MAYAN - The Missing History

MAYAN approaching Pt. Loma

All boats have bits of their history that are lost forever, most of which doesn't matter at all to anyone. But MAYAN has been such a well loved boat that it remains rather odd that no one can determine when her rig changed.

When she was built, she sported what is now referred to as a "transitional schooner rig". This can been seen in the early picture

MAYAN's original rig

where the mainsail is what was then called a jib-headed main, we now call those marconi mainsails. This kind of mainsail was introduced to reduce the size of the crew required to sail a schooner. Marconi mainsails had also proven to be much faster in racing sloops of the '20s and '30s. During the '30s many schooners were built with jib-headed mains, and MAYAN carried on that tradition.

The transitional schooners continued to carry on the gaff-headed foresail of the past.  For those of you who aren't sailors, the "gaff" is the wooden pole that runs diagonally across the top of the foresail (the sail between the two masts that is hoisted form the foremast.) It was easier to get performance from the gaff headed foresail than it was from a gaff-headed main because one could pull the gaff to windward with a gaff-vang that lead to the front side of the mainmast without over-tightening the leach of the sail.  Also, the gaff on the foresail is substantially smaller than the gaff on the mainsail, so a large crew wasn't required to corral the thing when reefing or striking the sail.

Sometime, between about 1950 and 1969 MAYAN was converted to a staysail schooner, her current rig. Staysail schooners replace the gaff-headed foresail with a main staysail, a triangular sail that is set from the front of the main mast to the base of the foremast much like the fore staysail.  You can see the jib like sail between the masts in the picture of MAYAN at the top of this page.

Above the main staysail various sized main topmast staysails are set with all sorts of romantic names. While technically all are main topmast staysails, the romantic names are much more popular than just saying something like: "Hoist the #1 MTS." There is a real ring to shouting: "Hoist the Gollywobbler!" These staysails, from the smallest to the largest, are named the: Little Fisherman, Fisherman, Advance and Gollywobbler. Clearly, much more fun that numbers 4 through 1. This is analogous to calling the larger outer jib that flies from the bowsprit the Genoa as opposed to the #1 Jib.

Starling Burgess schooner ADVANCE

This rig conversion was a very common conversion for two reasons. First, the desire for less crew was served again. Without a gaff on the foresail one person can hoist, reef and strike the main staysail easily.  Second, the staysail schooner rig had started winning races. Starling Burgess and John Alden were competitors as yacht designers and their competition played out in races like the Bermuda Race and the Trans-Atlantic races of the era. Burgess had shaken the sailing world with a small staysail schooner named NIÑA, which finished first in the Trans-Atlantic Race to Spain by sailing closer to the wind than her much larger gaff-headed competitors. He had also dominated local races with an innovative 88' schooner named the ADVANCE. The large upwind main topmast staysail called the "advance" is named in her honor. Below you can see an advance staysail working well with a genoa and mainsail on the beautiful S&S schooner SANTANA. This innovation kept staysail schooners competitive with sloops and cutters for a few more years.

Owners immediately started to demand staysail schooner rigs from Alden, who reportedly resisted them. Alden was one of the few schooner owners who was also a first class racer. He knew that the added sail area of a gaff rig was helpful on a reach and that many ocean races were primarily reaches. But eventually the pressure of competition and owner's demands for less crew forced him to move to the staysail schooner rig and eventually to yawls and ketches. 

Just to make a point, Alden's final personal class win in the Bermuda race was achieved in a transitional schooner, with her gaff headed foresail drawing perfectly as she crossed the finish line. This was over a decade after everyone else had given up on the rig. Olin Stephens mused that Alden would have probably won the entire race, rather than just his class, if he'd been willing to race one of the fast Alden Yawls.

With this background, it's not at all surprising that MAYAN was re-rigged as a staysail schooner. Indeed, it's surprising she wasn't built in 1947 with that rig. But sailors are a conservative lot, their lives depend upon it, and they adopt innovations only when well proven. Now MAYAN finds herself as a grand old girl sporting a rig long since designated obsolete by racing sailors. But Stacey and Beau can easily sail her without help and her small sails make it easy to set, reef and strike each of them. Perhaps more importantly, there are lots of lines and sails for guests and grandchildren to call their own; and she sports one of the most beautiful rigs ever designed for a sailing boat.

For one final bit of fun, in the picture below the Alden 83' staysail schooner SERENA is sporting her rig for the TransPac race to Hawaii. From bow to stern she is flying a fore spinnaker, fore spinnaker staysail, gollywobbler (the gigantic sail with two stripes), and mainsail. There is no rig that can hold up more sail area on a reach, or look better doing it.