I am planning on replacing my main sail and I have an opportunity to buy a main sail in excellent condition with a shelf foot for 1/3 the price of a new sail. Would it be a better investment to buy a new loose foot sail? I mostly cruise and sometimes race in club races in the evening. I have a Catalina 34 tall rig which is sailed on the Maine coast.
Shelf foot versus new loose foot
- Thread starter WilliamH
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Please feel welcome to ask on our C34 Forum: http://c34.org/bbs/index.php?board=11.0
I agree with Barry. One of the traditionally hardest things to keep working on our boats has been the outhaul. Much more important on a loose footed sail than one with a boltrope or slugs on the boom.
I agree with Barry. One of the traditionally hardest things to keep working on our boats has been the outhaul. Much more important on a loose footed sail than one with a boltrope or slugs on the boom.
A shelf foot sail is essentialy a loose foot sail with some cloth in between. Mine was made with a shelf to ease my mind about the forces generated by a loose foot. Groundless. I was wrong, my sailmaker was right. Shelf at lower price? GRAB IT!
This topic was actually covered not too long ago, so you might want to search a little for some answers. No reason not to buy a loose footed main. One of my boats back in 1978 had a loose-footed main, so they are not such a new concept as some think (and I am not talking about a board boat, but a keel boat).
Shelf foot and cunningham cringle will get you a very flat sail for heavy air. Shelf foots (???) work like 1/2 a reef. with a loose outhaul you have a full lower main. Honk down on the out haul and you flatten the bottom 1/3. I woudn't buy a sail without one.
http://www.ukhalsey.com/LearningCenter/encyclopedia/encyclopedia4a.asp about 1/3 way down the page. Not sure I've ever seen one myself.
Go with the shelf foot due to the price advantage .... then take it to a sailmaker and have a 'flattening reef' added.
A *Flattening reef* is the 'old fashioned' way to flatten down a shelf footed sail ... just a standard reef that is ~18 in. distance from the foot of the sail .... very old fashioned and it works. All it does is remove/reef all the sail cloth of the 'shelf foot' leaving most of the sails full area exposed (but the roundness/draft at the shelf is removed).
That said the loose foot is much much easier to control and to 'shape'.
A *Flattening reef* is the 'old fashioned' way to flatten down a shelf footed sail ... just a standard reef that is ~18 in. distance from the foot of the sail .... very old fashioned and it works. All it does is remove/reef all the sail cloth of the 'shelf foot' leaving most of the sails full area exposed (but the roundness/draft at the shelf is removed).
That said the loose foot is much much easier to control and to 'shape'.
I have what I think is a shelf-footed mains'l on my Catalina 22. I tension my outhaul to effectively remove the shelf. Is this the same as a flattening reef? I think if I were to add a reef point 18" from the foot of my sail it would reduce more area than the shelf constitutes. Perhaps the points for a flattening reef on my sail would follow the first seam up from the foot (about 10" at the highest point). I'm very interested in this concept as I will be in the market for a new main this spring. BTW, I've only recently registered on this forum, but I have read many great and informative discussions. Thanks to all contributers.
No really. Without actual reef points at ~18" above the boom what (I think) youre doing is simply creating a large 'crease' (girt) along the foot which somehow reduces the action of the shelf foot ... and such a large amount of strain can/may cause the sail material to rupture.
........ However and long long ago when I was actively racing smaller boats, I seem to remember that especially the Catalina-22 had a 'special' reefing system along and just above the zone of the shelf foot. It essentially was a soft wire cable inside a sleeve that ran from the clew of the sail .... 'arcing' upwards in a smooth curve to a height of ~18 inches at about 30-40% aft of the position of max draft .... then 'curved' down smoothly to the gooseneck. To 'flatten' such a sail, all one had to do was pull the cable which in turn pulled the excess material from the "center" of the sail and downward ... thus 'collapsing' the shelf foot and creating a very flat sail .... and all by a 'single' control line. I only ever saw it on Catalina-22s. You might want to websearch for some Catalina-22 group that actively races the Cat22 ... and contact them.
Well that explains it...
It seemed way to close to the foot to make any difference in heavier air. This season I started using it to get a flatter shape and it has been very effective. Thanks for the explanation!!!!!
Manny
Thanks Rich, I've been perplexed as to what the heck the first reef point on my mainsail was for
It seemed way to close to the foot to make any difference in heavier air. This season I started using it to get a flatter shape and it has been very effective. Thanks for the explanation!!!!!Manny
My Capri 22 main is set up with a flattening reef point like that, but I don't have the cable mentioned above. What I have is in-boom reefing with 2 sheaves at the aft end of the boom - one line for the flattening reef, the other for the regular reef.
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