Headsails
Cruising Sails – Genoas
Genoas in a cruising inventory usually comprise of one,
or a combination of, the following sails; Roller Furling
Genoa, Yankee and Staysail.
Our sails come complete with all of the standard
features you would expect with a new sail, such
as sail bag, adjustable leech line and tell tales etc.
In addition, all of our Furling sails come with a
UV Suncover along the leech and foot, as well as a
rope luff to help flatten the sail when partially reefed.
R/F Genoa
On most boats we usually recommend a Furling
Genoa should be approx 135% overlap, or about the
size of a standard #2 Genoa. We have found through
years of experience anything bigger than this becomes
quite inefficient once you start reefing the sail down.
If you also plan on doing some racing with the boat
and think you will need a bigger sail, then it is
advisable to have a dedicated 150% #1 Genoa which
you can then save only for racing. This means you don’t
wear out your #1 Genoa by using it all the time for
Cruising and vice-versa with your Furling Genoa.
R/F Yankee
This is a sail with a very high cut clew, usually sized
at around 100% - 110% overlap.The high clew means
the sail can fly away from the boat when eased sheets,
so it is an excellent sail for Reaching and is therefore
most commonly used as an offshore sail. Due to the
height of the clew, we bring the leech line over the head
of the sail and down the luff to make it adjustable at
the tack.
R/F Staysail
A Staysail is usually only seen on boats larger than
about 45 feet in length. This is because you need to
have a large enough slot between the mast and the
primary forestay to accommodate the intermediate
forestay. If this gap is too small and you try flying a
Staysail in between the Main and Primary Headsail,
then you won’t get an efficient slot effect between the
sails and may actually harm your performance.
However, if that slot is big enough, then a Staysail can
be very beneficial to the boat speed.
A Staysail will work particularly well when flown inside
a Yankee, as it will fill the gap very nicely and create
another slot between the sails.
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