| Submitted
on August 20, 2003 by David Doles
Question: I
recently bought a 1990 Pearson 31 that came with two 130% genoas.
One is Dacron and is fitted with UV protector for roller furling.
The second is a North Sails Mylar genoa with no UV protection. What
difference should I expect in these sails? If I leave the Mylar
sail on the roller furler will it suffer damage with no UV protection?
The Mylar sail has a typical tack with a grommet set up, and then
above that there is a second grommet attached to the luff. Is the
upper grommet for a downhaul? How should this be rigged? This upper
grommet gets in the way if I try to roller furl the genoa. Is there
any way around this, or should I just forget about roller furling
this sail?
Dave
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| Answer:
Hi Dave, Assuming that both of your genoas are in roughly the same
condition, you can expect the mylar sail to have better shape-holding
characteristics. What this means is that, as the breeze builds,
the dacron sail will stretch more and the position of the maximum
depth of the sail will move toward the middle. To compensate for
that, you will have to increase the halyard tension and move the
jib lead aft for stronger winds with the dacron sail. The mylar
sail will require much smaller adjustments to the halyard and lead
position because the fabric and the way the sail panels are arranged
tend to resist stretching. Overall, the mylar sail will have a better
shape and should allow you to sail a little closer to the wind with
less healing and less backwind in the mainsail.
You can roller furl the mylar sail, but if you leave it on the headstay
without a cover it will quickly deteriorate from UV exposure. The
plastic components will become progressively more dry and brittle
and the fiber components will essentially rot and lose tensil strength.
If you are day sailing or racing, furl and unfurl the sail as you
need to. But if you are stopping for a couple of days, or leaving
the boat on the mooring, take the sail down and get it below deck.
The second tack grommet was probably installed to be used with a
headsail cunningham system for tensioning the luff. You can not
rig a cunningham and roller furl the sail. The cunningham line will
prevent the furler from turning. You could either have the grommet
removed by a sailmaker (an easy and relatively inexpensive job)
or simply leave it there and roll the sail around it.
Regards,
Dan Neri
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