new sails

[SailingJerry]

Picked up my new sails from Kappa Sails in Westbrook Ct today. C'MON SPRING !!!

Jerry Schilp

[Jim Hardesty]

Just picked up mine.  I have a rolling furling main.  Was unhappy with the way the original set, so had one made with vertical battens and a little roach.  Hope it works.  Also went from a 150% geona to a 135%.  My thinking is that the sails will balance better (more main less geona) and I'll get less weather helm.  Hope I don't loose much in light air.  If nothing else it will tack quicker and trim with less effort.
C'MON SPRING!
Jim

[Ted Pounds]

Just picked up mine.  I have a rolling furling main.  Was unhappy with the way the original set, so had one made with vertical battens and a little roach.  Hope it works.  Also went from a 150% geona to a 135%.  My thinking is that the sails will balance better (more main less geona) and I'll get less weather helm.  Hope I don't loose much in light air.  If nothing else it will tack quicker and trim with less effort.
C'MON SPRING!
Jim

Hi Jim,
I hate to break it to you, but more main means MORE weather-helm.  http://www.thecoastalpassage.com/weatherhelm.html  and  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urDFZqPNSXw
That's why, when the wind pipes up, you want to reef the mainsail first.

Ted

[Jim Hardesty]

Ted,
I knew that...guess that I just thought wrong.   Still the rolling furling main had no roach and just shaped poor.  With the 150% geona think that the sails just didn't balance well.
Thanks for reminding me.
Jim

[Ted Pounds]

Yeah, poorly shaped sails don't help.  Especially when they're stretched out which causes the draft and thus the center of effort to move farther aft...

Ted

[Clay Greene]

I think the rule of thumb about more main, less headsail creating weather helm only works if you have a jib (i.e., a sail that fills only 100 percent of the foretriangle created by the mast and the forestay).  Assuming that your center of lateral resistance (i.e. keel) is in the general area of slightly aft of your mast, a sail bigger than 100 percent is contributing to weather helm rather than reducing it because it moves the center of effort behind the center of lateral resistance.  We found that moving from a 150 to 135 did help in heavy air in reducing weather helm - the point at which we reefed the main went from 12-14 knots apparent to 16-18 knots apparent.  It also helps a lot in terns of visibility forward.  But you do lose speed in light air.  We have both and like the (older) 150 for racing but prefer the (newer) 135 for cruising. 

Our Catalina dealer told me that they are ordering all of the new boats with 135s instead of 150s.  He thinks the boats are better-balanced with the slightly smaller sail and the roller furling mains with vertical battens. The extra portion of sail is not very efficient anyway because of the air flow off the backside of the main. 

[bayates]

Just had our new sails installed last weekend.  Bought a new main and 135 from UK Sails.  Installed without issue and they came along for the race to help us make sure there were no issues.  Learn alot from Bruno everytime.