Wight rig

[Leonard BADDELEY]

I have a Wight 30 Yawl and would like to do away with the mizzen mast so I have less sheets etc to deal with. Does anyone have experience sailing a Wight or a Malin with out using the mizzen? If so what is the helm, weather, lee or balanced?

[Rob Wombwell]

Hi there Leonard
I’m surprised you’re contemplating this. I also have a WIGHT II which I keep on the East Coast (Walton-on-the-Naze) and mainly sail singlehanded. I’ve come from a traditional cutter rig and I have learned to greatly appreciate having a Mizzen. Being singlehanded I sail on Jib and Mizzen and don’t bother with the Main. I find having smaller sails easier to manage, but trimming the Mizzen is vital – if not matched to the wind direction it’ll cause weather helm or lee drift. I now have an autohelm on the boat, but before that I was continually tweaking the Mizzen sheet to keep her on course. When I’ve sailed her on Jib and Main she sails OK but you can feel the centre of balance is too far fwd. However, if it was my boat I’d maybe try it for a season, but keep everything intact so I could re-rig her if unsatisfactory. One suggestion is to beg/borrow a longer boom and Main from someone with a cutter rig to see if by putting a bigger Main on you could bring the centre of balance back. Bets of luck with it.

[Peter Lloyd]

Hi Leonard
Like Roy I like the Mizzen sail with Genoa when single handed, particularly in stronger winds. When going down wind my Mizzen can sometimes be a bit of a handful, but that is probably because the sail is a little old and baggy. However, I also quite often sail with only main and my 130 Genoa. I would say the boat is probably better balanced with just these two sails. I do though have a 4ft bow sprit which probably changes its balance quite a lot. Have you tried using different combinations of sails?

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