Sea Change
Well-Known Member
Our boat (Sun Kiss 47) has white sails only- genoa, staysail, main.
Last season we spent too much time motoring in light winds. We've also got an E-W Atlantic crossing coming up and I'd like to be able to fly two headsails while running. We can do that with the staysail but it's very small.
We're lightly crewed and have had conventional spinnakers on previous boats- and rarely used them. They're called the divorce sail for a reason.
One previous boat had a massive lightweight dacron genoa that hanked on to a solent stay. I loved that sail. It was much easier to handle than a spinnaker, you could just bundle it up on the side deck as you dropped it. It could actually get you slightly upwind. And with a pole, it made a fair substitute for a spinnaker.
Would it be right to call that sail a drifter?
Regardless of what it's called, I think I'd like to add something similar to the current boat. It should help our speed in light winds, maybe keeping a few hours off the engine, and should be able to fly wing on wing with the genoa when running. I'm hoping to pick up something secondhand rather than have it made.
So my questions are:
- what weight of sailcloth should I be looking at?
- nylon vs dacron for this?
- if the sail I find has a luff tape, is it straightforward to convert to hanks?
- how do I determine the best size? The forestay is 56ft, the pole is about 16ft, if that helps at all. Obviously I want it as big as practical otherwise I may as well just keep using white sails.
Last season we spent too much time motoring in light winds. We've also got an E-W Atlantic crossing coming up and I'd like to be able to fly two headsails while running. We can do that with the staysail but it's very small.
We're lightly crewed and have had conventional spinnakers on previous boats- and rarely used them. They're called the divorce sail for a reason.
One previous boat had a massive lightweight dacron genoa that hanked on to a solent stay. I loved that sail. It was much easier to handle than a spinnaker, you could just bundle it up on the side deck as you dropped it. It could actually get you slightly upwind. And with a pole, it made a fair substitute for a spinnaker.
Would it be right to call that sail a drifter?
Regardless of what it's called, I think I'd like to add something similar to the current boat. It should help our speed in light winds, maybe keeping a few hours off the engine, and should be able to fly wing on wing with the genoa when running. I'm hoping to pick up something secondhand rather than have it made.
So my questions are:
- what weight of sailcloth should I be looking at?
- nylon vs dacron for this?
- if the sail I find has a luff tape, is it straightforward to convert to hanks?
- how do I determine the best size? The forestay is 56ft, the pole is about 16ft, if that helps at all. Obviously I want it as big as practical otherwise I may as well just keep using white sails.
