Sportsboat - Rig Design and Sail Plan

Rig Design and Sail Plan

Sportboats are generally characterised by a tall mast for their hull length, a correspondingly large main sail and non-overlapping Jib (a headsail that does not extend rearward past the mast).

Many sportsboat designs feature asymmetric spinnakers and, like skiffs, they are often sailed downwind by sailing a series of broad reaches in a shallower zig-zag pattern than with traditional symmetrical spinnakers.

As with the large mainsails, spinnakers are also generally much larger for a given hull size than had previously been used. Many sportsboats are fitted with an extendible bowsprit of 4–8 feet (1.2-2.5m) length, which moves the tack of the spinnaker away forward from the hull and allows better airflow and a larger sail size.

Some like the larger Thompsons and Phuket 8 feature a bowsprit that is both extendible as well as articulating - able to move from side to side - which is a system first used by Greg Young in the Bull series of boats, enabling the asym boat to sail at deeper angles downwind as the pole is squared back. For lighter smaller sportboats such as the Shaws, Vipers and wider French boats, the downwind performance aims to get the boats planing as early as possible, and thus the weight saved from using a simple extendable prod only is considered more valuable than the gains from articulation.