| Offshore Race Main |
| Cruising #1 |
| Cruising #2 |
| Offshore #3 |
| Jib #4 |
| Blast Reacher |
| 1.5 oz spinnaker - France |
| Mike spinnaker (3/4) |
| Libra spinnaker (3/4) |
| Wile E spinnaker (3/4) |
| Doyle spinnaker (3/4) |
| Frog spinnaker (3/4) |
Offshore sails need to be a lot more robust than the Bay racing sails as they take much more of a beating and you don't want them to delaminate on you. They tend to be heavier as well - mostly dacron, except for the 'cruising #1' which is Elise's old genoa, waiting to die...
I'll tackle storm sails in a different chapter :)
Headsails - Upwind
Single handed I often use a #2 even in light air as it is easier to tack and allows me to fly the sail longer in the higher ranges of a #1. Basically it gives the same wind range as a #1 with a full crew. It therefore is not optimum in really light air (and I must trust that I am just lighter there to make a difference!!!) but saves me sail changes too early and much slower with then a #3 used in the low end of its range.
On short distance trips I never take the #1 when I single hand. On long distance I do because if we have days of sub 2 knots, I will want to fly that friggin' big sails (big is all relative as any other boats will say that Express 27 sails are 'cute'...because they are all tiny compared to the boat...but that's why the boats are so much fun in heavy air and so easy to handle short handed in those conditions). This time around I might check the weather forecast and decide last minute whether or not to take it.
I use the #4 to keep the sails balanced, if I need to take one reef in, the #3 is great but if I need to take one extra reef in the main I downgrade to the #4 otherwise I still get a lot of weather helm with the boat wanting to point up, it is slow and expensive power wise as the autopilot needs to fight it, or I need to let the main out and flog it. Even on a day race offshore I take the #4. It is definitely not the 'storm' sail per se. It is a performance sail in the higher wind ranges. We are talking 35 to 45 knots here. This was part of Elise's old sail inventory and the sail is still great! It doesn't get much use...
The #4 can be a 'oh shit' sail downwind and on a reach in a really really breezy day, the storm jib probably best for upwind.
Downwind - Reaching headsails
In the high end of wind range for spinnakers/reaching and downwind points of sails, Elise has two sails. There is a blast reacher (a real blast in Coastal Cup type conditions, really awesome) and a 1.5 spinnaker (France because of its color), which has a very narrow shoulder. That sails is *nearly* indestructible. I managed to tear it during a night squall during Pac Cup...but other than that, the pole will fold before that sail breaks. Because it has a narrow shoulder, it keeps the boat speed more under control in a heavier breeze. It is flown typically with the twings in and the pole back to limit the right/left movement and stabilize the boat. Elise just loves that sail. We use it in squalls, during Coastal Cup and in heavy weather in the summer on San Francisco Bay, mostly short-handed. It kicks ass. The boat just flies. That is my big time favorite sail - but it might have to do a bit more with the fact that it is for my big time favorite wind range for the boat, my big time favorite point of sail for the boat (Elise has fabulous surfing characteristics) as well as my big time favorite flag.
I may look at conditions and decide whether or not to take the blast reacher. Good backup for squall fun if France has any problems but might be dead weight on a mostly downwind race. Super fun for Coastal Cup though. So food for thoughts still.
For lighter air - remember that lighter air means lighter apparent wind, downwind if it is blowing like 15, your apparent wind is likely to be 6 knots...or so, Elise has a very nice collection of spinnakers. We name every one of Elise's spinnakers so we can easily tell people which to load on the boat and which to fly. Even their bags are labeled.
The first one we fly in a race full crew and the last one I fly offshore single-handed is Frog. Frog is called Frog because it has a frog printed on it. It is the most recent, high performance spinnaker for the boat. It is an all around sail just as good on a reach as it is downwind.
The second one we fly in a race full crew and the first one I fly offshore single handed is Mike, called Mike because it was bought from Mike. Beautifully shaped, it does a wonderful job. I love that sail. Not as 'young' light and crips as frog, it is still Elise's first choice for offshore and short handed races and the spare spinnaker we take for Bay races. Still a very high performance sail with a lot of life in it.
The other spinnakers are older spinnakers, some of them have lost their shapes and we mainly use them for practice - or cruising.
The practice sails are:
Libra - purchased from Libra team
Wile E - donated by Wile E team
The cruising sail is the oldest sail Elise has, an old Doyle spinnaker that we call 'Doyle' but that we could call upside down France.
All of those are 3/4 oz sails so they are lighter and can tear more easily in heavier air. At some point, it would be time to swap them for France...particularly in squally weather.
Downwind - short-handed Sail
Elise is having a 'twin headsail' being made for two main reasons. a) if it is blowing or irregular and I want to sleep it might be faster to take the spinnaker down and hoist a sail that still is faster, deeper than a single jib - and b) if there is AP failure, this sail should be easier to control without an AP than a spinnaker and a main...particularly in surfing conditions. They usually work like a charm on heavy full keel boats...but it would take a small army to make those turn, and if you start to broach on those you have time to make yourself a cup of tea before releasing your spinnaker sheet. On Elise things move a tad bit faster and by the time your brain processes 'rounding up!', your butt's in the water if you are seating on the low side.
They are made with a super light material so shouldn't weight too much and might be the key to victory!
Also in light air, spinnakers can be really tough as there is nothing but wind to keep them full. Two poled out twin jibs might be better able to harness the wind in really light air so this sail could also function well and competitively in light air downwind mornings...I have seen a lot of those...
I am not planning on taking a second mainsail. If there is a tear in the mainsail, I'd rather bring repair materials to fix it than have the weight of a second mainsail. The mainsail is also an offshore racing mainsail (Elise has three mainsails, one for bay racing, one for offshore/short handed racing and one for practice which is the old offshore/shrt handed main). It would take quite a lot to break that sail and probably user error...And depowering/repowering a main is done on the same sail...until you move to storm tactics and a trysail, removing the need of a boom.
So my spare sail would be the crappiest sail Elise has and I bet that I can match the performance of the crappiest sail with a fairly crappy fix on a really nice offshore sail.
+ if I am really disabled and for any reason cannot fly that main, I can sail the boat with a headsail only in lighter winds and in real stormy winds, I'd fly an indestructible trysail anyhow. With a twin headsail, you don't need a mainsail.
So sounds like cost and no benefits.
That's about it! Thoughts and suggestions welcome!!!
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