Sails ? light and flapping or thick and heavy

Jmc1764

Jmc1764

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As a non seasoned sailor ( 7 sailing days so far ) any advise is welcomed. My boat came with two sets of sails, one set ( currently on her ) are really heavy strong sails, main and roller genoa. The other set are much lighter and thinner almost sort of crinkly. Under what sort of conditions would you change to the light sails ? is there a rule of thumb against wind speed, weather or speed ?
 
The light and crinkly sails are probably the worn out old set and the sail material has lost its stiffness. If your boat has roller furling main then I would not fit the sails as they will most likely jam in the mast slot.

PS: If the crinkly sails are a different shape from the fitted sails, and perhaps multi-coloured, they might be cruising chute/spinnaker? Those are lightweight and crinkly from new.
 
Hi, when I say crinkly , I mean that's how they feel, they are actually virtually new. They are marked up a No1 sails on the bags. The previous owner said he used them once or twice but he was into offshore sailing rather than local rivers and coastal. From my understanding they were for lighter winds..or racing, but the question is what is a lighter wind speed? when would they be good to use and up to what wind speed?
 
Jmc1764 said:
Hi, when I say crinkly , I mean that's how they feel, they are actually virtually new. They are marked up a No1 sails on the bags. The previous owner said he used them once or twice but he was into offshore sailing rather than local rivers and coastal. From my understanding they were for lighter winds..or racing, but the question is what is a lighter wind speed? when would they be good to use and up to what wind speed?
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Hard to give a definitive answer, and it's quite unusual IMHO to have different weight sails for cruising purposes at different wind strengths.

A racer might well have a lightweight Genoa and a heavier genoa of the same dimensions. The lighter weight one would be used strictly only when underpowered; depending on the yacht that might be up to 9 knots true wind or so and the owner would start blubbing if it was used above 12 knots. For cruising it would be unusual to deal with the extra cost, hassle, storage of such a sail.

What you may have is a lighter sail built using more expensive materials e.g. Spectra/Hydranet which will be lighter than the more common Dacron cruising sails. Our "newish" sails that came with the boat are Hydranet, around 75pc the weight of the "oldish" Dacron ones. But intended for the same usage.

I am assuming it's not in fact a spinnaker, which is a VERY different form of cloth and couldn't be confused.
 
What size of boat are we talking? Does the other set defiantly include a main? If so does that main have reef points? It sounds like these sails could be either racing headsails No.1 and maybe No. 2, or a new set of genoa and main in a modern material - perhaps laminate. If you have the space it would be worth laying out the sails on each other to compare size. Rather than the previous owner I would find the makers label and contact them about the sails, they should tell you what they are specified for. I would suggest that with your experience you use the older heavier sails for the rest of this season, and move on to the newer ones when you have more experience. Normally with racing headsails you reduce when the crew can no longer keep the boat upright!

Note: answer crossed with duncan99210.
 
As an ex dinghy sailor, I am still amazed at how heavy my fairly standard sails are on a 34-footer. If it were me, I would probably show them to a sailing friend or club-mate, or even take them to a sailmaker and see what they think. For coastal sailing and anything other than a trip round the bay, I would expect my sails to be capable of coping with at least F7 or so, suitably reefed if necessary, other than occasional sails such as spinnakers or other downwind sails.
 
duncan99210 said:
First thing to do is to establish if it is a set of foresail and mainsail. I suspect from the descriptions being offered that what the OP is describing are in fact a couple of light wind foresails. Either way, easiest way to sort th8ngs out would be to get a,few pictures up on here.
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Hi, Its a foresail and a mainsail, both made of the same lightweight materiel, a very different materiel to the sails on the boat that are really heavy.
 
ithet said:
What size of boat are we talking? Does the other set defiantly include a main? If so does that main have reef points? It sounds like these sails could be either racing headsails No.1 and maybe No. 2, or a new set of genoa and main in a modern material - perhaps laminate. If you have the space it would be worth laying out the sails on each other to compare size. Rather than the previous owner I would find the makers label and contact them about the sails, they should tell you what they are specified for. I would suggest that with your experience you use the older heavier sails for the rest of this season, and move on to the newer ones when you have more experience. Normally with racing headsails you reduce when the crew can no longer keep the boat upright!

Note: answer crossed with duncan99210.
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Hi Thanks for the tips, it would make sense to stay with the heavy ones whilst I learn the ropes as it were. the boat is an Albin 34ft. No space to lay them out, they are huge ! I might try and raise the genoa if I have time and one of those no wind days just to see where it comes to and try to get a picture. I'll definitely look for the makers details and try to contact them, they should know what they made :)
 
Age of sails could be the factor, as in old sails are thicker but newer sails due to advances in materials as mentioned above are a lot lighter and still possibly stronger
 
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