Genoa Size

[twiggsrig]

I have just bought a sail from bacon sails. I have bought a genoa that is a little larger than the sail my boat came with. Instead of a 17.5 foot it has a 19.2 foot. All other measurements are bang on. Does anyone run with a large genoa out there? If so how does the boat point. My previous sail was perfect. I think the jib will be about 165%

 

[Rick Sylvester]

Wow! That's a whopper.

Back in the day we called them 'lappers' due to the huge amount of over-lap.

Pointing ability will be determined less by size (assuming you aren't over-powered) and more by shape, balance, blah, blah, blah.

That said, we had a 155% that we used for a few years. It was pain in the ass to tack because of the amount of sail that had to be dragged across. We were also quickly overpowered and furled up often. Maybe by being fractional it won't be so problematic for you but, wow, 165 . . .

 

[Alan]

My 35.5 is the larger version of the 33.5. My major use sail is a medium duty 155 which we use to 18 knots true and is the most effective sail for most sailing conditions here. I can't imagine where and in what conditions you would fly a 165. In lighter air, unless it is a high tech light weight fabric will be too heavy. As wind strength builds the 165 will quickly become overpowered. If it is a purpose cut light air reacher with a high cut clew then this sail could serve in place of an asymmetrical spinnaker for off wind reaching. Here again it would need to be a light fabric for proper shape holding.
My suggestion is give it back till you find an appropriately sized sail for your boat.