We have a L450 and had our Parasailor since April. Den 7000Nm so far. Just crossed the Atlantic. We also have a
Gennaker so only fly the Parasailor AWA 130-180-130.
Downwind we only fly the Parasailor and like it best for our over night sail. The air pressure in the wing acts like a pole from leech to leech and makes it very stable. When it collapse it does so very gently slowly through the sail. The same when it fills again. Never with a Big Bang like a regular spinnaker.
Our crossing was really windy. The second time only in 27 years that the
ARC has postponed a start due to high winds.
Unfortunately, we could only fly the Parsailor for days 2,3 and 4; in one stretch. Then we blew out our
halyard fittings 2m below the top of the
mast. TWS was a,ways over 20 knots, gusts 28 to 30. We cover just over 200Nm every one of those days.
The
autopilot had very little to do considering the 4m swell with 1.5-2m waves we had.
After this we had to go to full
genoa and triple reseed main, which slowed us to 170-180Nm. However, we has to drop the main as the
autopilot struggled very hard with the moment coming from the main and the swell. We had to go for just the full
genoa to be more pulled then pushed. That slowed us to 155Nm. All this in the same conditions. Later on in the crossing we got a little more daring again and added the triple reefer main in slightly less waves but the same winds.
We had two experienced
monohull racing crew onboard and both commented on how easy the night watches were when we used the parasailor. With main and genoa you had to constantly watch the
wind angle and adjust the autopilot.
Steering by
wind vane did not
work for us under those hard conditions.
To recap:
Easily flown over night with no tending to the sail what soever.
Does not collapse and fill with a bang.
Easy on the autopilot
We are always looking forward to a run down wind, down the waves with the Parasailor. My wife and I never had trouble to deal with it ourselves.