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

[1rkghost]

Anyone have information on the genoa furler on mahe mine is jambed an lost one of the bolts ot bottom and it feels as if drum has something stuck. I dont have any specs brand etc. on it

[Cotemar]

Z Spars USA dealer is:

US Spars, Inc.
6320 NW 123rd Pl
Gainesville, FL 32653
United States
800-928-0786

[Clipperton]

Originally Posted by Cotemar

Mahe’s

Putting in a reef always seemed to be a challenge. Seemed like a lot of resistance when pulling the reef line through the leech reef hole on the back of the sail. Then climbing up in the first mast step to pull down the luff and pull the white clew reef strap through reef hole and snap shackle it on the other side of the mast. It’s tough with strong wind, but tougher when you have wind and waves.

Now that I added the new Double Spinlock XTS powerclutch for the Reef lines

The next step was to make my Reef 1 a single line Jiffy Reef from the cock pit.

I attached one 72mm Lewmar block to the reef1 leech point on the back of the sail.
Attached another block to the reef 1 luff point of the sail and ran a 75 foot (22.8 meters) of 7/16 inch (11mm) line through these blocks, so I can pull Reef 1 down with one line from the cockpit.

75 foot (22.8 meters) of 7/16 inch (11mm) XLS blue Yacht Braid line $85 usd
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|10391|311417|314169|913347&id=1258724

Lewmar 72 mm Synchro Block – Defender # 614757 at $32 usd
http://search.defender.com/?expression=614757&x=6&y=9
Note: mounting whole has to be drilled to accept winchard long shackle

Wichard 1/4“Captive Pin Long Shackle – Defender # 607599 at $21 usd
http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|118|2186|297674|314172&id=124854

Z Spars mast block #288 size 80mm $86 usd
In USA purchase from www.usspars.com
In UK purchase from www.zsparsuk.com
Note: This block replaces the smaller mast block with the same size block used on the main sail halyard.

It works like a dream at the dock. Will update you as to how all this works with the wind and the waves

Mark

Hello Mark,

How satisfied are you of this system?
I will Try to set it up this way but I am wondering if the blocks on the sails cannot damage it.

Alex

[Cotemar]

Clipperton,
It all works very well. Used the jiffy reef many times all from the helm.
Even works well down wind. The pull down is the key. It's doing the pull down that is just not possible for you to do when the wind and waves are up and your holding on to the mast and pulling the sail down.

Have not had any problem with pulleys damaging the sails. The pulleys almost never touch the sail.

[1rkghost]

Picked up surplus parachute for light wind. Using it today for the first time. Works great 5 knots in 7 knots of wind

[1rkghost]

This weekend tried surplus parachute as down wind sail. Found an article on it online. had been looking at sail chute online for awhile but was a little hesitant at $1700.00 and very hesitant at $5600 price of parasailor this chute worked fine up to 12 knots which was highest wind we had all day. Cost $250 from the parachute shop in maryland. Figured it was worth the experiment. Its 28 ft Dia not sure how much difference Sail chute at 31 dia would make or how much wind this as a sail can take. Was very easy to single hand both launching and retrieving. Seemed to keep boat moving at 3/4 wind speed from 3 knots at 4knots up until 9 knots at 12 knots wind speed. Not sure yet if there are any tricks to flying it to get better results but happy with them so far.

[MKB53]

That sounds pretty impressive for $250! Is that true wind or apparent?
How do you launch and drop the chute?

[1rkghost]

To raise the chute has four sets of 7 lines. We attach two sets to spinnaker halyard and the other two to line through block at bow sprit and i tie it off at bow cleat with about 10 ft of slack. Then i just raise the halyard and it fills it self as soon as chute clears the deck.

[1rkghost]

To lower we tried it two ways both worked well. First we let out the jib which depowered the chute and just pulled it in by lower line and then let out the halyard. Second we tried pulling in lower line while at same time slowly lowering the halyard lowering it also depowered the chute.

[want2cruise]

Having just received my new (well, used) Mahe, I am looking to replace my two original Sails (Incidences). as I am not an experienced sailor I prefer to find replacement sails that are built to last, rather than to race. any recommendations on sailmakers? does anyone have exact description that I should provide to a prospective supplier? I am based in Asia and heard that there are some interesting options in this region. Thanks in advance!

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by want2cruise

Having just received my new (well, used) Mahe, I am looking to replace my two original Sails (Incidences). as I am not an experienced sailor I prefer to find replacement sails that are built to last, rather than to race. any recommendations on sailmakers? does anyone have exact description that I should provide to a prospective supplier? I am based in Asia and heard that there are some interesting options in this region. Thanks in advance!

Are your current sails in bad shape?

I'm still using the original Incidences sail after 10 years, replaced UV protection on the genoa, but other than that they are still good.

[want2cruise]

Hi DotDun. I bought the boat out of a charter operation and at least the main sail needs to be changed urgently.
the genoa is still okay, but thought I'd get a back-up anyway.
I found a few websites with sailmakers in Asia, but without any references I am a bit worried buying from them...