Forums, Mast, Rigging and Sails, CO32 Nationals - Genoa usage

waratah912 at 01/10/2012 21:36:40
Unfortunately we were away for the weekend of the Nationals, but with such a wide range of wind conditions it would be interesting to know what genoa configurations were used by each boat – how many were using roller genoas? Were these used on Sunday or replaced by No 3/4? What about the light wind on Friday – did the roller users lose out to those with full No 1?

waratah912 at 09/10/2012 15:10:04
It’s a bit sad to have to respond to your own post, but there you go.
Looking at the picture gallery, it seems to me that :
- very few boats were using roller sails
- even some that had roller gear were using traditional sails
- those using roller gear did not feature among the top half of the results
anyone care to contradict? I could easily have missed something in the pictures

George Isted at 09/10/2012 16:03:22
I’m sorry that you have not had a response about this, Not all the racing folk visit for forum regularly I imagine. To answer your question some were racing under the old rule and some under the new rule at the nationals. Both Blanco and Drumbeat are racing under the “new"; rule and are sailing with a very nice looking laminate headsails, however rather than using a furling system they have added a strop to the bottom of the sail to lift it up the required amount. They finished 1st and 2nd overall. Contessa Catherine was sailing with traditional sails and finished 3rd overall. Most other boats sailed under the old (multiple headsail configuration) apart from L’Aquarelle and Gigi who both sailed with a furling genoa, however L’Aq has a dirty bum and Gigi was towing a fixed three-blade prop, both had a last-minute crew. All in all I think it is difficult to come up with any conclusions from this other than there is far more to be gained or lost in a bad tack or mark rounding than there is in having one sail plan over the other. The Poole passage race was interesting because there was a slightly different mix of boats (+ no Blanco and Drumbeat to dominate). At least three (my own Concerto, L’Aquarelle and Tehani) were sailing with a furling genoa. Concerto and Tehani both have a laminate genoa while L’Aquarelle has dacron. Concerto (with 28.5 sqm laminate) and Alcyone (full size No1 Dacron genoa) and Carolina (full size No1 dacron genoa) had a really good drag race to the finish line for around 90 minutes, there was very little between the boats in terms of speed. Concerto would lose out a little when the wind dropped but the genoa is a good bit smaller than the max size. I hope some of the other racing skippers post their thoughts.

George Isted at 09/10/2012 16:07:49
This message was emailed by Ray Rouse of Blanco on the 7th Sept to a large number of racing skippers, I am sure that Ray will not mind me posting it here as the info is interesting to all….