new to the forum/sail suggestions

[DeanA]

Hi Folks,
My son bought Sta-Sea Dawn, which was Billy & Bev's boat. They were great to work with on the transaction. Anyway, once he gets settled in, he'll join the forum too. He'd been looking for a 365 ketch for several months until the purchase just after Irma swept through the Tampa area. The boat came through almost unscathed. Some solar panel damage was as all it got. He's not renamed the boat yet.

The only sails on the boat are a roller furled jib, main with 2 reefs, and a mizzen with one reef set. I'd appreciate hearing from others about their sail plan for strong winds or gales. Seems like for Sta-Sea Dawn she'd need a 3rd reef in the main (in lieu of a storm tri-sail), maybe 2nd in the mizzen, for starters. Cutter rigs can hoist a storm jib on the staysail stay. I haven't seen a 365 with that stay. What do you use? From the following article, it seems that might be a job to install:
http://www.cruisingworld.com/how/rig-staysail

ATN Gail Sail Storm jib, which mounts on the roller furled jib,  seemed not up to the task compared with a true storm jib according to Cruising World.

Thanks for your help!
Dean

[Dale Tanski]

Dean,
Although it may seem romantic to be a storm chaser on a windswept sea of foam, where is he planning on going with this boat? If he is a coastal cruiser better to show some discretion and pick a better weather window.  Most of us thankfully will never see 30 plus for more than a few minutes at a time and that's a good thing. If he is going out there, WAY out there that's another story but he will be a small percentage point. Before I would worry about sail selection, the rest of the boat, every bit of the rest of the boat must be gone over and made right. Every system must be up to 40 plus because mother nature does not offer a "do over" or "reset" button.
The Gale sail that fits over a furled head sail isn't up to the job because who wants a furled 150% in 40 plus? We replace the weak ones often and they seldom see 30 knots before they unwrap at the dock and beat the snot out of the rig before becoming confetti. 
If you are heading into weather that is going to kick your ass, that sun kissed head sail should be below where it belongs and a true storm jib in its place. People argue "I don't want to go forward in a blow", what are you going to do when the furled head sail becomes semi unfurled and you have a "storm sail" sleeved around it?
Setting a boat up correctly to deal with wind speeds you hope you never see costs money, big money to do it right. Adding a 2nd reef to the mizzen (approx 90ish square feet when at full bloom) isn't going to do the job.  A 3rd reef in the main will help but will the main take the loads heading its way?  Storm sails are designed to be bullet proof and hopefully never be removed from their sail bags.  Perhaps this post needs another approach...
Dale

[SVJourney]

We sailed over 18k miles in our 365, saw over 30 knots numerous times and only used the 3 sails you just described.  We did reef the main to 50% at times, then took it down completely in 30 knots.  We did use jib and mizzen at times, then took the mizzen down in 30+ knots.  In 30+ we either lied ahull if wanting to go to weather or all we used was a scrap of head sail if the wind was behind the beam.  Our 365 ran EXTREEMLY well with just a tiny scarp of headsail up.

Like Dale said, huge $$ for storm sails.  Better to invest in a drag device and making the cockpit storm worthy for less $$ than storm sails.

Our take away was to have GOOD sails. GREAT sails.  The most important thing was not to have them come apart in a blow.  Buy some new ones from a well regarded sail maker and those three sails should be all you need for a storm.  The only other sails we would want would be easy to tend light air sails as no wind was FAR more prominent than 30+ knots.

[DeanA]

Thanks very much Dale and Wayne for your replies. Thanks too for all those posts you've made over the years. They are very helpful.

Following up from Dale's' comments....For the near term, my son plans to be doing weekends to short weeks out of Corpus Christie. We got a great weather window in the northern Gulf in late Sept after Irma went through and sailed from Tampa to Corpus. Did catch a thunderstorm though (we got the forecasted 10% chance of rain) which brought me to ask the questions about heavy winds. Shelf and roll cloud developed as it approached so we rolled up the jib, doused the main, and reefed the mizzen figuring if that was too much sail we could most easily handed that one. Went to close haul then cranked the wheel over to windward and we rode it out comfortably.

Dean