Sailing Yabá · video

What this video covers

Ben and MP, sailing a two-masted vessel named Yabá in Paraty, Brazil, decide to convert the boat from Bermuda rig to gaff rig to gain sail area for low-wind passages and better upwind performance. The existing sails — worn, cracked, and torn after a year and a half of use — are patched with sail tape as a stopgap while new sails are built.1:02 Ben explains the gaff rig conversion in detail: a second boom (the gaff) raises the head of the mainsail beyond the triangular Bermuda shape, producing a larger, more voluminous sail plan; the permanent backstay will be removed and replaced with running backstays and additional aft shrouds; the headsail furlers may be replaced with hanked jibs to allow sail changes on the fly.6:30 Ben climbs both masts to take precise measurements — boom length 6.73 m, stay height 8.13 m — recording them in a proportional sketch for the sailmaker.20:08 Yabá's current rig rules her out of a local regatta in Paraty, so Ben crews instead on another boat with Captain Christian, sailing mainsail, jib, code zero, and spinnaker (with a bamboo spinnaker pole) over two laps.26:06 That boat wins.28:37 Sail area, not anchor weight, drives the decision to re-rig: the crew concludes the Bermuda plan is unworkable for open-ocean passages in variable winds.4:45

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