Genoa / Jib are both sitting on the lifelines/bow rail when deployed.

[carlc376]

I am new to sailing and have only been sailing my (new to me) o'Day 23 for about a month (which with a full time job equates to about 4 times actually on the boat). I am still in the process of figuring out the running rigging for various parts of the boat.

This past weekend, I used the genoa and jib (both hanked on) that came with the boat for the first time (previous times in the boat under sail I used the storm jib so I could get used to sailing). Both sails seem to hang up on the lifelines/bow rail when deployed. It almost seems like there there should be a length of line or cable to attach between the tack and where it attaches to the bow mount. The Genoa was about 2 feet below the top of the forestay, but the jib was even further away from the top. I know the jib is loose in the pic, but this was taken on a crazy windy day (and I probably should not have been out to begin with). Any thoughts or is this expected behavior? I have seen pics of other o'Day 23's and the sail sits higher off the deck in some cases (with one appearing to have a line/cable between the tack and bow plate), but for the most part I cannot tell how it is rigged.



Also, if anyone sees anything else in the pics that I should know about or make changes to, please do not hesitate to point it out.



Thank you in advance for any advice.

 

[Davidasailor26]

That’s not unusual at all. Some boats will have a pendant from the tack of the sail but that raises the center of effort and increases the amount the sail wants to heel the boat. When you’re on a reach or run the amount it’s hung up won’t make much difference to performance. When you’re close hauled you may need to “skirt” the sail manually to get it inside the lifelines.

By the way when it’s windy it’s even more critical to have the luff of the sail tight to get those scallops out. The looseness adds extra belly to the sail which makes the boat slower and less comfortable.

 

[kappykaplan]

By the way when it’s windy it’s even more critical to have the luff of the sail tight to get those scallops out. The looseness adds extra belly to the sail which makes the boat slower and less comfortable.

The first thing I noticed in your photos was the scallops. Definitely need more tension on your halyards.

 

[DayDreamer41]

What point of sail are we looking at? if upwind set the jib car set to aft on the car rail and tighten both the halyard and the sheet. You want to spill air from higher up on the sail setting the car aft and tightening the sheet will induce twist in the sail providing for this.

 

[shemandr]

You need to get more tension on your jib halyard.
Many foresails hang a little on the bow rail/lifeline especially off the wind. You can often see an imprint of the lifeline on used sails. It's not ideal but not that bad.
A sail can be raised a bit off the deck by the use of a pendant, which is a piece of wire attached to the tack of sail and the deck to raise the foot of the sail.
As Davidasailor points out the center of effort will be raised a little possibly increasing the heel of the boat. A benefit of raising the sail is that there may be better visibility under the sail.
As a rule, I would prefer to have a lower CE and have the sail lay over the lifeline a bit.
Once you have to skirt the sail, if sailing single handed, you would need to leave the helm. Ntimesot convenient and sometimes not safe.

 

[carlc376]

What point of sail are we looking at? if upwind set the jib car set to aft on the car rail and tighten both the halyard and the sheet. You want to spill air from higher up on the sail setting the car aft and tightening the sheet will induce twist in the sail providing for this.

On the pic with the Jib in place (sail to starboard) I think I was at/near a beam reach, but the wind was really odd during this outing. I had the jib on the fixed pulley mounted to the deck as I thought that made sense. I will try the Jib on the car rail and see how that goes. On the Genoa (sails to port), the sheets were running through the pulley in the track closer to the bow.

This is all good information as I know I have a lot of learning to do.

 

[Don Guillette]

As others have indicated your main & jib halyards are way too loose. You need to got to full hoist on both halyards. Adding a a pendant is one solution but won't work in your situation because of the length necessary.

I had the same problem with the jib on my C30. I had a 150, which was too much for me to handle, so I sold it and purchased a 135 and tried to figure out, with no joy, how to deal with safety line problem. So, I sold that one also and purchased a 135 high cut. My wife asked me to please stop selling and buying sails and hoped I'd be happy with the 135 high cut, which I was.

 

[carlc376]

As others have indicated your main & jib halyards are way too loose. You need to got to full hoist on both halyards. Adding a a pendant is one solution but won't work in your situation because of the length necessary.

I had the same problem with the jib on my C30. I had a 150, which was too much for me to handle, so I sold it and purchased a 135 and tried to figure out, with no joy, how to deal with safety line problem. So, I sold that one also and purchased a 135 high cut. My wife asked me to please stop selling and buying sails and hoped I'd be happy with the 135 high cut, which I was.

My main was stuck about a foot from the mast head and would not go up any further, so I ended up reefing it for better shape for this outing. I ran the halyard up with a downhaul to rule out the halyard/sheave as the issue. I plan to run a single sail slug up the mast to see if there is a binding issue near the top. I will also check to make sure my mainsheet and boom vang are released as well (which might be the issue). With being new to both sailing and this boat, it is throwing all types of challenges at me and all at once, but this is why I wanted to start sailing.

I may experiment with tack pennent once I get a little more experience.

These sails were with the boat when purchased and visually seem to be in good shape, but the Main is likely near original, but not sure on that (has the o'Day logo). The Jib and Genoa are both newer sails. I too will likely need to buy at least a mainsail in the near future, but these should get me through the learning process.