Pulling the wind forward off the wind

[Sparx]

Originally Posted by GRIT

Hi Brent. I'm late to the conversation, but here's my take.

We have a code zero too. It has a torque line in the luff, and is on a roller furler; and furls from the bottom up.

We use it in light winds as soon as the wind goes beyond 80 degrees TWA, and it brings the apparent up to around 45 to 50. As the wind strength increases, our awa needs to go further aft (it was cut too long for a 2:1 halyard, so we use the 1:1, which means the luff starts to go to leeward in 12 knots) or we luff the sail.

We can launch it in higher winds as close as 90 TWA, which brings the AWA to 55, but where it really shines is at 100 to 125, where the AWA comes to about 60-80 and the boat speed is anywhere between 80 and 100 percent of the TWS, up to 16 knots or so.

We're quite underpowered in light winds with our working jib (100%), and will be looking at screechers and assymetrical spinnakers this fall.

As an aside, since we don't have a spinnaker, we use the code zero all the way to 180, by feeding it with the mainsail. It's too small to compete with a spinnaker, but it's far and away better than our 100% jib. Wing on Wing we do 50% of the wind speed. I know fast cats aren't supposed to go there, but my wife loves wing and wing, so there is the odd occasion when we will do that.

The roller furling is indispensable for me, as I can fly it and store it single handedly.

I know it's not supposed to be stored this way, but ours is up all the time. It has a uv strip, which I tell myself will protect it from harm. I only take it down if there's a big blow coming; though the boat sails fine with it up, up to 35 knots AWS, which it was two days ago. It's never threatened to come unraveled.

In a blow, if it's furled, I just drop it onto the net. At the moment, we don't have an easy way to disconnect it from the pole, so the bottom 6 feet of the sail just sits along the pole, and the rest sits on the net.

Cheers, and good luck with your decision.

Paul.

Paul Thank you for this response packed full of useful information.

I have come to think our big assymetrical would get more use if on a furler instead of a sock.

But what I think would be even better on this boat is a code zero designed for about 55 AWA. I envision using it pretty much as you describe.

It is good to have confirmation that such a sail could be productive at very deep angles. 50% of wind speed wing and wing would be quite acceptable for care free deep running. I imagine coming up to say 145 TWA would be a bit faster. Having a sail that stood ready on the prodder to be easily deployed or furled would be a big upgrade in usability.

[Sparx]

I want to thank everyone in this discussion for their contributions. It has been insightful to see how people are actually using their sails.

These insights are very helpful as we balance the benefits if adding a sail to our inventory verses the added complexity of the additional sail, prodder, rigging/down rigging.

Thanks for contributing.

[catsketcher]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

Something you might like to try for lazy downwind sailing wing on wing. Although counter intuitive fly the screecher slightly on the windward side instead of the jib/genoa. The latter being behind will then feed wind into the screecher and keep it filled.

Thanks for that. I haven't done it much but when conditions are tricky I like to have it in the quiver instead of flying the symmetrical. I did have issues with the genoa tending to shadow the screecher (slightly to leeward) so your advice makes sense.

I don't have a proper pole setup. My last one was a very dodgy windsurfer mast thingy that was lashed near the inner forestay tang. But to do it properly I should get a proper carbon sailboard mast and make a good one. In light of your advice I will make it long enough to be used on the screecher or genoa.

cheers

Phil

cheers

Phil

[patmo141]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

Something you might like to try for lazy downwind sailing wing on wing. Although counter intuitive fly the screecher slightly on the windward side instead of the jib/genoa. The latter being behind will then feed wind into the screecher and keep it filled.

We did this with our mainecat 22 and used the main to funnel wind into the sail flying with the clew/leech to windward at 160ish degrees. It was awesome.

I snagged an old "multipurpose reaching sail" for $300 which was for a 27' mono. It has a wire luff, 1.5oz nylon. We rig it with a "diy torsion rope" and have a little DIY furler. We can douse it on the tramp by hand no problem but having it preset on the furler is amazing. It made the boat so much more enjoyabe in lighter (< 15ts) and deep angles. Just a miniature version of what you describe. Have no tried to get luff tension with the wire and take it to higher angles in very light wind yet. It's got a pretty big belly so I doubt we will be able to fly it much higher than 60 AWA.