We recently sent out a seamanship and navigation email newsletter with info about trysails. We got some great feedback, including this response from Butch Ulmer, Former Commodore of the Storm Trysail Club:

“Good article about trysails. Here are a couple of additions your readers might be interested in.

1. Sheeting the trysail to the main boom put’s the mainsheet trimming hardware to work and leaves your cockpit winches free to do other jobs.
2. Use one of your mainsail reef lines to sheet the trysail to the boom and once the trysail is sheeted home, tie a safety line through the clew and around the boom (2 or 3 turns) just in case.
3. Bring the trysail track down the mast to 12-18” off the deck. You can bend the trysail on before you leave the dock and it can live there in its bag while you’re offshore.
4. If you have enough warning of an impending storm, you can take your mainsail off the boom and store it below.
5. The trysail tack should have two pendants, one to control the height of the trysail, one to tie around the mast.
6. The trysail should be made using Storm Orange material so it can be more easily seen from the air.
7. The trysail should have two slides in close proximity to each other at the head and tack.

“A good, solid inner forestay arrangement is the jib rig for heavy weather. A hanked-on forestaysail can be followed by a hanked-on storm jib. Much safer than working out at the stem and the hanked-on sails are always under control.”