Time to replace genoa?

[Peregrine1983]

Curious to hear thoughts on my 130% genoa. The pic below shows an extreme example of what I'm talking about but I can never really get the leech to be tight on any point of sail. Pic below is from this past weekend. Poled out, sailing dead downwind in 7-10kts.

Is this a repair job? Or will it be worth it to buy a new genoa?

Thanks in advance for any tips/info.

[John_Trusty]

Difficult to tell off-wind. Any sail, or a barn door for that matter, works effectively dead downwind - it's just projected area. The shape that you are paying for, and what is lost due to stretch, is the wing shape when it is strapped-in going to weather.

[Peregrine1983]

Good point. Here's a shot of the same sail on pretty much a beam reach. 10kts wind. It's tougher to see what I'm talking about, and actually looks pretty good from this angle though... I might have to snap another shot from the cockpit.

[Peregrine1983]

To your point... the loose leech appears worst when I'm headed upwind. Just don't have a shot of it.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Peregrine1983

To your point... the loose leech appears worst when I'm headed upwind. Just don't have a shot of it.

Do you move your genoa leads to the correct position to close the leach? In my local area I'd say 90+% of the "cruising" boats never move the cars to close the leach. All of them have leach flutter at some point of sail, that accelerates the loss of shape.

[Tetepare]

Why replace it on a cruising boat? Run it till it dies.


It pains me when the boats I race on spend big bucks on a new high-tech sail because of shape. I understand the reasoning, but their retired sails are in much better shape than my sails!

[Peregrine1983]

Thanks Sailmonkey. We did eventually slide them forward to try to get the leech straightened out, but by then the wind was pretty fickle. Sounds like I should play around with the cars in more wind and see if I can get the flutter out.

[Peregrine1983]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

Why replace it on a cruising boat? Run it till it dies.


It pains me when the boats I race on spend big bucks on a new high-tech sail because of shape. I understand the reasoning, but their retired sails are in much better shape than my sails!

It may be a big, fat cruising boat, but it's still fun to go fast... just want to make sure I'm not running around with a dead sail... which it doesn't sound like I am now.

[Dockhead]

Hard to say, as others have said, if we can't see it being used upwind, but what jumps out at me from this are the wrinkles in the luff -- you need to sort out forestay and halyard tension before making any conclusions about your sail.

That being said, if you even think about needing a new sail, you undoubtedly do. Best money you can spend on a boat

[mikedefieslife]

Have the same problem with my genoa. No matter how far the cars are moved forward, the leach is always loose unless I sheet it so it's basically touching the deck.

[Sailmonkey]

Originally Posted by Tetepare

Why replace it on a cruising boat? Run it till it dies.


It pains me when the boats I race on spend big bucks on a new high-tech sail because of shape. I understand the reasoning, but their retired sails are in much better shape than my sails!

Because sailing with bags sucks on any point but downwind.

[Calif.Ted]

I find older genny's usually require a little more tension on the leech line to stop flutter when close hauled. I usually tension up till it starts to hook then ease until flat but doesn't flutter.

[Peregrine1983]

I don't believe my sail even has leech line...

[Pete7]

When were you thinking of order this new sail? because in about a week every US sail maker is going to be rather busy for the rest of the year. You have had one hurricane, another one just about to flatten most of Florida and the third building as a TS out in the Atlantic.

Will there still be any big winter discounts available this year after hurricane season?

Pete

[Peregrine1983]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Hard to say, as others have said, if we can't see it being used upwind, but what jumps out at me from this are the wrinkles in the luff -- you need to sort out forestay and halyard tension before making any conclusions about your sail.

That being said, if you even think about needing a new sail, you undoubtedly do. Best money you can spend on a boat

Thanks Dockhead. I definitely need to tighten my forestay. That's quite clear to me from the pics now..