Most satisfying sail purchase you have made....,.

[Guest 85]

Curious to know of fill the gap sail or general purpose, code sail, Ax, gennaker, etc you have bought, and how much you use it?

 

 

[K4309 271]

After years of old baggy 'potatoe sack' sails, and trying to kick the can down the road with second hand sails, getting our first new, purposed designed and built sail was an absolute revaluation in boat handling and performance.

The first one was just a cross cut dacron (we have moved onto radial cut cruising laminates now), but we went from being over-powered in gusts and healing over like a bastard, to driving forward in gusts and pointing higher. Boat goes to windward like a freight train now, and with decsent sails we have the ability to fine tune to improve performance and wind range (flatten sail off to de-power, move car back to twist out leach etc).

So I would say the most satisfying sail purchase I ever made was a cross cut dacron blade jib built by Dave Giddens, waaayy back in maybe 2009. We've had new asymetrics / reachers and what not, but that one low spec, simple blade jib was amaz-balls.

[harrytom 650]

Each I have owned came with a MPs.used way more than a kite.even the boys when younger could handle it

[Guest 85]

38 minutes ago, harrytom said:

Each I have owned came with a MPs.used way more than a kite.even the boys when younger could handle it

Yep, seriously considering MPS or Gennaker. Don't really understand the difference. Then there's A1.5's etc

I'm keen on free luff to windward type, but that maybe getting too specialised.

What sort of wind range HT? Also weight and material? Do you use with a prod? Thanks!

[harrytom 650]

Medium weight cruising.connect through bow roller.used when reaching or piles out.crusing only but help gohst in light.carried up to about 15 knt.

[Black Panther 1,600]

New j8b a few years back, pointing improved about 5degrees. Thanks Lidgards

[Guest 85]

Two votes for a blade.  That will save me some! Dollars and distance.

[Island Time 1,246]

hands down a Norths A2. Replaced an MPS. Use it all the time, 150deg up to about 60 apparent. Way more fwd power and less heeling than the old mps, and easy to handle solo - its in an ATN sock, but probably go for a top down furler now... 

Videos from this weekend...

[Guest 85]

Cheers!  And what weight fabric and wind speed does it cover? Obviously less as wind moves forward, but something like 5-15knts, 160-70 true?

 In a gust as boat speeds up, and apparent moves forward things would heat up quickly, I guess as wind more on beam?

Saturday would have been fun, with odd gust to 20.

[ballystick 73]

We replaced our old main and genoa for these formed sails from Sam Burton, they were so nice to use in moderate conditions and looked like real race sails as used in real competition race boats

[Island Time 1,246]

So wind speed depends on angle. 12 knots (true) at 60 deg apparent is fully powered up. Down deep, say 150 app, can hold it to about 18-20 - but don't round up!! Cant remember the cloth weight - ask Booboo - he made it! In about 18 knots true, and 150 app angle, boat speed is about 10 knots, so radical wind speed over deck if you loose it and round up!

[K4309 271]

1 hour ago, Island Time said:

So wind speed depends on angle. 12 knots (true) at 60 deg apparent is fully powered up. Down deep, say 150 app, can hold it to about 18-20 - but don't round up!! Cant remember the cloth weight - ask Booboo - he made it! In about 18 knots true, and 150 app angle, boat speed is about 10 knots, so radical wind speed over deck if you loose it and round up!

I would say that is 1.5oz cloth.

I've got one that does similar performance which is 1.5 oz cloth. Don't think I've got the balls to take it to 60deg true in 12 knots (and it's not cut that flat, my one) but it can certainly beam reach, tight reach and deep reach very well in the same windspeeds. We've even used it like a chicken-chute deep-off in 25 gusting 30 ish (didn't last long though, my boat is not designed to plane, and to do so is 'bad luck' for the gear).

