parasail

[MIRELOS]

anyone have experience with this chutes?
they sound easy, but are they?

[CarstenWL]

Hi Mirelos,

Parasail(TM) is 'only' the company name, they have different products. Are you looking at the paraspi?

Istec in Germany (Easy-to-use downwind sailing equipment from Germany - ISTEC - The Downwind Company) offers equal products I have used in the past (and could comment)

Regards,

Carsten

[MIRELOS]

it's the cruising spinnaker that they manufacture

[Barra]

Yep Ive got one and would recommend one.

Very handy for deep downwind destinations and ive flown it as high as 80 degrees apparent (they say they can go as high as 60 but im not convinced of that yet).

It is easier to tend than a traditional symmetrical and given the size of your boat that would be a big plus unless youve got a fair crew on board.

The sock makes it easy to hoist and recover though that would be the same as any sock.

Not convinced they are worth the extra money they want new though which is why i picked one up second hand for the cost of a new symmetrical and with experience with them now that was a good deal.

[Ozbullwinkle]

I have experience with a 188 sq metre Parasailor on the exact same vessel as yours being a FP Eleuthera 60 during a passage from St Martin & across the Pacific. It performed brilliantly in true wind strengths of up to 25 knots and if you have one of these you do not need a gennaker/screecher, sym or asym spinnaker.

Our longest stretch that we ran it for was 120 hours straight when we dropped it due to winds being forecast of 30+ knots. I have a couple of clips of it on my YouTube channel which has the same channel name as my CF username.

[monte]

What size have you got barra. (The parasailor mate )

[Barra]

125 m. Got in touch with istec who were very helpful even though I was buying second hand and that was at the upper end of their recommended size for catalyst's I and J measurements. Fits well though at first I thought it might be a bit big but even in gusty conditions to 22 knots its been fine.

The surge in speed and apparent wind pushed forwards on the gusts was sometimes a bit much for the auto pilot in those conditions but having said that it would have been no different on a similar sized assy and the parasailor wing probably delayed the leading edge collapse a few degrees higher.

In 10 knots true it'll give me 6 knots ddw. Its been useful as low as 6 knots tws and on those 22 knot gusts we were hitting 13s. Lotsa fun😀

I've got it rigged on a 4 line set up with guys on each bow. Like Oz says in theory it can replace all your kite sails but I would still run a screecher for 50 to 100 degrees in preference.

Came across a lavezzi 40 that was running the next size down 100m I think but he wanted to switch back to a vanilla symmetrical since he reckoned that would be better ddw. I haven't found that at all. The wing makes ddw easy in my experience.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[monte]

Thanks Barra, looking at the same size for us on a 10t Lagoon 400

[Barra]

Cool should be correct size given the bigger mast than the lavezzi. Let me know what lagoon says about running it without the main up or not. For ddw I lower mine and rely on the topping lift for mast support but I think lagoon advises against this?

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