I was very interested to read the letter from Stephen Newbold, in the Spring issue, about yawl rigs. I felt I should make some reply because it is my Wayfarer which has a mizzen mast and a kettle welded to the top of the primes.

I cruised my boat for some time with its standard rig and always found it quite satisfactory and easy to handle. I say standard, but not quite, because almost as soon as I bought it I had reef points fitted to give me a deep slab reef of approximately 3 ft 6 ins. No point in messing about, if you need a reef have a good 'un! Eventually of course John Deacon got hold of me and started to indoctrinate me on the advantages of a yawl rig. He even sold me an old suit of sails with a 15 sq. ft. mizzen and a 60 sq. ft. main, to make sure I tried the system out.

A temporary mizzen mast was soon made out of old timber and was fixed on the centre line of the boat, up the front face of the aft buoyancy tank. This is about 3 ft. forward of the transom. This mast was unstayed and fitted with a boom which was sheeted down to the original mainsheet horse track across the top of the transom. This sheet then led forward to my hand or a jam cleat on the side of the mast.

The tiller problem was easily overcome by discarding the original long tiller and making up a new "short" one which just cleared the aft side of the mizzen mast. As I habitually sit down in the rear corners of cockpit to steer, this new tiller suited me fine. The "new" smaller main was first flown boomless and sheeted in a similar manner to a foresail with the sheets leading from the clew to two blocks fixed to the top outer corners of the transom with the free ends coming forward to a jam cleat on the centre case.

I found this rig eminently suitable for the longer open water trips where one is on the same tack for maybe two to three hours. The boomless main was superb in strong winds but not so good in light weather, so after a while I made up a light boom fitted with centre sheeting, and this was a big improvement for all round work. Although this was now a great rig for the longer trips it left a lot to be desired for short tacking such as wriggling through crowded moorings or harbours, it being particularly poor on the wind, especially in light conditions and with any adverse current.

It may be possible to cure this weak drive whilst "on the wind" by having a larger main and/or mizzen. However this would have brought more problems such as a taller main mast, or moving the mizzen further aft. This letter would have made the mounting very difficult. All things considered I did not feel inclined to tackle these possible modifications because I am not entirely convinced that the extra complications of the yawl rig are worthwhile on the Wayfarer. This opinion may be due to the boat being fitted with a 2 cwt steel centre-plate which makes it very stable and well able to stand up to its canvas without sitting out, except perhaps in a very heavy squall - and I try to avoid that sort of weather if I can.

As an inveterate "trier out of ideas", when time allows I want to try out some other types of rig, so if you chance across a Wayfarer with a junk rig or maybe a spritsail, it may be me, but one thing is sure - the kettle will still be on! Jim Smith