A few photos with my new Lite Skin sails. Enjoying the compliments and improvement in performance!
Just had to show these off
- Thread starter stickinthemud57
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Ha! Hadn't thought about that. Maybe a little Photoshop work is in the offing...
I do wonder just how much of my bottom shows when I'm heeled that far over. Maybe I should rename the boat "Plumber"?
Just placed an order for the LiteSkins with the "Big Jib." What kind of sailing difference have you experienced?
It definitely has improved pointing ability. Being able to skirt inside the lifelines makes a major difference in this regard. I would say I have picked up at least 5 degrees (trying not to exaggerate. It feels like more).
I am finding the Big Jib is optimal across a larger range of wind conditions. My 150% genoa made the boat difficult to manage in winds over about 14 mph going close to windward. With the Big Jib, I can sail in winds up to about 18 mph before I feel the need to reef the main. Running downwind in 10-12 mph winds, I was able to lengthen my lead against a Catalina 22 who was running a 150% genoa, so the performance seems on par with my 150% in the same conditions. That is, of course, impossible to A-B. I plan to hold on to my 150% genoa and see if it gives me enough of a performance increase in light wind downwind runs to make it worth switching out during a race.
The difference basically is not whether to fly the 100% or 150% foresail, but when to reef. Todd's stated goal of eliminating the need for the genoa works in this respect, IMO.
Whether it cuts down on heeling (as touted by BWY) is hard to determine (again, difficult to A-B).
There is an unmistakable improvement in overall performance, much of which owes to the superior quality of the Lite Skin sails over my budget Rolly Tasker 5-oz Dacron sails. They hold their shape better, and the "sweet spot" for trimming, while a bit narrower than that for my Dacron sails, makes better use of the wind power overall. To me, they look like, feel like, and behave like high-performance sails.
Because they are stiff, they are more difficult to store than my old sails. I used to just stuff my main in the boom cover and my genoa in a foredeck bag. Now I am flaking the main and flaking flaking and folding the jib before putting it in the foredeck bag. Roller furling would, of course, eliminate the latter problem, and with a little practice I am finding flaking the main to not be as big a chore as I had feared. For winter storage, I have rolled them both up like big reefers, which is a little awkward.
An effect of spending a fair amount of change on this system is that I have become much more focussed on optimization of mast bend, fairlead position, and overall rigging tuning. I have been fortunate to have a good coach for this.
Getting compliments on the look of the sails definitely enhances the sailing experience as well.
Not as much as you think…
I had my Hunter 280 over-canvassed, but racing a buddy on his H33, so I didn’t want to mess with the sails!
But even at this pretty extreme angle, no keel showing…but I could get a look at the bottom paint!
“Plumber”….pretty funny.
Greg
Thanks for your insights on the new sail plan. I placed the order last week.I will have the roller furling type of "Big Jib". Really excited to see the difference in the sailing performance of the boat. I'm a little nervous about the install process, I'm sure I'm making it worse in my head. I also recently place an order for the RudderCraft tiller/rudder combo. Between the two, I'm thinking it'll be a huge difference.
Thanks again!
Thanks again!
You'll appreciate the new rudder. I bought one when they were still Idasailor. Do you have some sort of propguard so you don't gouge it? I also added a quick release cam cleat from Duckworks
Don't sweat the installation process too much. Todd will be available to answer any questions. The RudderCraft airfoil rudder is a worthwhile improvement from my experience. Justin's suggestion for the camcleat from Duckworks is a good one. I did the same and it works as advertised.
I got the mainsail liteskin a couple of years ago and saw an immediate improvement in handling. I'm thinking about the big jib - can you post the installation details so I can see how it is set up? Thanks. George in Nashville.
I have attached the instructions provided by BWY.
Some caveats:
-I had already installed tracks, so I don't know how accurate or helpful those instructions are. I replaced my blocks with the low-profile ones in the kit.
-The kit includes spacers for the winches and cleats, but I had replaced the stock cleats so did not use the ones from the kit. I did use the 1" spacers for the winches, but the sheets would ride down if there was not tension on them, so I cut some new ones from 1/2" material. I have not tested them yet.
-I did not include the spreader installation instructions because there was a good deal of confusing stuff included that did not apply. A call to Todd cleared everything up. Hopefully he has brushed those up a bit.
-My jib is hank-on, so I'm not sure what, if anything, differs with a roller-furled jib.
The whole process is very simple and can be done in an afternoon easily.
Some caveats:
-I had already installed tracks, so I don't know how accurate or helpful those instructions are. I replaced my blocks with the low-profile ones in the kit.
-The kit includes spacers for the winches and cleats, but I had replaced the stock cleats so did not use the ones from the kit. I did use the 1" spacers for the winches, but the sheets would ride down if there was not tension on them, so I cut some new ones from 1/2" material. I have not tested them yet.
-I did not include the spreader installation instructions because there was a good deal of confusing stuff included that did not apply. A call to Todd cleared everything up. Hopefully he has brushed those up a bit.
-My jib is hank-on, so I'm not sure what, if anything, differs with a roller-furled jib.
The whole process is very simple and can be done in an afternoon easily.