I need to replace some headsail's over the coming year or two, Wapiti has a cutter rig currently with two headsail options, a 130% Genoa (which needs replacing now) and a Yankee which need to be replaced soon. Seeking opinions on a couple of options.

I am not sure if I want to replace the Genoa. Its big and heavy (and expensive) and hard to get on and off the boat and clumsy to tack and the improved performance over the yankee seems to be a fairly narrow range in very light wind, however there is one that may be a suitable candidate on sail exchange but it was built for a multihull so not sure if that would be suitable for a mono, any thoughts?

I am going to replace the Yankee like for like, the boat seems to perform well underneath it and its smaller size makes it very easy to handle. However instead of replacing the genoa I am considering a cruising code 0 on a furler, any thoughts on that logic? I would then have the yankee and stay sail for upwind angles and heavy winds and a code 0 for close and broad reaching and a symmetrical spinnaker for downwind in lighter winds.

I'm in the process of something similar. Im keeping the 130% genny and a small blade on the staysail for upwind fun with asymmetrical for light days.

The Code 0 will cost - lots. Just the furling hardware itself will be a couple of thousand for your boat. Then the cost of the torsion line and its end fittings will be about another grand or more. Then you have to buy the sail.

Code 0s seem to work best on boats with small non overlapping jibs - which your boat does not fit into. I would be doing some polar checks with the boat and working out what I do when cruising, the 130% seems a little large for cruising and the yankee gives much better visibility. Talkign to a sailmaker about furling would be a good idea - but you have a staysail so you can furl the genoa/yankee before it bgets to full from furling.

Also, an extra cost with the Code 0 would be the prodder. Code 0s work really well on boats with prodders and your boat has a pretty crowded bow - so I don't know how I would fit it anywhere. You could still decide to go the Code 0, but you won't get as much use out of it as others will.

So considering it will be expensive, you haven't got a good place to put it, and you have a big foretriangle anyway, I would not go down the Code 0 path. I would buy a nice assy in a sock for much less and use it on a pole or from the bow roller.

(I love my Code 0. But I have a cat, with a 105% genoa and a 1.3m prodder - plus I got it for free, but not all the gear to fly it with - that cost a fair bit)

cheers

Phil

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Kankama said..
The Code 0 will cost - lots. Just the furling hardware itself will be a couple of thousand for your boat. Then the cost of the torsion line and its end fittings will be about another grand or more. Then you have to buy the sail.

Code 0s seem to work best on boats with small non overlapping jibs - which your boat does not fit into. I would be doing some polar checks with the boat and working out what I do when cruising, the 130% seems a little large for cruising and the yankee gives much better visibility. Talkign to a sailmaker about furling would be a good idea - but you have a staysail so you can furl the genoa/yankee before it bgets to full from furling.

Also, an extra cost with the Code 0 would be the prodder. Code 0s work really well on boats with prodders and your boat has a pretty crowded bow - so I don't know how I would fit it anywhere. You could still decide to go the Code 0, but you won't get as much use out of it as others will.

So considering it will be expensive, you haven't got a good place to put it, and you have a big foretriangle anyway, I would not go down the Code 0 path. I would buy a nice assy in a sock for much less and use it on a pole or from the bow roller.

(I love my Code 0. But I have a cat, with a 105% genoa and a 1.3m prodder - plus I got it for free, but not all the gear to fly it with - that cost a fair bit)

cheers

Phil

Thanks for the feedback I appreciate the time you took to respond, It is a massive cost as you pointed out so I want to try and make a good decision, I will have to live with it for many years.

When you say I won't get as much use out of it as others are you referring to the ability to sail shallower angles because it won't be on a prodder? How do you do polar checks with the boat, I think I understand what you mean but not sure how I would do that.

I opted for a code 0 instead of a new genoa, tried it out today for the first time, very happy. We achieved 7knts of boat speed in 10 knts of breeze on a beam reach, not to bad for a 12 tonne cruising boat I think. Also could go as high as 50 degrees apparent pretty easily, at 45 it started to luff, was better than I expected. That gives me 3 headsail options now that are easily managed by two and all be on deck simultaneously.

What have you got that connected to on your bow? A prodded?

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jbarnes85 said..
What have you got that connected to on your bow? A prodded?

Attached to the bow roller

The Code 0 option is very tempting, the sail in terms of $'s per square metre is not that bad (particularly if you use a heavy nylon rather than a laminate which a lot of cruisers do (more longevity)). The cost is in the free flying furling with the furling unit and the high torsion cable luff rope. You can leave it up furled in light to moderate conditions and easy to deploy and furl . It is fine for reaching and in lighter winds tight reaching but if you really need to claw to weather, a genoa would be better. So just depends on your sailing- the choice of a code 0 or perhaps a new lighter (maybe larger) Genoa which is furled away when your smaller headsails (yankee) are more inclined to be used.

It was a bit of a tough decision, the reason I didn't buy another genoa is because I can't just furl it away when I want to use the Yankee (with staysail) which is anything over 12-15knts, the genoa has to come off the furler and that is a pretty big pain in the a%$e as trying to flake it on deck is virtually impossible, therefore it didn't really happen and I would end up sailing with a partly furled genoa. The code 0 on the other hand is easy to raise and lower and stow below. I know I am losing some upwind vmg in light breeze, everything is a compromise. The advantage the genoa provides in that small wind window didn't seem worth the hassle of dealing with it, anyway time will tell if it was a good decision or not.

Thanks, an interesting topic as I am thinking about new headsail choices. Similar purchasing patterns in the past with boat, Pota bote and Excel.