Mahe 36: Rig and Sails

[careka]

Originally Posted by Oliver66

That is really expensive.

Not sure it'll work better than a well shaped asymetric spinnaker...
careka, Santa Claus is really nice with you, sure you have been really good boy during 2011 !!!


so we are now waiting for your feedback.



best Christmas holiday to all !!

Yes Santa is a good guy, and he lives up here north, so he knows what we want.

The Parasailor is a cruseing sail, not for regatta sailing.
i am sailing shorthanded, alone or with my wife, so i need something that is easy to handle, and the parasailor is more easy then a normal spinnaker.
it do cost more, but it is also made of better materials then a normal spinnaker.
So i hope it will be a good sail.
i have LINOCAT that used it for his Cruse to Carib and back to europa.
And i know a par that sailed there OVNI 395 the same route, and they all say that it is a very good sail.
So i look at it as money well spent on good days to come.
Its like bying good redwine.

and

[Ascension]

Hi all

We purchased a Parasailor for Ascension from Seateach in the UK and have been very pleased with the sail. We received great support from Stewart at Seateach who allowed us to try flying a similar sized Parasailor prior to our purchase.

Quality - The sail itself is very good quality, the snuffer is also well put together, has good running rigging and a nice carbon fibre mouth, though my one criticism is that the sock material is very light and particularly prone to chafe.

Hardware - To fly the sail to best effect under fresh tradewind conditions whilst shorthanded I made a few hardware upgrades;

• Larger Pad eyes for the Port & Stbd bow guy blocks
• Large Pad eyes aft for the sheet blocks
• 2 Harken 30ST sheet winches aft
• 1 Harken 30ST halyard winch on mast
• 6 Selden blocks for guys and sheets
• 1 Selden block and Whichard locking shackle for mast halyard block (old one failed under load)
• 1 Selden Ratchet block on the snuffing line

Wind Angles - We find the sail fly's very well from 80 to 180 apparent, when hoisted on its own. When flown with the main it is quite sensitive to the turbulent flow in the lee of the mainsail, however with practice it can be launched on a beam reach in clear air and then the course adjusted as required. Below 80 to get adequate sheet tensions there is chafing issues on various kit.

Wind Speeds - We have flown the sail very successfully in true wind speeds from 7 to 25 knots, though snuffing requires a team effort and gets exciting above 20kts.

I find the sail is a great cruising spinnaker for short handed sailing and covers the majority of trade wind conditions and angles comfortably. Having the centre of effort well forward reduces the workload on the autopilot, and with the main stowed chafing is reduced to absolute minimum. We flew the Parasailor for 6 days continuously toward the end of a Transatlantic.

In short - for shorthanded oceangoing cruising cats - highly recommended!

Will try and post some pics of the sail and hardware mods when I'm back on the boat.

[Cotemar]

John,

Yes, please post some pic of all the hardware you added. Looks like I will be adding the same things.

Mark