Peak Sails "Generator" Kite for 23.5

Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
OK two things.

The 150 is magic number if your PHRF fleet allows you to fly a 150% LP headsail without additional penalty. Many do. That sail rates as a headsail.

Many clubs non-spin fleeets are JAM. If so you’re good. If yours is NFS, you probably cannot use it.

If you’re not going race it, get the bigger one.

Removing the hanks and using it as a flying sail allows the sail’s luff to rotate to windward. Better when-sailing deeper. Not so good close reaching.
 
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DJN51

.
Oct 26, 2009
377
Hunter 23.5 East Chicago In
Removed hanks as have furler on 23.5 .no forestay to hoist on,wire thru hanks acts as forestay.tried hoisting without wire front of sail would curl on itself.
 
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Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
Removed hanks as have furler on 23.5 .no forestay to hoist on,wire thru hanks acts as forestay.tried hoisting without wire front of sail would curl on itself.
Yea I saw that. good move. Yes in general any sail used like this will have to have some reinforcement. Peak calls what they a 'patented 'Linear Luff'' system'; I'm betting its a length of Dyneema running between the tack and head to take the load. That's an easy thing to do; I've doing it several times. Maybe I should have patented it!
 
Sep 30, 2016
339
Island Packet IP 44 Ventura, CA
OK two things.

If you’re not going race it, get the bigger one.

Removing the hanks and using it as a flying sail allows the sail’s luff to rotate to windward. Better when-sailing deeper. Not so good close reaching.
Good info. Thanks Jackdaw.

(edited below because of erroneous spew)
Im still debating getting one of these, but leaning towards yes. I only have one concern, which just takes an email or phone call. My boat has a roller jib. I envision this new sail using a halyard for the spinnaker (which is probably the jib halyard when just using a hanked on jib) . I just need to make sure they are using the correct measurement for the luff before money is plunked down. I also want it to clear the life line.
 
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Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
Good info. Thanks Jackdaw.

Im still debating getting one of these, but leaning towards yes. I only have one concern, which just takes an email or phone call. My boat has a roller jib. I envision this new sail using a halyard for the spinnaker, which exits the mast a few feet below the jib/forestay. I just need to make sure they are using that measurement for the luff, and not the jib luff measurement.
Your spin halyard will always always exit ABOVE your forestay. Always. You might have an line exit on your mast below it, but its not for a spin halyard. Using an exit below invites wrapping the halyard around the forestay during jibes, a dangerous situation. Your spin halyard exit might be just an inch about your forestay, in the same fitting that contains the forestay. Take a close look. Maybe other 23.5 owners will chine in.
 
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Sep 30, 2016
339
Island Packet IP 44 Ventura, CA
Yeah, Im not 100% on the exit point. Ill recheck.
EDIT: Looking at photos, you are correct. It makes sense in a pic of my spinnaker flying. It would obviously tangle if it came out below. The exit is from what I can tell in a photo, just a few inches above the forestay.
 
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Oct 28, 2013
678
Hunter 20 Lake Monroe
I too am on the fence. My concern is more about the tack attach point. I too have a furler that attaches to the eye for the forestay. We have a unused eye further forward that we can attach the tack to but I can see it being a crowded mess attaching to that point. I can't attach the tack to that point outside of the bow pulpit because it prevents the luff from being a straight line. This brings us to some sort of sprit. That obviously would be ideal but that's opens up another can of worms.
This started out so simple. If we could just find a way to make the darn wind blow...

Sam
 
Sep 30, 2016
339
Island Packet IP 44 Ventura, CA
I lifted this pic from the Peaksails website. It shows the tack attached to the same point as the forestay, it looks like. That is the same type of setup I have. Although in the full size view of this pic I dont see how one would change tack (tac?) with the tack attached through the life lines. Maybe they dont plan on doing that. And, I probably dont know what Im talking about.

Sam, the wind up in Monroe must have been a lot more still than down at Patoka. I dont remember too many weekends that were calm. Except one. About 95 deg, all sun and humidity, and no air. Wasnt the best day on the lake.

upload_2018-9-24_19-11-39.png
 
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Oct 28, 2013
678
Hunter 20 Lake Monroe
I saw that pic to Granger. I am thinking that tacking this sail is not a planned on operation. I can just see the tangled up mess that we, me, would be dealing with on the bow.
Not sure this will work for us as our runs tend to be fairly short due to the layout of the lake and prevailing wind direction. If we can't tack it easily there is no point in spending the money.
Monroe sits down in a valley with tall trees lining the banks, if the winds are less than at least 10 plus there is so much surface friction around the lake that you just never know how much or what direction the wind will be from. It is very frustrating to say the least. Our slip is in the Northeast corner of the main body. A lot of times we can find wind in the Moore's Creek channel but we have to motor to get there.

Sam
 
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
We have a reaching sail (kinda a Code 0.5) that we tack on short strop of dyneema to a hard point just ahead of our furler. The strop holds the tack at about lifeline level (20 inches), and it runs UNDER and out of the pulpit. The luff is never ever pulled wire tight, and you never really have to jibe or tack these things. So it works fine.

