Sailing downwind, why you need a spinnaker

-

This is our spinnaker, and how we sailed across the Pacific.

When we bought the boat we didn't really know how to sail, we hadn't taken our day skipper, and were very much still beginner's. I have one video when we were still a light boat doing 10kts in the Solent. I turn to Fung and say "10kts! We'll cross the Atlantic like this".  It turns out we did cross the Atlantic, but not like that. We were the last boat in the final rally organised by Jimmy Cornell, we arrived dead last, and were so slow that our fellow cruisers wondered what happened to us.

It didn't look that way when we departed Mindelo. After our first 36 hrs we were on for 200nm days. It wasn't to be, and after the katabatic winds left us we wound up almost a day behind the fleet. We didn't realise it at the time, but the boat was not yet ready for down wind sailing!

As a catamaran, downwind should be what we excel at, and we do, but the thing that caught us out was light conditions. 

The Open 40 comes with a self tacking jib. This is great for day sails in the Solent, but not great for airs bellow 15kts, especially light airs and deep angles. To make the jib self taking a track runs forward of the mast. This means with the fractional rig, and non-overlapping jib, the surface area of this sail is tiny. Now if we are sailing deep +140deg, there's no way to get a decent angle, or decent surface area with this sail. The main doesn't help much either, due to the swept backstays the angle you can get with the full main is about the same as an AC75 - not much. You can't have the main pressing up against stays and spreaders. You can get a better angle by reefing the main to it's second reef. If feels counter intuitive, you loose surface area, but because the angle is so much better it feels like a net gain. Another problem is that the main blocks the tiny jib on the deepest angles. Anyway, all this means is that down wind and light airs, we needed to do something.

After thinking about it for a year, we finally spoke to NorthSails Annapolis. They really seemed to listen to our ideas, gave us excellent information, and knew exactly what we needed. We came up with this 135sq m G2 sail, it is transformational. 

What used to be torture is now our favourite point of sail, it even beats blazing around the Solent at 10kts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To stop cruising

-
Image
Taking a sabatical Our life in the UK was really good. We lived in a leafy Surrey suburb, with an active local church, a farmers market, links to London, lots of social activities, and we had jobs we enjoyed. But after two decades of work we felt the need for a sabbatical. Our dream was to explore, and to sail. So we quit our jobs, bought a boat and set off for a life of world cruising.  What happened We knew we could travel for two years, but had no fixed destination, this was the extent of the plan. It turned out that we loved the lifestyle, and our 2 year sabbatical turned into 4. Every day on the water is different, and we accumulated many stories.  The Pandemic Ultimately we found ourselves in New Zealand, and were thrilled and relieved to arrive here. We were two years in and it felt like the end of our journey. We had seen more than we dreamed of, we made it across the Atlantic, and Pacific, sailing over 20,000 nautical miles, and visiting 17 countries. Sailing into Opu...
Read more

Open 40 modifications

-
Cleats: base of mast, trampoline, transom Non return values: engine bays and under stairs Electronics: inverter breaker wiring, shunt bi basses Owners door catch Standing rig diamond chafe protection Safety line backstay chafe protection Running rigging for bauber haul lines Reseal emergency tiller fitting Saloon door height Teak steps Gale floor sanding
Read more

Fisherman: failed rescue

-
Image
I thought I'd learned my lesson, but it just will not stick.  Here's some of our tender exploits; jungle river exploration, lost in dingyy, lost the dinghy, rescued the dinghy, rescued another dinghy, caught speeding, soaked, swamped, flooded, starved, flipped on davits, floated away on tide, forgot to tie on, caught dingy painter in dinghy prop, caught dingy painter in yacht prop, hit a reef, hit a reef at night, dinghy drifting, dinghy drift snorkel, towed snorkel, towed boat to harbour, rescued yacht using the dinghy, and more... One of the lessons I thought I learned through all of this is, don't be a hero!  In the Marquesas, Nuku Hiva has the main port for cruisers. There is lots to see on other islands, but the access to town, plus the large protected harbour, means Nuku Hiva is one of the most popular spots for cruisers. The town has a wharf that locals and cruisers use to tie up. It's not uncommon to see 20 dinghies tied up. Sometimes dinghies can be three deep ...
Read more

Twilight rescue

-
Image
As a skipper, your number one concern is safey,  thinking always of saftey makes you think about others in distress, especially others on the water.  We have just made a monthly berth booking in Whangarei, New Zealand, and we didn't really expect to be doing any more boating adventures. When we were cruising, we often wound up in unexpected situations, but we thought this was all over after signing up for a long term berth. We decided it would be nice to go for a sail over the weekend and planed to go to Munro Bay, a favourite local anchorage, pretty and remote. There are hills, a farm, a reserve, and a couple of houses. Its shallow, good holding, muddy bottom, and good protection from North - NothEast winds. Also scallops and good fishing if you're a Kiwi.  Anyway, an hour out we heard a distress call from a boat in Paura Bay. This was sort of on the way, well its actually out of the way, but we did have to go passed the entrance. There's usually tons of boats there. The...
Read more

Seized bolts - Preventative Maintenance

-
Image
The marine enviroment is tough. Even on a new boat metals suffer from oxidation, corrosion, stress, electrolysis.  One particularly annoying task is dealing with seized bolts. So there are lots of ways to get seized bolts out. Overnight application or CRC Impact driver Persuasion Tapping Drilling Cutting a slot *Taps *Not much success with taps. Anyway, now that you have removed your bolt, I'm guessing that you do not feel like doing that again any time soon? Well, there is a simple and easy answer. Make sure you have a tube of Tefgel onboard.  If you have any concern about seized bolts, just coat the thread with Tefgel before you put it back. I've tried it, and it works well. So either buy and use this product on your threads, or get used to unseizing blots. About to replace old track stops, these bolts will get a Tefgel topup.
Read more