Mac 19 Main Sail only sailing?

[Alyn9999]

For the few of you here who have/had an M19, I have just put about 16 hours of sailing in on my fully restored M19. It sails much better than I thought it would and I love it so much more than my Mac 26M for single handing, -- much less tippy and, surprisingly, not that much slower. But I am having issues sailing under MAIN SAIL ONLY in light wind. I cannot get the boat to move, period. It just stalls. Not necessarily in irons either, on any angle, it just won't move. Trimming the main sheet doesn't help, CB position doesn't help, outboard up or down doesn't help. My 26M sailed great with just the main in light winds. Is sailing with just the main even possible on an M19 in light wind? Or any wind for that matter? BTW, my mast bend is about 4 degrees per the recommendation in the manual. My rig has just been tuned with a Loos gauge. With the 150 Genny it beats and tacks perfectly, it's just under the main that it stalls out. I have the stock rudders and don't want to spend $800 for the Ida/Ruddercraft rudders if I can avoid it. With the Genny the stock rudders are doing fine. I'm running the stock Tohatsu 40 with just me on the boat and hardly any excess gear but the gas tank.

Thanks for any tips in advance!

[Stickinthemud57]

Could you define "light wind"? 8 mph? 5 mph? I can see why you might like to keep things simple by going under main only, but in light air, having a good balance between foresail and mainsail is especially important to attain decent speed. It is odd that it just won't sail period.

[Alyn9999]

'Light' as in under 5-6 knots I have no problem using both sails obviously, am just trying to learn what the boat will do. I have had a few sailboats, mainly bigger, 40-50' range, and I have never run into a boat that doesn't move under main only, even under 5 knots. the 19 has a bit more of a power hull shape than even an X, so thinking it may be the hull design. Or I'm missing something. I haven't had stronger winds here yet so don't know if it's still and issue at 10+ wind ranges.

[Stickinthemud57]

Well, it seems unlikely it is any flaw on your part, given your experience.

Maybe an unfortunate result of design compromises?

[Be Free]

If the wind is behind you I can't imagine anything that would keep the boat from moving. I can't believe the main is not large enough to move the boat downwind in 5 knots of wind.

If you are trying to go upwind on the main in light air you may have accidentally hove to. Without the jib the boat will have a significant weather helm. You may have just found a "sweet spot" where the boat heaves to as soon as it tries to move.

On a slightly related question, why do you want to sail with the main only in light winds? Is it just to see what will happen? If so, know you know. In those conditions I'd just use the foresail if I only wanted to use a single sail.

[Alyn9999]

This boat is new to me after a lot of other boats so just trying to see what it does in case of the many emergencies that can arise out there, specifically say my engine fails and furler fails, etc. and I've only got main left. Sailing jib/genny only on the 19 works great so I think your accidently "hove to" idea may be right. I've been trying to do this after motoring slowly into the wind to raise the main, then raising the engine and trying to fall off to sail. In light winds upwind it does seem to fall off at first then it tracks back and stabilizes, locking in, much like heaving to. So today I'll raise it then use the engine to power me around to a broad reach and see if it sails. If it does then your theory may be correct!

[Alyn9999]

SOLVED: Another 3-5mph wind day so spent a couple hours and finally solved it. After pointing up to raise the main only, I could not fall off so I used an oar to force me to fall off 45 degrees. I kept the rudder straight, centerboard half-way down (per the Mac 19 manual for main only) and played around with steering the boat with just the main sheet to dial it in. By easing both the outhaul and main halyard I managed to power up the main enough to stop it from rounding up or stalling. Once I got the right sail shape I found the tiller could indeed control the boat. I doubt under main only I can ever get out of irons after raising it dead to the wind but that's a simple matter of using the engine or an oar to force it. Once that's done I found I could maneuver the 19 on any point of sail with just the main. Sail shape is critical but it can be done in emergency. Thanks for all the input.

[Be Free]

I'm glad you figured it out. There is probably a fairly small window of wind speed where this would happen. With a little more wind you would probably be able to move albeit with a lot more weather helm than usual.

I experimented with my X in a similar fashion early on. I did not have the problems you reported sailing under main only. It moved slowly but I found it almost impossible to tack without the jib.

[Alyn9999]

I think what threw me is I had the 26M with a custom high roach main and a 100% jib. That boat sailed all day long beautifully with just the main and was actually enjoyable to sail like that. My Beneteau 473 with a classic main performed the same. On the M19 the main is fairly small (83 sg ft) and this boat really likes the genoa to move it along in light winds.