Sail Plan Schooner Trinovante

Schooner Trinovante Sail Plan

The following sail plans show how the schooner Trinovante might reduce sail as the wind increases.
Depending on wind direction and sea conditions various sail combinations will be used. Factors to be taken into consideration include, the general trend of the wind – is it increasing or decreasing, the abilities of the crew, if it’s day or night, the sea state, whether we’ve just made a cup of tea and how quickly we want to get to our destination. There are no hard and fast rules. In practice, unless we are racing in the Tall Ships Race, we don’t tend to do a lot of reefing, we just drop whole sails.
You can see more of how this rig works in the Learn To Sail A Schooner Articles by John, the skipper of Trinovante.

Sail Plan No.1

This shows full sail set. We would carry this amount of sail off the wind up to around force 5/6. Hard on the wind we might remove the aft fishermans a little earlier when it tends to increase heel without giving any extra speed.

Sail Plan No. 2

The aft fishermans is off and the mizzen has been reefed to improve balance. Often we just take the mizzen off at this stage and generally only bother to reef it if we are on the wind and want to keep as much sail on as possible. The boat is generally easier to tack with this sail combination if the mizzen is still set.

Sail Plan No.3

Here the no.1 Jib has been removed and the working jib set . The mizzen is fully off. Reducing the sail area forward balances up taking the mizzen fully off aft. However we often sail with the mizzen off and the no.1 jib set and this works fine too if you are not expecting the wind to keep increasing or if you are off the wind. It all depends how hard you want to push the boat.

Sail Plan No.4

Now we are starting to be significantly reduced on the sail area.

Sail Plan No.5

Here the working jib is off too. All the sail area is low down and well within the boat. It means we don’t have to go out on the bowsprit or work on the aft deck as the sea gets rougher. It is now fairly straight forward to gradually reduce sail further by reefing the foresail and mainsail and stay sail or just dropping individual sails right until we get down to bare poles. It’s is going to be pretty windy now. If we are on the wind maybe force 7 and over.

Schooner Sailing Holidays

Voyages In Date Order

SchoonerSail Limited

Sailing In Orkney

October 31, 2021

Thurs 16th to Thurs 23rd June 2022
7 Nights
FULL
High summer sailing and exploring in the Orkney Islands

SchoonerSail

Orkney to Shetland & Shetland to Orkney

October 31, 2021

Wed 29th June to Wed 6th July 2022
7 Nights
FULL
A voyage from Shetland To Orkney Or Orkney To Shetland

Walking ashore on a sailing holiday in Shetland

Sailing In Shetland

November 2, 2021

Wed 29th June to Wed 6th July
7 Nights
FULL
A sailing holiday in Shetland with time to explore ashore.

The Schooner Trinovante enters Whitby Harbour on a UK Sailing Holiday. Copyright Alan Green.

Kirkwall, Orkney To Whitby

May 1, 2018

5th Aug To 13th Aug 2022
FULL
Sail south along the Scottish coast across the Moray Firth and past Bass Rock.

View through a port hole of the sea - taken on a UK Sailing Holiday.

SchoonerSail Limited

Whitby To Harwich

May 1, 2018

18th Aug to 24th Aug 2022
6 Nights
Set sail on the old collier route. Offshore and Coastal Sailing

Southen Pier at sunset with rigging blocks in the foreground

SchoonerSail

Ipswich To London

November 3, 2021

Sun 28th Aug To Thurs 1st Sept
4 Nights
One Space Only
Sail on the East Coast rivers and up to the centre of London.

The schooner Trinovante sailing off Felixstowe

London to Harwich

July 8, 2022

Sun 4th Sept To Thurs 8th Sept
4 Nights £680
Spaces Available
Sail from the centre of London to the historic port of Harwich.