Members' Online Book: Sail Handling and Rigging Made Easy, Chapter 16 of 42

A Different View—Hank-On Sails

John Published Mar 8, 2012 52 comments Updated July 19, 2019

[We just got an interesting and very well reasoned email from Lane Finley, a very experienced voyager who sails out of New Zealand with his wife Kaye on their beautiful classic Luders designed Annapolis 44 cutter Mai Tai, pictured above.]

By Lane Finley

Most people will believe that anyone advocating hank-on sails over roller furling in our modern world is certifiably crazy. Just look at the local marina, a sea of masts, all with roller furling systems on at least the head stay. It is very rare to find a boat today with hank-on sails. They are seen to be “old fashion”. But have they really been surpassed by modern furling sails? I think not.

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Meet the Author

John

John was born and brought up in Bermuda and started sailing as a child, racing locally and offshore before turning to cruising. He has sailed over 100,000 miles, most of it on his McCurdy & Rhodes 56, Morgan's Cloud, including eight ocean races to Bermuda, culminating in winning his class twice in the Newport Bermuda Race. He has skippered a series of voyages in the North Atlantic, the majority of which have been to the high latitudes. John has been helping others go voyaging by sharing his experience for twenty years, first in yachting magazines and, for the last 12 years, as co-editor/publisher of AAC.

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