We all hope for down wind sailing, but I wonder how many of us cruising people get the best out of a following breeze. I guess it starts with the right choice of sails and inevitably this is where compromise begins. We must balance cost, ease of handling and storage space among other things. Efficiency is what we are after: a single down wind sail that will work over a wide range of wind direction and strengths, is easy to set and handle, drives the boat well without risk of mishap. That single sail may not exist, so we start to make compromise, always with one eye on the cost. Perhaps we have high on the list ease of setting, so we choose a furling sail and then realise it collapses on a true run. Or we choose a conventional symmetrical spinnaker and find it is too difficult to set with a small family crew.

 

On our last boat we had a cruising chute. It seemed to work sometimes. So I made a mental note not to have one when we commissioned the new Pemandia. What happened? What do you think happened? We were not getting younger and wanted sails we could manage easily and we were seduced by the sailmakers’ literature, all promising that their particular sail was the real answer to a maiden’s prayer. We had a cruising chute. And the maiden’s prayer? Still recited daily and as yet unanswered.

 

On a broad reach with the right amount of wind the sail works well. It is in a snuffer which makes setting easier (once we have removed all the twists). Too close to the wind and leeway and heal increase. Too little wind or too far aft and it collapses. Humphh.

 

So, off to see Peter Sanders who made our main and genoa last year. I have no connection to him or his firm but he takes a huge amount of trouble with his customers to find out how they sail and what they want. By contrast a very famous USA maker told me in 5 minutes at the boat show what I wanted (in his opinion).

 

Peter talked me through the merits of bottom furling and top down furling sails as well as cruising chutes and conventional spinnakers. He pointed out several pitfalls: a spinnaker for a cruising boat may be smaller than the largest racing sail. Many sailmakers will therefore use heavier cloth as would for a small racing sail. Result? It will not stay set in light airs

. He talked me through snuffers. The one he uses is in porous cloth which allows the sail to dry, it has a stainless bar between the top of the snuffer and the head of the sail so that the snuffer pulls up completely clear of the sail. Our old snuffer would just cramp the head of the sail, distorting its shape. He showed me different furlers and described their merits.

 

So, I made a different compromise – more strain on the budget, less room in the locker and two sails to play with. One is a furling reacher. This should be great because we have a small 110% genoa whose efficiency drops off as soon as we are off the wind. This sail is in a laminate and on a furler, set on a short bowsprit. Easy to deploy and furl but of course not designed to go right down wind except if we pole it out. The other sail is a conventional symmetrical spinnaker in a snuffer. Made in 0.9oz nylon this is for fairly light weather down wind sailing.

 

We are not in commission yet so I have yet to see how we get on with them. The challenge may be which one to set, or whether we change from one to other. We will see. However I rather hope that this particular maiden’s prayer will be obsolete!

 

Peter