Jib power

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Quoddy

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Apr 1, 2009
241
Hunter 260 Maine
How low can you go on your boat before you start to shadow the jib? Much below 135 degrees on a broad reach? We have a fractional with 110 percent jib and sweptback spreaders.
 
Jan 22, 2008
1,483
Hunter 37 C sloop Punta Gorda FL
Not at all sure I understand the question, but here is a short discussion on Genoa size.

Boats designed to race under the Cruising Club of America (CCA) rules were not penalized for 170 genoas, so many racers used them. PHRF racing rules penalize anything over 155, so few racers use them. If you are (or were) not racing, you are (were) free to use whatever you want.

The current trendy sail, the asymmetrical, Code 0 or whatever your sailmaker calls his, is in the range of 165 to 180 percent of LP. Many of these are cut flat enough to go upwind some.

Biggest problem with anything larger than what your boat came with is sheeting angle, LOOOng expensive tracks and jib car moovers. Also roller furling spool size may limit how much sail you can roll up. This was not a problem with CCA as that was before roller furling. Those acres of canvas were hanked on.
 

COOL

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Feb 16, 2009
118
Islander 30 mkII Downtown Long Beach
I would guess that, depending on wind and wave conditions,
you will not get much drive out a 110% headsail much below
a 135 degree AWA. If you pole the jib out to leeward, the sail
will be more effective in that range.
 
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Joe

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Jun 1, 2004
8,323
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
Do you have a whisker pole? Or spinnaker pole? you can sail dead down wind with any size headsail if you want.
 

Quoddy

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Apr 1, 2009
241
Hunter 260 Maine
No pole

No pole or spin. I could test this out but its winter. It seemed last season that if I went lower than 140 degrees or so the jib was starting to be blanketed. I was just wondering if this was about normal for the point were you need to pole it out?
 

COOL

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Feb 16, 2009
118
Islander 30 mkII Downtown Long Beach
No pole or spin.
You really need a wisker pole of some kind for your headsail
to be at all effective off the wind. It could be an 8' piece of
bamboo lashed to the mast and clew, but you need a pole.
 
Jan 10, 2009
590
PDQ 32 Deale, MD
You really need a wisker pole of some kind for your headsail
to be at all effective off the wind. It could be an 8' piece of
bamboo lashed to the mast and clew, but you need a pole.
I find that once I get below ~ 110 apparent, it is faster to alternate between 110 and wing-and-wing (180), than to hoble along with the jib in a shadow. In moderate weather, often you don't need to touch a sheet, only jibe the main ocationally.
 

Alan

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Jun 2, 2004
4,174
Hunter 35.5 LI, NY
Absolutely there comes a point where your headsail (no matter the size) will fall into the windshadow of the main. Your choice is wing out the headsail on a whisker pole or sail slightly higher till you gybe. I would opt for a chute where you can extend the leading edge of the chute to weather or a sprit to carry it away from the windshadow. The gain with the increased SA of the chute is the increased boat speed which moves the AWA forward allowing you to sail even deeper. Sport boats can do this to the point where they seldom see an AWA aft of the beam.
 
Oct 6, 2008
857
Hunter, Island Packet, Catalina, San Juan 26,38,22,23 Kettle Falls, Washington
When we owned our H26 we found that jibing was the only way to go downwind as the jib had only the one sheeting position unless the owner mounted a jib car tract. The best item we had on "Speedy" was the asymetric spinnaker. It overcame the downwind handycap of the B&R rig.
Ray
 
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