow.

This arrangement is normally found on heavy displacement sailboats , as a way of increasing the size of the fore triangle without having to extend the height of the mast.

No Bowsprit

The other where the whole rig is contained inboard, with no bowsprit like the sailboat on the right.

You'll find cutter rigs on sloops , ketches and yawls too.

Examples of these are shown below:~

Tacking a Cutter Rig Sailboat

This is slightly more complicated than with a sloop as you've got two headsails and an extra pair of sheets to deal with when going about. Here's how we do it on Alacazam :~

• centralise the mainsheet on its track;
• put the helm over and release the yankee sheet as she goes through the wind;
• let go the working runner and set the other one;
• let go the staysail sheet and haul in on the working yankee sheet;
• haul in on the the staysail sheet;
• trim the yankee until the telltales are flying nicely, then do the same with the staysail and finally the main.

Many staysails are set on a self-tacking boom, which means that going-about is simplicity itself. However, unless you do a lot of short-tacking with both headsails set, this benefit is outweighed by the additional hardware. In my view, that is!

The staysail boom may well mean that you won't be able to stow your upturned dinghy on the foredeck. Not that this is an issue in Harmonium's case as she carries her dinghy in davits.

Reducing Sail on a Cutter Rig Sailboat

Reefing a cutter in deteriorating conditions usually goes like this:~

• put first reef in the mainsail, then;
• put a few rolls in the yankee;
• put second reef in the mainsail;
• furl the yankee completely;
• put third reef in the mainsail.

This will leave you with a deep reefed mainsail and a staysail set on the inner forestay, which should serve you well right up to full gale conditions. It's storm jib and trysail territory after that.

Off The Wind with a Cutter Rig Sailboat

On a reach you'll find it very easy to balance your sailboat perfectly with a cutter rig, such that the windvane self-steering gear will have no difficulty in keeping her on course.

But when the wind drops and falls well aft of the beam the staysail (now blanketed by the mainsail) starts to flap and disturbs any airflow into the yankee, you're effectively sailing under mainsail alone.

With a sloop you'd probably pole the genoa out to windward in these conditions and sail wing-and-wing.

This isn't an option with the cutter rig as you'd be under-canvassed with just a yankee set on the forestay - you'll need a spinnaker, a prospect that doesn't fill some sailboat cruisers' hearts with joy.

On Alacazam we just drop both sails and hoist our colourful asymmetric spinnaker, which is a classy name for a cruising chute.

Alternatively you could turn your cutter into a slutter...

The Slutter Rig

Slutter isn't a formal term - it sounds a bit derogatory - but most cruising sailors will know what's meant by it.

It's so called because it's a combination of a sloop rig and a cutter rig, the crucial difference being that a furling genoa is set on the forestay in place of the yankee, but no staysail is set (initially) on the inner forestay.

This is a sloop rig at this point, so windward ability isn't compromised at all, and the genoa can be poled out when sailing downwind.

The inner forestay is likely to prevent the genoa blowing through smoothly when you go about, so it's best to roll it in a few turns before you go through the wind.

Reducing Sail on a Slutter

Reefing a slutter in deteriorating conditions might go like this:~

• roll a few turns in the genoa
• roll a few more turns in the genoa
• first reef in the mainsail
• second reef in the mainsail.
• furl the genoa completely and hoist the staysail
• third reef in the mainsail.

As with the conventional cutter you've now got a deeply reefed main and staysail which will sail through all but the most depressing conditions.

So what's it for you, slutter or cutter rig sailboat? We usually set the cutter rig on Alacazam , as it's a great reaching rig for cruising through the Windward and Leeward Islands of the Caribbean.

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What’s in a Rig? The Cutter Rig

By: Pat Reynolds Sailboat Rigs , Sailboats

What’s in a Rig Series #2

A variation on the last installment of What’s in a Rig (the sloop) is the Cutter Rig. Although it has gone through some changes through the course of history, the modern cutter rig is generally a set-up with two headsails. The forward sail is called the yankee and the one slightly behind it is the staysail.

Cutter rigs are a choice a cruising sailor might opt for more offshore work. Since longer passages usually means encountering heavier weather, the cutter rig can be the perfect choice to have a ready-to-go balanced sailplan when the wind picks up. They are not quite as easy to tack as sloops, but since cruisers go for days without tacking, the ability to quickly furl the yankee and have a small staysail up in a stiff breeze is worth the sacrifice.

Cutter rig fans also enjoy the balance it provides. A small staysail set farther back on the boat and a reefed main is a very solid arrangement on a windy day and for cruisers who want to be comfortable in 25-knots, this is important. Also, a staysail makes heaving-to easier – this is a task far more utilized by the cruising sailor.

So, there you have it – the cutter rig is a set-up preferred by sailors on a voyage. They have disadvantages in how they tack but strengths in how they behave in open-ocean conditions.

What's in a Rig Series:

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