Here is @cb32863 and I out for a beer run. Six knots in six knots true wind. It looks and feels like you're going upwind, but the True Wind is on the beam.

6in6.jpg



The obvious perfect solution is a small fixed prod. I have the design for one done, just have not pulled the trigger on it!
 
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Oct 28, 2013
678
Hunter 20 Lake Monroe
Looks good Clay. What did you use to raise this sail, your jib halyard or spin halyard?

Sam
 
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JRT

.
Feb 14, 2017
2,037
Catalina 310 211 Lake Guntersville, AL
Humm, so generator, Code 0 or Code 0.5? Still thinking and after our weekend with our drifter I'm wondering what would be a good replacement / upgrade now.
 

Grotto

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Feb 18, 2018
273
Catalina 22 Wilmington
I'm still hopeful also. My observations with all offshore sail manufacturing is that the promised delivery time is always too optimistic. I just assume they are going to be late.
I ordered from sail warehouse (stock Catalina 22) jib and main they delivered quickly and the sails are well made oem weight sails. These were built by Rolly Tasker I would recommend em for any non custom sails (I have no experience with ordering custom sails) but very pleased with the whole transaction.
 
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Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
Humm, so generator, Code 0 or Code 0.5? Still thinking and after our weekend with our drifter I'm wondering what would be a good replacement / upgrade now.
The code 0.5 is rated as a spinnaker. If you don’t race with it, go with what ever makes you happy!
 

weinie

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Sep 6, 2010
1,297
Jeanneau 349 port washington, ny
Our phrf requires that a sail can only qualify as spinnaker if it's mid-girth is at least 75% of the length of the foot.
A sail may not be measured or used as a spinnaker unless its mid-girth is at least equal to 75% of its foot length.

Sadly, most cruising code 0's or screetchers, or whatever you call them won't pass this requirement.
A further stipulation requires if the mid-girth is more thanb50% of the length of the foot it can't be used as a jib, so it's out for non-spin racing too.
(Non-spinnaker racing is defined, for this purpose, as prohibiting the use of any headsail whose mid-girth (mid-luff to mid-leech) measurement is more than 50% of its foot measurement.)

That being said, this type of sail is nice sail to keep in the cruising arsenal, especially for newer type fractional boats with outboard shrouds that are typically limited to smaller jibs.
Great for light wind reaches or even on windier days when you just don't want to wrestle with a spinnaker.

This one is a nice laminate which hold its shape and won't collapse downwind like a spinnaker. It's on a top-down furler which makes it easy to put up and take down. Tacking or jibing is done by rolling and unrolling on the other tack.
 
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Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
Our phrf requires that a sail can only qualify as spinnaker if it's mid-girth is at least 75% of the length of the foot.
A sail may not be measured or used as a spinnaker unless its mid-girth is at least equal to 75% of its foot length.

Sadly, most cruising code 0's or screetchers, or whatever you call them won't pass this requirement.
A further stipulation requires if the mid-girth is more thanb50% of the length of the foot it can't be used as a jib, so it's out for non-spin racing too.
(Non-spinnaker racing is defined, for this purpose, as prohibiting the use of any headsail whose mid-girth (mid-luff to mid-leech) measurement is more than 50% of its foot measurement.)

That being said, this type of sail is nice sail to keep in the cruising arsenal, especially for newer type fractional boats with outboard shrouds that are typically limited to smaller jibs.
Great for light wind reaches or even on windier days when you just don't want to wrestle with a spinnaker.

This one is a nice laminate which hold its shape and won't collapse downwind like a spinnaker. It's on a top-down furler which makes it easy to put up and take down. Tacking or jibing is done by rolling and unrolling on the other tack.
I THINK that Generator sail has a mid-girth less than 50%. It has a big hollow in the leech, designed to keep it from flapping. If you got the 150% it would qualify as an un-penalized headsail. If you non-spin rules were JAM, you probably would be OK, at least for the first year! ;^)

If they are written as NSF (No Flying Sails) you are hosed not matter what the measurments are. Your headsail must be attached to your forestay.
 
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Jun 4, 2004
392
Hunter 31 and 25 and fomerly 23.5 Stockton State Park Marina; MO
Maybe other 23.5 owners will chine in.
When I contacted Z Spar about this they said spinnaker halyard should be located as follows:
"The box should be no closer than 150mm to the headstay attachment and no higher than 600mm from the cap shroud attachment."

Dennis
 
Nov 8, 2010
11,386
Beneteau First 36.7 & 260 Minneapolis MN & Bayfield WI
When I contacted Z Spar about this they said spinnaker halyard should be located as follows:
"The box should be no closer than 150mm to the headstay attachment and no higher than 600mm from the cap shroud attachment."

Dennis
That makes sense, but it implies that the headstay and shrouds are at different heights? That seems weird.