Light weight genoa? What for?

[Cardo]

We're sorting through all the **** that we took off the boat after we bought it (over a year ago now!). We took everything off over the first winter and then put the necessary stuff back on for this last season. However, there's still loads of stuff to go through.

Anyhoo, I thought I knew what sails we had, however I've discovered a new one...

It appears to be a light weight (same type of material as the cruising chute) genoa with the foil bit to go on the roller forestay. The boat was once used to race (by the owner previous to the last) and it has all sorts of racing type stuff on it.

So my question is... What's the purpose of this sail? Is it simply a foresail for light winds? Or would it have a different use?

 

[bedouin]

Yes - sounds like a "Gennaker" or similar. I have one that is roughly 180% Genoa in nylon but mine is set flying and winched taut on dyneema luff.

On my boat the #1 Genoa is made of fairly heavy Dacron and won't set well in light winds, The Gennaker will keep the boat moving when the wind is too far forward of the beam to fly the spinnaker.

 

[Cardo]

Yes - sounds like a "Gennaker" or similar. I have one that is roughly 180% Genoa in nylon but mine is set flying and winched taut on dyneema luff.

On my boat the #1 Genoa is made of fairly heavy Dacron and won't set well in light winds, The Gennaker will keep the boat moving when the wind is too far forward of the beam to fly the spinnaker.

Thanks for the info. Our regular genoa is also pretty hefty, so it sounds like this light weight jobby would be good for light winds.

Any idea if it would be ok to roll up the gennaker when not in use? Or do I need to take it down after every use?

 

[bedouin]

Thanks for the info. Our regular genoa is also pretty hefty, so it sounds like this light weight jobby would be good for light winds.

Any idea if it would be ok to roll up the gennaker when not in use? Or do I need to take it down after every use?

Yes - rolling will be fine, I was going to put mine on a roller until I saw how much the dedicated furlers cost

I now usually treat mine like a spinnaker - attach the halyard and sheet with it in the bag and hoist it straight out from there, but the roller furler would make it even easier to use.

 

[vyv_cox]

We have a similar sail that does not have a bolt rope for the forestay groove but flies on a wire forestay of its own. it describes itself as a ghoster. We use it in winds up to 10 knots but in our case it is not very close- winded. Can be useful in Med mornings as our genoa is heavy.

 

[Cardo]

I feel this sail will be pretty handy in the Med!

 

[Rossynant]

Handy may be indeed. If this sail is of nylon, but shape the same as No. 1 genoa and profile similar, also made for roller - I guess the name would be "drifter". Very light wind genoa really, for some up to 15 knots wind, just bit less closewinded than normal genoa (fuller shape) but more than ghoster (or cruising chute surely); probably will be working from some 30 deg apparent.

 

[bedouin]

Handy may be indeed. If this sail is of nylon, but shape the same as No. 1 genoa and profile similar, also made for roller - I guess the name would be "drifter". Very light wind genoa really, for some up to 15 knots wind, just bit less closewinded than normal genoa (fuller shape) but more than ghoster (or cruising chute surely); probably will be working from some 30 deg apparent.

That's a good point - we sheet ours like a spinnaker to a turning block near the stern as this is well back, and our stern is very narrow, this gives us a much tighter sheeting angle than we can achieve on the #1 Genoa and so makes us potentially closer winded