Mine looks very similar (accept mine is black), narrow shoulders, relatively high tack, luff length not a lot greater than the forestay so you can point fairly high, code zero style, but still a good step down from a zero. Not going for huge sail area, but very versatile and easy to handle solo or 2 up. Designed to run off the stem so there is no f**king around with prods (which also helps the handicap rating). I can tack it to a pole and bring it back, but in the racing context if needing to do this you may as well go for a classic symmetric kite and be done with it. Poling it back is easy for short handed crew though and gives far greater versatility, say for cruising. It being a downwind sail but not some giant monster of a symmetrical to control and get down again.

[Dodge Taxi 4]

I've tried the top down furling system when sailing alone but never felt really confident with it. I think the gennaker would have to be cut very flat. When they work the are great but when it goes wrong at night its hard to untangle. Also when the gennaker is furled and the bagged the torque line tends to wind up in tight loops which adds complications when re-hoisting. I note that most of single handed  fleet has now gone back to standard bag launching or socks.

[Guest 85]

Did you inadvertently have the strike tab pressed? Somehow seems to detract from cxredibility of statement....haha.

Curious to others who have experienced this with top down?

[K4309 271]

11 hours ago, Dodge Taxi said:

I've tried the top down furling system when sailing alone but never felt really confident with it. I think the gennaker would have to be cut very flat. When they work the are great but when it goes wrong at night its hard to untangle. Also when the gennaker is furled and the bagged the torque line tends to wind up in tight loops which adds complications when re-hoisting. I note that most of single handed  fleet has now gone back to standard bag launching or socks.

I am risk averse to furlers having a clusterfeck and what not. Furlers are great, but if they go wrong it is incredibly complicated to sort out.. To the point we took our headsail furler off so I can run hank on headsails. Short handed it is great. Nothing can go wrong. Just blow the halyard and get it on deck when you feel like it. Also means I have the right size sail for the conditions, rather than trying to get one head sail to work in out of range conditions.

For the gennaker I am a real big fan of just blowing the tack. You need a 'blowing clip', like a witchard or talysika (spelling). Same as a spiking clip on big boats, but with a pull-chord piece of string to blow it. They aren't cheap, but a fraction of the price of a sock or top down furler. Once the tack is blown, the sail goes back behind the main and is sheltered. You then letter-box drop in between the foot of the main and the boom. This snuff's and controls the sail nicely. Let the halyard down as you need so you don't drag it in the piss. Easy to do solo, if not a bit slow. In my system you do need to walk up to the bow to blow the tack, but you can get 'martin-breaker systems' where you have a loop tied thought the clip to the stem. Ease the tack line from the cockpit and it blows the clip. My halyards are at the must so walking to the bow is no issue. Noting if you use a sock you have to work on the foredeck anyway.

This is about the most fail safe way of getting a gennaker / kite down. And probably the cheapest to set up. You have to re-pack it fully though which is an issue if solo. The top down furlers are great if you want to put a sail up or down a lot in the same race. My method doesn't achieve that - unless you have more than one sail (which, to be honest is probably cheaper than a top down furler set up anyway, you just need to comply with the handicap limits on sail quantities)

[Ex Machina 368]

2 hours ago, Guest said:

Did you inadvertently have the strike tab pressed? Somehow seems to detract from cxredibility of statement....haha.

Curious to others who have experienced this with top down?

Yes for gennakers they are a mare when they go wrong . It cannot be unclustered on the boat usually .

[Addem 99]

I'm not a fan of furlers.  Had 3 occasions where they have stuck which can be tricky. Also had a sock jam at the top of the mast - even trickier. Don't get me started on in mast furlers they must be a disaster waiting to happen. 

As you say nothing beats letting the halyard go and tidying up afterwards. But I'm also well past sail changes on a pitching deck so have a furler and try to look after it really well. 

[Black Panther 1,600]

I don't have a  fuller, but my rig uses the one headsail from 0 to storm jib

[Dodge Taxi 4]

Sorry about the strike-through but couldn't get it to turn off. I was particularly referring to top down furlers. I have never had a problem with the code 0 -so it's not the furlers fault.

I sail a lot on my own and have never had a forestay furler. I agree that hanks are safe and easy. We also have a reefing blade and a reefing jib which gives heaps of easy change options.