Cruising Foresails

[catsketcher]

The Quasar has an absolutely monstrous genny, and I would be very wary of getting that genny down on my own in a blow with hanks. Singlehanding such a setup will be a real challenge, and even if you have your partner with you, you are really singlehanding much of the time, just doing it in shifts. I would not like to ask my wife to change a Quasar's genny when the wind blows up.

I am not sure of how you will be using a light air genny, then swapping to the 105%er and then the staysail.

I would think that this boat would be fine with its 105% genny for most winds, an assy or symmetrical for deep downwind and then a largish staysail for when it blows up. I like having different headies, they work well, but I am not sure how a laminate genny with full battens is going to be anything but a huge pain in the bum to set and stow. A laminate nice 105% er with a largish staysail would seem to have a good range.

I don't get the downhaul idea for a heady. I have to go forward and bundle the sail in ties anyway, maybe it is a size thing but I have always just pulled headsails down at the luff and grabbed them there. I may be missing something.

I am not trying to be a smart arse. I have done so many things wrong when I was absolutley positive I was right, I am louder with my dissenting views nowdays. Considering that all of the Quasars I see have furlers, you seem to be going out on a limb with your choices. That is usually a "brave" thing to do, and costly if you are wrong. Would it not be simpler just to work out how to get the furler to work better? Bear away onto a broad reach each time perhaps?

[Snowgoose35]

I've lived aboard for 8 years and continuously cruised for 5 of those with the rest either sailing 6 to 8 months a year or sat on the dock for the last year due to covid restrictions. I don't ever think I know everything but I do think I tried everything to get on with the Harken furler. It was great in light airs but with the enormous jib on the Quasar in big winds it was a real pain and dangerous.

There was no better model or larger version to choose - it was the best Harken make and new when I bought the boat. It was set up correctly but I refuse to ever winch a furling line - almost everyone tells me I should have just given in and done that on a big boat but its not something I accept.

So I swapped to hanks. The Harken is now long gone and on another boat, the sails are either swapped to hanks or replaced with hank one, so there is no possibility of trying this or that with the furler now ...

I think a second jib makes sense but the comments above have made me think maybe getting the main jib cut with a deep reef point may be a poor idea - sounds like its probably more work to get the reef in than just swap sails.

The main jib drops in to a custom suspended drop back much like a main sail bag that hangs just above the deck so can stay in place until it gets gnarly weather so the number 2 can go above that and yes, I'll stagger the hanks to allow wing and wing

[catsketcher]

No good about the furler.

One of main problems I had was the stiffness of my new high quality genny. I could not get that thing in the bag easily. I didn't have that issue on my previous boat with its softer cloth.

[ChrisJHC]

We use hank on headsails and carry:
No. 1
No. 3
Code Zero
Symmetrical Spinnaker
Storm Jib.

We do have a No. 2 for racing but rarely use it.