New main and head sails.

[yachtsman]

Sadly the time has come to replace both sails. Am considering lowering the boom about 500mm (So just off the coach roof) to give me a bigger sail area. Also thinking about getting a sail made that has a reasonable amount of Roach. Almost horizontal out from head about 500mm. I would have two reef points.
Would appreciate any thoughts!

 

[BrianW]

Mark, you probably already know one of the costs of lowering the boom.... less height for a bimini. BrianW

 

[Roger Long]

Am considering lowering the boom

Adding a good vang will give you more of a performance boost in all but ghosting conditions and a safer and easier handling rig.

 

[DianaOfBurlington]

BrianW's point deserves its complement-- the price of raising the boom and recutting sails for it on a small boat is reduced stability, added heel, less sail area, less pointing ability, and with mid-boom sheeting higher load on mainsheet tackle and less leverage.

That said, I would go with a new main. Ask the friendly neighborhood sailmaker his advice while you're there. These guys are usually very sensible, experienced, and frugal.

Roger is right about the vang; but remember that with mid-boom sheeting (so common on small boats with Bimini tops), the vang and sheet bails are so close together that the vang does very little of what it's supposed to do. The farther aft the mainsheet is, the more the boom does its proper job and the same for the vang.

I have a sliding gooseneck on my boat that lets me have the best of boat worlds. When reefing I lower it at the downhaul than raise it the halyard. This helps, more than most people realize, in heavy weather.

 

[Roger Long]

the price of raising the boom and recutting sails for it on a small boat is reduced stability, added heel,

Not if you don't lengthen the mast or boom.

with mid-boom sheeting, the vang and sheet bails are so close together that the vang does very little of what it's supposed to do.

Except when well off the wind. An accidental jibe while running will be very, very different with a vang than without, even with mid boom sheeting. The sheets go slack and the boom is totally unrestrained. Even on a broad reach, a vang will provide sail control that mid boom sheeting can't.

 

[peptobysmol]

Mark, you probably already know one of the costs of lowering the boom.... less height for a bimini. BrianW

Not to mention the added ability use the boom as a Very effective deck sweeper.

 

[BrianW]

I'm DEFINITELY not a performance sailor on my H26! That being said.... if I had to count the times I've said one of the two following responses for my H26:
(A) "Gee, I sure wish I had more sail area"
or
(B) "Holy $h!t..... I sure wish I had less sail area"!!!!

The (B) selection wins by at least a 20 to 1 margin.

BrianW

 

[cephius (Dave)]

You are attempting to get performance out of a boat that had "Family Safe" as the prime design consideration. I would replace the sails with the stock size.

 

[soling42]

I'd definitely agree with Brian and Dave. I consider the main on a 26/260 as a light wind sail due to it's size and large roach. I reef it at 12kts(10kts if I'm pinching upwind short handed) and the boat maintains and might even gain some speed as the rig becomes better balanced.

If you want more light wind horsepower especially for off wind sailing, last season I added a 4' carbon mast sprit and a 300sq' kevlar gennaker on a continuous furler(boat jewelry). It's a charge to simply roll it out from the cockpit and run 3hrs up the coast like we did last weekend with the wind blowing a steady 12-15 on the rear quarter, the CB up, gennaker out and the main reefed. My gennaker will actually point pretty well too, but not quite as tight as the stock jib. This again speaks about how well the stock sails will work when they're in good shape.

Go with a fresh set of sails cut to the same basic guidelines by a good loft or straight from Doyle and you can't go wrong. If your lucky like I was maybe they'll have enough scrap hi-tech material from a bigger job to sew up an A-sail or a gennaker for you.

Good luck. Mike

 

[VT Fitz]

I'd be very leery of adding sail area to the main for the other reasons mentioned, plus these:

First, it will alter the design balance of the boat. The boat is what it is, not what it's not. She was designed with a sail plan in mind and unless you are a marine engineer, I wouldn't second guess the designers.

Second, related to the first, additional sail area will harness more wind power, which might sound good at first blush, but could also stress the rig into a catastrophic failure.

I'm all in favor if a new suite for you. Enjoy the new canvas!

 

[Barnacle Bill]

Hunter 260's are considered to be tender boats and since they are water ballasted, the ballast is up high, so to compensate the designers have to keep the combined center of effort of the sail plan low. Usually in order to increase sail area for those light air days you would go with a larger genoa, but many Hunter designs don't accommodate larger headsails because the deck layout eliminates placement of longer or more tracks to properly trim the sails. Dave above mentions that the 260, like some, but not all, Hunter designs are for user friendly, ready to go, sailboats for no brainer sailing (sort of). What you see is what you get. Actually some of the older Hunter designs were better designed for such modifications (the Cherubini designs) and I think some of the Legend models too. But there are a host of other manufacturer designs who think this stuff through from the git go so you can actually grow with your sailing experience without having to change boats.