Parasailor or just a hole in a spinnaker?

[capnsensible]

That seems to be the only kind of passage people enthuse about them for.
A lot of cash to be blown dead down wind a couple of knots faster in a favourable wind is one description.
If some patent has expired, we might see some development.
If you look at kites for boards and paragliders, there is a lot of potential.

But how long do these things last?
An old spinnaker will still work. Complicated slot wing structures might not when the material has done a few thousand miles?

They aren't compulsory. ?

 

[[163233]]

£10k.

Does it come with a boat?

 

[laika]

That seems to be the only kind of passage people enthuse about them for.
A lot of cash to be blown dead down wind a couple of knots faster in a favourable wind is one description.

It depends entirely on what your needs are. I mostly sail short handed and my partner is very spinnaker-averse. With just the two of us I'm restricted to goose winging or, for longer runs, setting up the removable inner forestay and hoisting a no.3 on it. The promise of these wing sails is performance with the wind further aft than a gennaker could deal with and further forward than a spinnaker would be happy with, in higher winds, without many of the spinnaker risks, easy to set and manage short handed but at the expense of performance (over a spinnaker) and (obviously) cost. If the promise is true, such a sail would transform my downwind sailing experience even before heading off bluewater and a rough calculation suggests it'd take several days off a transatlantic even if we took it down at night. My quote from ISTEC was similar to Yngmars (out boats are about the same size). Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Yes, to me, if it delivers. I'd really like to know the *practical* difference between the "new" parasailor and the "old"/Oxley one though. I asked a few months back on cruisersforum but the "new" ISTEC was too new and I'm guessing few people have experience of both. The saving on the Oxley was significant, although they didn't include a "free" day's training like ISTEC.

 

[geem]

In my view they are an expensive gimmick. For our boat they cost £8k eight years ago. We bought an asymmetric at £2.5k and never regretted it. I dont sail single handed though and the wife is a capable sailor who enjoys the performance boost of the spinnaker as much as me.
We enjoy the full range of sail options our boat has. Being a solent rigged ketch we have lots of variations on sail plan. We can set twin headsails for downwind sailing on twin poles if its blowing some. Easy to leave up at night as one person can reef from the cockpit. If you are doing a trade wind passage then the twin poles can be set up and left rigged for several days. Even if you are broad reaching with mainsail and headsail the poles can be left rigged without any problem in case you revert to a dead down wind set up at a later date. Its just another option to consider

 

[TernVI]

It depends entirely on what your needs are. I mostly sail short handed and my partner is very spinnaker-averse. With just the two of us I'm restricted to goose winging or, for longer runs, setting up the removable inner forestay and hoisting a no.3 on it. The promise of these wing sails is performance with the wind further aft than a gennaker could deal with and further forward than a spinnaker would be happy with, in higher winds, without many of the spinnaker risks, easy to set and manage short handed but at the expense of performance (over a spinnaker) and (obviously) cost. If the promise is true, such a sail would transform my downwind sailing experience even before heading off bluewater and a rough calculation suggests it'd take several days off a transatlantic even if we took it down at night. My quote from ISTEC was similar to Yngmars (out boats are about the same size). Expensive? Yes. Worth it? Yes, to me, if it delivers. I'd really like to know the *practical* difference between the "new" parasailor and the "old"/Oxley one though. I asked a few months back on cruisersforum but the "new" ISTEC was too new and I'm guessing few people have experience of both. The saving on the Oxley was significant, although they didn't include a "free" day's training like ISTEC.

It would be interesting to see some transat times where these sails have been used.
To knock 'several days' off a real transat takes a bit of doing.
Depending on what your baseline is.
You might get the kind of weather where the boat would be running comfortably at hull speed under a couple of cheap old genoas for the majority of the crossing.
You might get headwinds.

I wouldn't pay four figure money just to spend a couple of days less ocean sailing.
OTOH I'm sure there are people who will say a bit more speed would have enebled them to avoid a storm/calm/being last or something.
Obviously if we're racing, then a fair chance of a couple of % speed improvement is very valuable.