Captain Ed,Ed Haley wrote:Carl Jones wrote: I make a memorable run of 40 miles in my previous 7000lb 25ft double ended wood boat with my drifter on the leeward side, and my 150 poled out to windward. I just kept it slightly to windward. Talk about a RBT! I probably had at least 400% of the fore triangle up! We averaged 5 knots in very light air, great speed for that vessel. So I've experienced running with two jibs, but not with purpose designed twin jibs. That's what I'm looking for.
Captain Carl:
When I read your downhill run experience, I thought of a 12 hour run from Oak Orchard Yacht Club to Oswego Marina on Lake Ontario (75 miles) that we had last summer just after placing third in the Level Regatta at Youngstown, NY (Yes, we raced my CD28). The wind was behind us blowing around 20-25 kn and generating 3-5 foot seas. I had just a 130 for a headsail and no main. We were sailing dead downwind. The knotmeter read 6.5 to 7.0 most of the way except for those fantastic surfs down the front of a wave when we'd hit 8.0 knots or more. On one occasion (and only one) we surfed down a steep one and the knotmeter read exactly 10.0 knots. What a sleighride! We tried to prolong the time spent surfing on each wave but the waves were so steep we never perceived that we were on the front of a wave at all, sort of just "bumped" along. Fresh water waves are steeper than salt water waves, given the same conditions.
All speeds were recorded by both my Garmin 48 GPS and my knotmeter. If I can set twin-headed sails, perhaps I can adjust the sail on the furlable 130 that, together with the drifter or other headsail, will keep us on the front of most waves. Ah, heaven!
That sounds like fun to me!
I think I saw an ad somewhere(don't remember where now) for twin head sails attached to the same luff, so you could raise them up the groove in the furler. But I think a better way to do it would be to have two separate sails. If you have two luff grooves in your furler, it would work great. Then you would also be able to drop one if it gets too windy, and still have the ability to roll up the other.
I think some of the pioneers actually had two head stays, one for each jib. Wish I could find a sailmaker with experience in designing them, because I have no idea how large they should be. Maybe two 150's?, I don't know. It sounds like a versatile arrangement. Let me know how it goes.
Carl Jones
GreatCells@aol.com