storm sail

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siolaakis

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Aloha everybody...I have a Halcyon 27 with roller furling genoa which is quite large...friend told me that if the weather gets nasty it is too big and rolling it want do any good to reduce the area and still be able to use the sail to beat to Windward........not talking about it unrolling itself at the most inconvenient moment and big fat sausage of the sail on the forestay when fully rolled up ......because of that I was thinking to install inner removable stay for hank on storm trysail.....but now I have found deep in the locker long forgotten and almost new storm trysail for the roller furling with the wire luff which fits in the slot where the genoa is......how doable is it , in the blow ,to take the genoa of the furlling drum and put the storm try sail in its place...... or would I be better of spending 350 pounds sterling to put in removable stay which I might need only seldom??
Thanks a lot for your opinion Aja
 
First, are you sure what yo have in the locker is a headsail? A storm sail which fits on the forestay is called a storm jib - a storm trysail is flown in place of the mainsail in strong winds.

If it is a headsail then a wire luff is usually designed to be flown flying from a halliard rather than inserted in a luff groove - are you sure it will fit and run up and down smoothly? Sails designed for luff grooves will usually have a boltrope rather than a wire luff.

Performance-wise most newish (i.e. unstretched) r-furling genoas will give a reasonable sail shape up to 50% area reduction, especially if they have a foam luff. They will never be as good as a hank-on sail of the same size though. Beyond 50% the sail shape is usually too compromised for good windward work, and in addition the remaining sail area is too high up, raising the centre of effort and increasing heeling. With some boats where the genoa track is outside the stays the sheeting angle also becomes a problem when to much headsail is rolled away, in which case you could consider fitting a second track inboard.

You also need to consider circumstances in which this would be used. To change your big roller furler for a storm jib involves unrolling ALL the genoa and dropping it in the foredeck - not something you want to be doing in F6 upwards if you can avoid it. Storms have a habit of building slowly and sneaking up on one, so by the time you realise you need the storm jib it may be too dangerous to drop the big genny.

An alternative is to purchase a second roller-furling headsail to be used whenever stronger winds (say F5 and above) are expected. This should be made of heavier material and be working jib size with a foam luff. You will be ab le to change genoas whenever stronger winds seem likely without sacrificing performance in F5 and F6, and you will be able to furl enough of it away to give you a storm-jib sized sail that should still perform reasonably well.

Or you can fit an inner forestay, which has the big advantage of being quick and easy to rig and moves the centre of effort back and lower down. This may also have other uses - you can play at being a cutter or fly twin headsails going downwind.

- W
 
hmmmmm that is a good point...you might be right ..it might be a storm trysail and not a storm jib as I thougt....it has a wire of sort in the luff similar to the one on the roller genoa that is why I thougt it goes in the same way as that big genoa.....
..I have noticed that on the roller drum there are two slots paraler to each other and I have two same size genoa so I could posibly put both of them in and use them as you said ...twin headsails....well I have to have a second look....in any case thank you so much for your help Aja
 
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