Upwind performance with roller furling genoa

[Joe]

My Catalina 25 with roller furling genoa won't sail closer than about 55 or 60 degrees to the wind. Is it possible to point with a roller furling genoa? I haven't done much yet in terms of trying to tune the rigging. Any comments will be appreciated.If a new headsail is the answer, any recommendations will be appreciated also.

 

[Joe Barrett]

Genoa

Yes it is very possible to sail high with a furling Genoa. Make sure the forestay is tight but more importantly tighten the Backstay. This should give you some aft rake to the mast and reduce forestay sag. I did this on my new Catalina 320 and pointed much higher. Also your Genoa track cars may be to far forward. An old Genoa will have a bit too much "Bag" in it which will also make sailing to weather difficult. Lots of chices about where to buy a new Genoa, I went with Dolye sails but there are a lot of good lofts including sailwharehouse and Catalina direct.

 

[Don]

Pointing Ability

Check out Bill Holcomb's article on "Pointing" at the Catalina 25/250 National Association website. Click on the related link below to go to the article. Additionally you may want to pose this question at the Sailor's Forum at this website. It is a very active forum with extremely knowledgeable C25/250 sailors who can answer pretty much any and all questions. The website is:http://www.catalina25-250.org/

 

[Joe]

Thanks

Thanks for the responses, guys. I read the "Pointing" article, and it's excellent. I do have older sails, but will try increasing backstay tension and changing some of the other variables mentioned in the article.