Parasailor

[oldvarnish]

>How many boats and where are their reports?

I can only suggest you trawl the ARC site, a number were reported in the logs.

Interesting. I've just read the Yachting World gear test published in 2010 and it reports only one failure, and that when it was hoisted in 36 knots (yacht Blonde Moment)

 

[tcm]

Does anyone have any experience of using them solo?

yeah, but you need to have autoopilot to relaibly take the boat dead downwind (this is a cataramaran) and hoist the sail with guylines tight. Obviously, to get it down, you're totally knackered. I flung the boat off at 100degrees to the wind, pulled one side, panicked, pulled the other, ran away to check course, Had a think, then had a good drag at the sock and eventually got it down.

Best get crew imho

 

[KellysEye]

>Interesting. I've just read the Yachting World gear test published in 2010 and it reports only one failure

Go back four or five years. There were a few years when there were multiple failures.

 

[oldvarnish]

yeah, but you need to have autoopilot to relaibly take the boat dead downwind (this is a cataramaran) and hoist the sail with guylines tight. Obviously, to get it down, you're totally knackered. I flung the boat off at 100degrees to the wind, pulled one side, panicked, pulled the other, ran away to check course, Had a think, then had a good drag at the sock and eventually got it down.

Best get crew imho

But is that any worse than getting an ordinary spinnaker down singlehanded?
S/H is always tough.

 

[snowleopard]

But is that any worse than getting an ordinary spinnaker down singlehanded?
S/H is always tough.

The sock downhaul works pretty well. The mouth is a big carbon fibre funnel that slides down fairly easily. Obviously the sheet & guy have to be eased as it comes down.