A Cruising Code Sail is lightweight and easy to handle, providing greater efficiency to your yacht. Gaining power in light air and the ability to use one sail in a wider range of angles, both reaching or running. I feel that we fly it often because of its versatility and ease of management.A Cruising Code Sail can often be the missing link between a genoa and a gennaker for cruising yachts. We don't have to switch between the spinnaker and the Code 0 as we make our way around shoals entering rivers in the Chesapeake since it can run and reach. It really is our light air sail that we can use on all points of sail. I have flown my trysail only once out in the Atlantic and boy was I glad to have it! Yet I have used the drifter about 25% of the times we go sailing. They say the two least used sails are the trysail and the spinnaker. This will catch any whisper of wind and move you towards your destination. On Wisdom, we have around 1200 square feet between the main sail and the drifter. On a run, the drifter can be placed wing on wing, with it flying by the lee. On a board reach, it simply fills with air, and pulls the boat along on a gentle ride. Off the wind, the drifter is also wonderful! it has a bit of a full belly, which doesn't let it point as high as a Code 0, but this gives it plenty of depth to fill with air on a run. A Code 0 is made of a much stronger laminated material, allowing it to be flown in winds above 20 knots! So I see the sail makers point there, but I like to reef in winds above 20 knots instead of flying a monster sail. This said, we have had it up in winds of 15 knots (as we scrambled to get it down) and it doesn't appear to have sustained damage. Our takedown wind speed is 7 knots apparent, because the nylon will stretch and can easily tear if flown in too much air. We usually do about 1 knot less than the wind. In light airs, the drifter is king! We can reach, run, tack, and jibe all while moving along towards our destination. You can't beat a spinnaker on a run and a Code 0 will take you to windward like a boss! But I'm not racing, I'm cruising! He did have a good reason, if drifters were so wonderful, all the race boats would fly them. I mentioned this idea to the sail maker but he didn't seem too crazy about it. It is pretty much a giant nylon genoa, but with a higher clew, allowing better trim when off the wind. In the Pardey books, they frequently mentioned using their drifter. I scraped the whole endeavor when the calculated cost climbed over $20,000 for sails that would be used "sometimes". Each sail needed is own furler, plus the cost of the spinnaker and the Code 0. I already didn't like this idea, but since I don't have an iron jib, I needed the sails to keep me moving in all conditions.Īside from the incredible complexity of the addition, there was the cost factor as well. As you can see, this got complicated in a hurry! We haven't even discussed where the deck members would go in my crowded forepeak. Then I need whisker stays to keep the spirit from being ripped laterally. Now I need a bobstay and a bobstay tang, which needs to be attached to the stem. That much of a bow spirit would certainly need support to keep the upward pull of the sail from ripping it up off the deck. In my case, the tack needed to be around 4 feet forward to clear everything that's quite the addition! My only option was to add a bow spirit to move the tack point further forward. The continuous furler needs to be forward of the headstay and the drum I also had a bow rail in the way. Now, as a rigger, I was very interested in how these sails would all be attached to the vessel. This also would make jibes easier as I could furl, jibe, and unfurl on the other side. The continuous furler caught my attention as I could retrieve the sail from the cockpit with ease. The sock would require me to go forward to douse the sail, which would then cause the balance to shift to weather as the sail was taken doused while no one was at the helm.
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