Under genoa alone

Greenheart

Greenheart

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How good is your boat at sailing without her mainsail?

My mate sent me a clip he'd filmed in Devon recently, of a sloop that had come off her mooring without using her engine, tacked out of the river (with the ebb), and headed offshore without any apparent intention of raising the mainsail.

It was windy, and the helmsman had coped using just the roller-furling line and genoa sheets.

I can see that in a very cold wind and lumpy sea, avoiding the need to hoist the main is appealing...

...but how many yachts are balanced enough to really perform when all the drive is coming from before the mast? (Two-masters not included!)
 
hum, i'm on a catamaran and have frequently sailed with genoa alone, if wind is over say 30kts - but only downwind AWA 90+ and in these circumstances i spose any boat is gonna be more (not less) balanced with centree of pressure well fwd of CG?
 
tcm said:
hum, i'm on a catamaran and have frequently sailed with genoa alone, if wind is over say 30kts - but only downwind AWA 90+ and in these circumstances i spose any boat is gonna be more (not less) balanced with centree of pressure well fwd of CG?
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Once its 20 knots plus in flat water no probs No 3 on its own and we are doing 6-7 knots through water up wind as as well... Not certain how she would be in a seaway, probably need 25+ to really get her moving...

We would probably keep her main up as she is a better ride being driven...
 
It's quite common for short trips, or if you're feeling lazy or single handed to sail with genoa only - easily manageable from the cockpit. Certainly on older boats with shorter masts (like our early 70s Bruce Roberts), the large genny was there to provide the muscle and the main more for pointing. I would guess that most boats can pointy reasonably well with just a genoa.

Either the main alone or the genny alone is perfectly feasible for leaving a mooring. For picking up a mooring, I only use main alone for the approach and the stall (I don't do it if the moorings are congested).
 
We often sail with genoa alone - our #1 genoa is about twice the size of the main. We can sail pretty well on all points of sailing like that - windward is better with main as well, but on a broad reach to a run the main is actually a disadvantage as it reduces the efficiency of the Genoa.
 
On my first Stella class i had a Stuart Turner 4 hp inboard
The boat would motor at about 2-3 kts in any chop
Under genoa it would sail at 1-3 kts to windward
However, if one wanted to get up wind in a chop i found that hoisting the genoa & using the engine i would get speeds of 5knts plus without the mainsail. Ie Nearly as great as than the sum of the 2
It seems that one on its own just overcome momentum & the addition of the second provided proportionally more power


Needless to say my next Stella had a 10hp lombardini
 
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We often use the genoa alone. The mainsail area is 288 sqft and the genoa 330 sqft. In winds where we would normally put two reefs in the main, she goes well upwind, if pointing slightly lower than with both sails set, on full genoa with just a little weather helm(but then she usually goes better if not pinched); well off the wind in more moderate winds the main can blanket the genoa so the latter can be better on its own, to say nothing of avoiding any risk of chafing the main on the shrouds. Boat is a Jeanneau SO36.2.
 
Any decent cruising boat should be able to make to windward under jib/genoa alone. Some of the 1970s boats could do this well since the main was so small. It can be a problem in very light winds, when it is hard to get enough speed to point the bow up, but it is worth practicing. We used to regularly sail up to our mooring under genoa, full or half furled, in my old Sadler 29 but I have had little need to do this lately.
 
Most yachts with a reasonable sized genoa will sail well under genoa alone in reasonable winds - ie if there is enough wind to heel you 5-10 degrees under genoa only. It is usually a more efficient sail than the main (no mast at the luff messing up airflow). Lots of people do this for short passages, especially singlehanded and with roller reefing, when it makes even quite a big boat very easy to manage.
 
I only used the genoa on my colvic 26 from ramsgate to harwich single handed and choppy, I thought it best not to struggle with the main On leaving ramsgate, I struggled to get sea room as my main engine was not running so only had the 5hp outboard. Stay safe in the cockpit is my thinking.

mick
 
My Coronado 25 will go to windward quite well under just Genoa in calm water but in a seaway seems to need the drive of a reefed down main to push her through the wave tops without falling away each time.
 
Generally boats wont point as high but otherwise the main is more trouble than its worth a lot of the time.

Go sail in Greece and I reckon the main gets shaken out about 20% of the time.

I have taken to dropping the main when coming in to an anchorage, sailing up in the Genoa, rounding up, dropping the hook and furling. You'd think this was special given the looks you get especially single handed.

Sailing off after hoisting the anchor it's easier to raise the main first though otherwise you have to get the donk going to hold the head to wind after setting off to get the main up. I'd have had the main up to get uptide and out of a channel, much better performance to weather.
 
I used to sail our Benny Oceanis 423 using just the Genoa quite a lot. It seemed to go very well and most of the time made for an easy fast passage, often at 8 knots and sometimes more. It worked so well (really well when motor sailing) that thinking about it, that was how we sailed most of the time.
 
We often sail our SO47 under genoa alone especially if we are sailing in confined spaces like rivers or the Solent on a busy weekend - a slightly furled genoa and no main makes it much easier to manoeuvre. We usually only do this downwind, short tacking is just too much effort so if required and there is no crew on board then we motor!
 
No problem at all on my Sun Odyssey 36.2. Goes ok to winward with well rolled headsail in strong winds.

Great for practising sailing alongside contolling boatspeed easily too.
 
dancrane said:
How good is your boat at sailing without her mainsail?
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Excellent thanks.

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