Submitted on August 23, 2003 by Lee Haefele

Question: 1) I have a 1984 Nauticat 33 with a 135% Genoa. I am considering adding foam luff so that the genoa is more effective partially furled. I was told that North uses a rope luff padding, is this something I can do myself? Where could I get directions?

2) This boat has cutter rig, but the staysail supplied is large and overlaps
the shrouds, requiring sheeting outside. Would there be an advantage to a
smaller staysail that could be sheeted inside?

3) My usage is mainly motor sailing, the shape, size, weight and small keel of this boat make it a slow sailor, but eventually I might like to do long passages where sailing would be required. Recommendations?

Lee Haefele,
Ithaca, NY

Answer: Hi Lee, The rope-luff roller reefing pad that North Sails favors requires a significant amount of sewing and reinforcing. I think you would have a hard time installing a system like it on your own unless you own an industrial sewing machine and have some sailmaking training. You could make a mess of your sail while burning up a couple of weekends that might be better spent on the water. My recommendation would be to bring your sail to a North Sails service site and ask them to retrofit it during the fall months, when they can offer you a slightly discounted price for the job.

If your staysail was supplied by the boat builder, it is probably set up to sheet outboard of the standing rigging because the boat does not perform well when close hauled. Many cruising sailboats have unsatisfactory sailing performance when the boat is pressed very close to the wind. If your boat is in that category, there is no shame in motorsailing to windward. Most delivery skippers (and probably a large majority of ocean passagemakers) will tell you that they always motorsail when conditions force them to go to windward. Motorsailing to windward is much more efficient than sailing without the prop or motoring without the sails, even on high performance sailboats. A lower performance boat that tacks through 100 degrees while under sail alone might be able to make good boat speed tacking through as little as 60-70 degrees while motorsailing. In that case, you would benefit from a smaller staysail that can be sheeted much closer to centerline. When beating with a motor assist, you want to make your mainsail and headsail as flat as you can. The mainsail boom should be trimmed on the centerline and the headsail as close to centerline as possible without backwinding the mainsail significantly. If the waves are steep enough that the boat is pounding, you will want to experiment with wider tacking angles (or less throttle) until the boat has a comfortable motion.

The same smaller staysail might be useful as a heavy weather jib for reaching angles with no motor.

Regards, Dan Neri

Email North Sails with your question today!

Go BACK to Solutions for Sailors Main Page.