Doesn't point......

[Ted]

Data reference

Patrick, Get yourself some polar diagrams for your specific boat. They will tell you what your optimum boat speed, and what your apparent wind angle should be to maximize VMG to a weather mark. Forget about the other boats and try to sail your boat to the "predicted" performance data. Sea state, boat prep and sail condition will prevent you from matching those numbers but you should be within a few tenths of a knot to be competitive. Trying to point high with your boat might be causing the keel to stall and you will loose height. Don't pinch, especially with a shoal draft boat or wing keel. Good luck.

 

[Don Guillette]

Senior Moments

Alan/Ted: Some days I have these senior moments were I don't know my left from my right. Living here in an adult comunity in Tucson there are lots of us with the same problem but we don't notice it too much because so many of us have the same problem!!

 

[capt'n dave]

fractional rig

My fractional rig performs much better with a 100 or 110. A big genny backwinds my main. A lot of Hunters with fractional rigs are designed for a smaller jib. Downwind of course, the bigger the better, but not on the wind.

 

[Chaos]

Jumping in

I have to add my pennys worth. My Hunter 26.5 came alive after I mounted 6 feet of track for the jib lead. I mounted the track inboard about 2 inches from the original Hunter lead location. Immediately, I could point better than 80 degrees, point to point, keeping reasonable speed. So, obviously, it is very important where your jib lead is positioned inboard to outboard. One really needs a 2 dimensional lead, wind conditions all considered. I disagree with the idea a wing keel will not point. I have a shoal draft wing keel.I also have a 150 genoa which I use occassionally. The boat will point fairly well with the genoa, but I do get a bit better point with the 110. Main point: my 110 gives me a much better PHRF rating; I only race with the 110. (note capyain Dave's comment).Good dialoge on this one. Chaos

 

[Alan]

Genoa size

All smaller genoas will point higher than big ones, no matter the boat. The loss in pointing given up by the bigger genoa is more than made up for in power and speed in lighter air conditions. As the breeze builds and less power is needed the smaller genoas become more effective. The trick is to balance the combination of sail size with breeze.A limiting factor in genoa size is the size of the shroud base, the distance from the mast or center line of the boat to the chain plates. Shroud base size affects headsail sheeting angle. The further outboard the shroud base the larger the sheeting angle of an overlapping genoa and the less well that it can point. If the shrouds run all the way out to the sides of the hull, this limits the sheeting angle dramatically and effectively negates any added performance of the larger overlapping genoa. In such a case, if would be of no benefit to fly an overlapping (larger than 110) genoa.Some Hunters are configured with a wide shroud base while other models have a much smaller base and therefore can make effective use of the larger sail. For example the 25.5 and 26.5 models both have narrow shroud bases whereas the 26 and 260 are configured with shroud bases at the toe rail. In these models, an overlapping headsail would be of little use. This design difference makes the 26.5 a much better up wind performer than the 26. To increase off wind performance the 26 could make good use of an asymmetrical spinnaker to make up for the lack of sail area in the smaller genoa.