Tuesday, October 14, 2008

The things I think about.

I pulled four different quotes for headsails yesterday.  I wish I could provide you an apples to apples comparison of the various lofts prices, but no one designer would ever give me quite what I was asking for.  Even worse, they often had their own ideas about what I needed and varied wildly from the quotes I was requesting.

 

Jargo came with two headsails, a great big 150% genoa and a 90% jib.  Neither sail was really designed for a furler and both have quite a bit of age on them.  I was planning on using the 150% as my primary and as such took it down to get a couple of patches put on and have the sun cover replaced.  While it was in the shop I flew the 90% jib and used this sail all the way down to South Padre Island and back.  What I found surprised me.

 

It’s no secret I single hand a lot.  Smaller sails are easier to handle.  I finally put the big 150% back on after Ike and went sailing this weekend.  What a pain in the ass.  As a result, I’ve decided to replace the 90% with a true, brand new, 100% jib with a high clew and use this new sail as my primary.  I might lose a little bit of speed in lighter airs, but not wearing myself out should more than make up for it.  Of the sail lofts I’ve spoken to Cameron Sails seemed to understand best what I was about and the owner should be on the boat shortly to take measurements for the new jib.

 

Jargo is after all a sailboat.  If I am going cruising don’t you think I ought to put at least one brand spanking new sail on her?

 

Lee Winters
Skype: (281) 336-0855
Satellite Phone: 8816-316-59853
Email: Lee.Winters@SailingForSOS.com

 

4 comments:

Margarita Mirasol said...

I went to comment here, had to dash off to a class, and have forgotten what I was going to comment. It was something about boats, I am shore.

Ah. I remember. It was about sails. Yes, treat yourself to the perfect sail.
I'm going to see what sails I have and leave their sizes here and see what you think about them cos I don't really know much beyond I think my rollerjib can be a bit big sometimes and I think I might actually use the innerstay one - forgot what it's called - which is hanked on, which I prefer, actually, and the main, which is a self-furling one, Dutchman, and then the mizzen, which is very easy to manage. Actually, the main jib aside, I think my sail sizes are too bad given the size of the boat.

Margarita Mirasol said...

Okay,
This is what I've got:

Furling 135% Genoa
plus the main and a storm jib etc.

Margarita Mirasol said...

'aren't too bad'

Lee Winters said...

This is a long answer....I'll email you offline. I am going against dogma on this call.