Hi there
I will be doing some racing in my friend's First 345 next season. He mainly used it for cruising but decided to go for the evening series next year. We are currently preparing her for battle before winter.
We raced quite a lot 10 years back but in a smaller boat. We know the basics, but would love any specific tips from people who raced the B-F345
My most important question concerns the downwind sail and the baby stay: How do you gybe the spin without the baby stay getting in the way? can the pole be raised so high as to drop it below the stay, or are asymmetric spins preferred? would it make sense to make the stay detachable for racing?
My friend has an asymmetric Spin/screecher, which might be native to the boat and an old symmetric X-99 spinnakker. As the course is mainly up-down, the symmetric would fit our bill the best, I reckon. We would probably rig it with separate guy/sheets on both sides and do the gybe dip-poled (the end fittings on the pole are not identical so end-to-end gybes are not possible anyway)
Are we on the right track or should we ditch the symmetric one completely? all input would be valuable.
I will be doing some racing in my friend's First 345 next season. He mainly used it for cruising but decided to go for the evening series next year. We are currently preparing her for battle before winter.
We raced quite a lot 10 years back but in a smaller boat. We know the basics, but would love any specific tips from people who raced the B-F345
My most important question concerns the downwind sail and the baby stay: How do you gybe the spin without the baby stay getting in the way? can the pole be raised so high as to drop it below the stay, or are asymmetric spins preferred? would it make sense to make the stay detachable for racing?
My friend has an asymmetric Spin/screecher, which might be native to the boat and an old symmetric X-99 spinnakker. As the course is mainly up-down, the symmetric would fit our bill the best, I reckon. We would probably rig it with separate guy/sheets on both sides and do the gybe dip-poled (the end fittings on the pole are not identical so end-to-end gybes are not possible anyway)
Are we on the right track or should we ditch the symmetric one completely? all input would be valuable.