Sail combinations - what is best?

[henry hey]

Hello everyone.

I just posted in another thread about my beautiful first day of sailing. It was marvelous and the CD performed (not surprisingly) very well. I have quite a nice selection of headsails and (this season) a second reef on my main. Headsails include a 150, 120, 100, storm jib and a drifter. I am experimenting some to try to find the most flexible combination of sails for various conditions. We flew the drifter for about half the day yesterday and it was wonderful. After a while it started to freshen and we switched to the 150. That's a nice sail to have up there, and when it got just a bit stiffer we put in a reef - rather than changing out the 150. This seemed to be the right thing to do as the substantial weather helm was lessened quite a bit and the boat seemed to balance well.

Other times I have scaled back the jib but I think this worked fine for yesterday's blow.

Does anyone have any thoughts for the CD25 and or sail combinations that they prefer?

-henry

Also. . you can see a few photos here:

http://flickr.com/photos/heyness/

[Carl Thunberg]

I wish I had a 150, but I have a 135, 110, 100, and smallish size jib, but not a storm jib. I use my 135 in almost every sailing condition, and reef the main early and often. Often times I sail with just the 135. I find if I reduce sail area up front, I have strong weather helm. I'd rather take the main down entirely than reduce the size of the genny. Others may do things differently, but it seems to work well for me. I think I used my 110 once all last year, and my 100 never came out of the bag.

[Russell]

Something I have learned when sailing with a windvane 95% of the time verifies what a couple have suggested here. Reefing the main before the headsail balances the boat better. Getting a vane to steer is all about balance. One of the keys of windvane steering is knowing when to depower the main. Though sailing with a 150 and reefing the main may be a bit much.

In an ideal situation I always reef the main first, if its expect to only be a breif pickup in wind I will furl up some jib instead, but almost always the main gets reefed first.

Rig tuning and cut of the main play a big part here too, how much wind gets spilled when overcanvased. Of course sail trim is important, but assuming proper trim. Experimenting in such times though gives lots of clues as to what may need changing in the rig, pay attension, you can look at it as getting to know what your boat likes, but also you could be looking at it as getting to know whats wrong.

I suspect having your boat balanced with a 150 genny up full and the main reefed, that there is a rig tuning issue here. I am no expert rigger, not even an intermediate one, but this seems way off to me. 150 is a monsterous headsail.

[henry hey]

You are right. . the 150 is monstrous, and I could attempt to bent my mast a bit forward of where it is now to reduce the weather helm but I think that the CD25 is meant to be set in such a way that weather helm occurs naturally.

A rigger looked at my rig Thursday evening (before my sail) and thought that everything looked good. I set all of the tension myself with Carter's Loos gauges (thanks Carter) and it is all looking straight and true.

I know that every boat balances a little differently. I am still experimenting and will continue to try various sail combos. One thrust of this thread is for me to find a headsail size that I would want to commit to in a furler setup.

-h

[wingreen]

...I use my 135 in almost every sailing condition, and reef the main early and often. Often times I sail with just the 135...

I used a 130 w/ one reef in the main a few weeks back in a pretty stiff breeze, and I was pleasantly surprised that it seemed to work well. The only hassle was pulling the gen all the way around the mast every time we tacked. I suppose you folks w/ rollers don't have to deal w/ that.