- She got a new carbide blade (needed for long distance offshore in case the bolt cutter doesn't cut it)
- Her offshore and short-handed racing main just got a third reefing point
I kind of have posted something about sails already, but figured it might be helpful to have a reminder. Basically a sail is built for a specific wind range (or is adjustable, like a reef in a mainsail that takes about 30 seconds to take and less to shake off) and some for specific points of sails. Racing sails and Cruising sails have different shape as some vary durability Vs performance (and shape). Like everything, you can make something very specialized, or something very generic.
Elise has three sets of sails
1- Cruising/Practicing
These sails are typically old Dacron sails that have lost their shape but served a good purpose and the spare of the spare of the spare spinnaker. We have a main sail that can be reefed three times in case we really want to sail comfortably even San Francisco summer weather on the Bay. A #3 without any shape nor batten, a #2 that did not belong to the boat for the no wind times. We have a sad looking kevlar #1 which will probably die on a cruise and which we stop putting up as soon as true wind reaches 6 knots. It is so old that the sailmaker just refuses to fix the sail out of pity for it.
We could also take the #4, which is even smaller than the #3 shapeless jib and which is designed to have the hell beat out of it as it is supposed to be flown only in really high winds.
If we need the trysail or the storm jib, we probably wouldn't be going out on a cruise.
And I like to race across Oceans (for now at least), not cruise around them...
The goal of these sails is not to make us feel bad when they are poorly handled and to save up the other sails for their sweet spot of use.
The old Doyle inverse France spinnaker is our cruising spinnaker.
2- Bay Racing Sails
The goal of these sails is performance and a bit less durability. They are not for offshore use and are very fragile. We want them to keep their shape as much as possible. We use kevlar, aramide/carbon combination typically.
We have only 3 sails in kevlar: a #3 jib (the blade) with batten, a #2 and a #1. We typically only carry the #3 and the #1 (class rules allows us to carry only two headsail on any race day + two spinnakers). These sails typically have to be changed every three seasons or so. We would only fly those during practice if we are practicing trimming. Any maneuvre practice will be done on the cruising/practice sails so we don't have to worry about flogging.
The racing main is a light dacron main which is a bit more durable and seems to be very appreciated by a lot of the top sailors in the fleet which is why we went this way.
We also use our top spinnakers for these races.
Frog is the top light spinnaker, and Mike (the chute we purchased from Mike) is the spare.
France is the top heavy weather spinnaker as it is heavier. It has no spare.
3- Offshore and Short-handed Racing
These sails take a bit more of a beating. It is more costly to change headsails and we dont' have a downwind leg to do it on typically so either offshore fully crewed or short-handed we need sails that are a little sturdier and can take a bit more wind than their bay counterparts. They tend to be flogged more often so durability is favored over shape and high performance.
Sailing in swell also means that no sail will always be 100% of what it can deliver, so it is less important anyway.
Offshore we also need to make sure that we have sails for super light winds and super heavy wind, particularly short distance races. Short-handed requires often more reefing and smaller canvas than typical crewed races. We are also more likely to be a reach in these longer distance races than on the up and down typical round the buoy race course and this is a point of sail Elise has a specialized sail for.
Offshore races are also typically longer than other races, so sails that are more UV friendly and can take on a lot more beating without dying after one season are preferred. Not all sails need to be carried on for all races - the races with enough weather forecast visibility, we will minimize weight by taking on only the sails we think we will fly.
They last longer.
Elise has the following range of offshore/short-handed sails.
Headsails - in oder of the amount of wind they can take (sails that can take more wind are a) bigger and b) ligher but more fragile because the cloth or material they are made of is lighter)
- #1 (Genoa) - we actually don't have a good choice for this and I am looking at a stronger genoa that could be reefed so it can be sailed in higher winds and replace a #2 (it would be less expensive timewise to take a reef than to downgrade and it would allow to sail a bigger sail than a regular #3 jib for some of the intermediate wind speeds which may make us faster
- #2 - can also be used on the Bay, but typically, it will be for offshore events
- #3 - jib. Dacron. Has done numerous Coastal Cups and other offshore races
- #4 - dacron. Heavy material
- Storm jib - comes with a separate pair of sheet already installed. Very strong. Has orange parts on it to make it ultra visible
Main sails
Main sail with three reefing points (as of today!)
Trysail in case the wind requires to further reduce canvass - like blowing 50 or 60 knots...
Specialized sails
Blast Reacher: this is a performance sail for a Reach (wind abeam of the boat, ie 90 degree angle to the boat) - in higher wind, it is not possible to fly a spinnaker on this point of sail but a jib doesn't have the same exposed area since it is not cut to be a specialist reach sail. The reacher has a high clew typically. It can also be used as a 'oh shit' performance sail for downwind if there is too much wind for the heavy weather spinnaker (like over 40 or 45 knots) as it will carry better than a #3, with more sail area - but won't allow the boat to go as deep as a spinnaker would, thus taking away some tactical options. A racing sail.
Heavy weather Spinnaker France is a big favorite there for when it is really blowing
Lighter weather Spinnaker - we would typically use Mike (less 'precious') as the main offshore spinnaker and 'Libra' the spare spinnaker we got from Libra as the spare for offshore, keeping Frog for Bay Racing as this is where it will make the biggest difference!
and that's it! She's got a whole family of sails! Most boats don't have that many. Cruising boats do not require any of the racing sails. Boats that only race in the Bay do not need to worry about offshore sails. Boats that dont' race offshore probably won't carry a blast reacher. Boats that do not do long distance offshore don't carry a trysail, sometimes not even a storm jib, they just use a #4 and two reefing points in the main.
Elise is an all around boat which caused a lot of compromises to be made and a lot of sails to optimize for every situation - and a set of spare sails so the good ones are kept for the good things they were built for and last/perform longer!
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