Submitted on January 6, 2006 by Rich Schultz

Question: I have a question on light air headsails. I am somewhat confused by the variety. There are 'flashers', 'drifters', spinnakers, gennakers, etc. Even North has three different cruising spinnakers.

Ok, the boat is a 38 ft full keel cutter with 5 ft draft. There is a roller furling North 110 Yankee, a hank on staysail, and a North full batten main. Displacement is moderately heavy at 22,000 lbs. The boat is used exclusively for cruising and sailed by a middle age couple. My wife's experience level is low and mine I would consider moderate. At present our cruising grounds are the west coast of Florida. Although it might take the two of us to hoist this light air sail, it needs to be such that one or the other can manage it once up while the off watch sleeps.

I realize that the full keel keeps us from pointing as high as some of our fin keel brethren, I would estimate that depending upon sail combination and wind, we can point between 50 - 60 degrees off the wind.

I would appreciate any suggestions as to what type of sail might be best as well as what cloth weight, i.e., 3/4 oz, 1 oz, etc. to allow us some extra speed through as broad a range of sail points as possible.

Thanks in advance
Rich Schultz

Answer: Hi Rich,

The array of names for off the wind sails is a little confusing. Not all sailmakers use the same nomenclature so many of the names are simply different brand names for essentially the same product category. We can simplify the range of sails into three broad categories:

1) Spinnaker- A spinnaker is a symmetrically shaped sail that is used in conjunction with a spinnaker pole.

2) Asymmetrical Gennaker- A Gennaker is similar to a spinnaker in that it is free flying, connected to the boat and rig by the three corners but not on any edge. However, a Gennaker is asymmetrical in shape and profile. The luff is longer than the leech and the maximum depth of the sail is closer to the luff. At North Sails we have two standard models of cruising gennakers which we call the G-2 and the G-3. These two models are very close to one another in shape but the G-2 is larger. The G-2 and G-3 are designed to minimize the need to adjust the sheet tension as the apparent wind angle changes. In the racing category North Sails offers a more specialized range of Asymmetric sizes and shapes.

3) Fixed Luff reachers- This last category is the least well defined. At North Sails we build two standard cruising sail products in this category. The G-0 has a high modulus luff rope that acts like a headstay when it is pulled up with significant halyard tension. The luff will never be a rigid as a fixed headstay, but it is tight enough to prevent the sail from ever wrapping around itself or the headstay like you sometimes see as the result of a spinnaker or gennaker handling mistake. The second sail is a Drifter, which is very close to the same shape as a G-0 but it is built to be hoisted on the fixed headstay, in place of the upwind headsail.

Of all these choices, the sail that will fit the criteria you listed most closely might be a G-0 made with a laminated material around 2 oz. The G-0 is the only sail that can be left unattended for an entire watch. However, you might find that the G-0 has too limited of an apparent wind angle range, and will not get your boat downwind as well as you hoped. A G-3, made with .75 or 1.5 oz nylon will be a more versatile sail but it is less forgiving in terms of big changes in steering or wind angle. There is more information on the North Sails web site about the North downwind cruising products, but before making any decisions you should try to meet with, or call a North sales rep.

Regards,
Dan Neri

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