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Yacht > Sailplan
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SailplanOur working sails are red-brown, which was a bit of a surprise when we first saw the boat, but now that we are used to it, we are quite font of the exclusiveness. This is even more unique than full Kevlar sails!
Espiritu was advertised as a cutter-rig sloop – which looks a bit strange but is actually the most accurate description. Essentially, it is a sloop (only one headsail), with an option to set a staysail in high winds. Putting up the staysail in light air doesn’t really generate extra power due to the small slot between the main and the genua. The baby stay is used to hank the storm jib on. The genua can thus just be rolled around the furler and more important, it brings the jib more to the center of the boat creating a more compact sailplan which gives her a more stable ride in high winds. The measures are guesstimates as we don’t have the exact numbers. If the numbers look high to you for a 12 tons boat – they are. When going upwind, we start reefing at 15 knots already! Some heavier boats just start hoisting their sails by then. If we are on a beam reach, only 8 knots is sufficient to push her to 5 knots of boat speed, which is a racing boat like performance. We are quite pleased with her large sailplan as we have quite some sailing to do and we hate motoring… The gennaker is not hugely over-sized which seems to defeat the purpose of a light air sail but it’s true strength lies in its weight. While the working sails start flapping in light wind, especially in a big swell, the gennaker stays nicely filled. Flapping sails is not only noisy and therefore annoying, it is also the best way to ruin your sails in the shortest possible time. Packing the working sails away also reduces their exposure to sunlight, which is the second most damaging effect on sailcloth. All sails were made by Lee Sails in Hong Kong in 2000. They used very heavy 9 Oz sailcloth which still looks so good that we have some hope that we can actually make it home with them. |
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