Happy Sunday Fugitive Followers, as a special treat today John Lee is taking us through the sails currently on board....the rest we will fill you in on at a later time....we go now to John a little earlier in the day, somewhere in the Pacific...
It occurs to me as I roll out of my bunk at 10am a couple hours ahead of my noon shift that one really needs to be a morning person to do this. Five shifts every two days means five mornings every two do this. Five shifts every two days means five mornings every two days. So far I’ve had somewhere around 30 mornings in 11days all of them after under three hours sleep, most of them after two. The crew headed down is always irritatingly happy and one has to put aside their morning grumpies as they try to negotiate the rolling boat and get clothes on. This has become easier as the weather has improved as what we sleep in is what we sail in. Actually, that’s not true, I haven’t seen Dave’s Santa pajamas on deck yet.
Anyway, today I thought I’d get a bit geeky for anyone on shore wondering about our sail options and choices. Let’s call today Sail Inventory Sunday! Catchy! As long as today is in fact Sunday...First off we have a main sail. It stays up all the time, because, well, it’s the mail sail! It has three reef points which are means to make it smaller should it get too windy to carry all of its power. So far we haven’t had to reef in this race.
We have two upwind foresails. Our #1 is 509 sqft. And is our go to for anything up to 18 knots. It was up for the first three days of his race as we slatted our way through the light airs. I have a feeling when we assess its condition after this race it is the sail that has taken the most abuse. Flapping around against rigging as lifelines and so on is really bad for sails.Our other upwind sail is our 339 sqft #3. This is heavier material than the #1, also made of carbon and Kevlar, and is good for winds upwards of 30 knots of breeze.
So far we have used his sail only once for blast reaching briefly, and it has been an occasional go to when we have had to deal with longer head sail changes. It’s always on deck and rigged ready to go at any time.
After our #3 we have a #4 which is similar to a sheet of plywood, and a storm jib which is like two sheets of plywood. These sails will have stayed in the bag for the entire trip and so far have only been used as extra weight on the upwind side of the boat as we stack sails on deck to help keep the boat level.
Now for our downwind sail inventory. We have an A-0 (code-0), an A-2, an S-1, S-2 and S-3. Our A-0 is a light air reacher that we thought we would use more, but has remained in its bag, and likely will stay there. The useful wind angles for this sail are quite narrow and we just haven’t had the conditions for it.
Our A-2 is our go to reacher with a nice hot band of useful wind angle. It has been used a few times when our transition from upwind to downwind d sailing was happening. I don’t expect to see it again this trip. As we get closer to the finish the wind has swung predictably further behind us. The A-2 is 1121 sqft and is called “A” because it is an asymmetric triangle.
So that brings us to our “S” kites, or symmetrical spinnakers. Our S-3 is a 1oz narrow shouldered all around kite that is 992 sqft. We have gone to this spinnaker at night on a few occasions when our bigger kites become a handful in squalls. We have also used it in combination with our #3 to reach hard. The S-3 provided the forward power while the #3 kept the bow pushed down.
Our S-2 is a .5oz broad shouldered beast that is 1054 sqft. We haven’t used it often this trip as it’s very light cloth and even in light airs the sea state can knock the sail around and the risk of tearing is too much. It’s also a better reaching sail than any of the other S kites.
Our go to kite is our 1oz S-1. 1151 sqft of love that is currently bringing us home. It flys well in the really light 10 knots of breeze and would last much longer than the crew in 30 knots.
That’s my little sail geek morning briefing for y’all. I have to be should go. I’ll do a crew brief later. Tomorrow if you want I can do a navigation lesson on how we find the needle in the haystack that is Hawaii.
It occurs to me as I roll out of my bunk at 10am a couple hours ahead of my noon shift that one really needs to be a morning person to do this. Five shifts every two days means five mornings every two do this. Five shifts every two days means five mornings every two days. So far I’ve had somewhere around 30 mornings in 11days all of them after under three hours sleep, most of them after two. The crew headed down is always irritatingly happy and one has to put aside their morning grumpies as they try to negotiate the rolling boat and get clothes on. This has become easier as the weather has improved as what we sleep in is what we sail in. Actually, that’s not true, I haven’t seen Dave’s Santa pajamas on deck yet.
Anyway, today I thought I’d get a bit geeky for anyone on shore wondering about our sail options and choices. Let’s call today Sail Inventory Sunday! Catchy! As long as today is in fact Sunday...First off we have a main sail. It stays up all the time, because, well, it’s the mail sail! It has three reef points which are means to make it smaller should it get too windy to carry all of its power. So far we haven’t had to reef in this race.
We have two upwind foresails. Our #1 is 509 sqft. And is our go to for anything up to 18 knots. It was up for the first three days of his race as we slatted our way through the light airs. I have a feeling when we assess its condition after this race it is the sail that has taken the most abuse. Flapping around against rigging as lifelines and so on is really bad for sails.Our other upwind sail is our 339 sqft #3. This is heavier material than the #1, also made of carbon and Kevlar, and is good for winds upwards of 30 knots of breeze.
So far we have used his sail only once for blast reaching briefly, and it has been an occasional go to when we have had to deal with longer head sail changes. It’s always on deck and rigged ready to go at any time.
After our #3 we have a #4 which is similar to a sheet of plywood, and a storm jib which is like two sheets of plywood. These sails will have stayed in the bag for the entire trip and so far have only been used as extra weight on the upwind side of the boat as we stack sails on deck to help keep the boat level.
Now for our downwind sail inventory. We have an A-0 (code-0), an A-2, an S-1, S-2 and S-3. Our A-0 is a light air reacher that we thought we would use more, but has remained in its bag, and likely will stay there. The useful wind angles for this sail are quite narrow and we just haven’t had the conditions for it.
Our A-2 is our go to reacher with a nice hot band of useful wind angle. It has been used a few times when our transition from upwind to downwind d sailing was happening. I don’t expect to see it again this trip. As we get closer to the finish the wind has swung predictably further behind us. The A-2 is 1121 sqft and is called “A” because it is an asymmetric triangle.
So that brings us to our “S” kites, or symmetrical spinnakers. Our S-3 is a 1oz narrow shouldered all around kite that is 992 sqft. We have gone to this spinnaker at night on a few occasions when our bigger kites become a handful in squalls. We have also used it in combination with our #3 to reach hard. The S-3 provided the forward power while the #3 kept the bow pushed down.
Our S-2 is a .5oz broad shouldered beast that is 1054 sqft. We haven’t used it often this trip as it’s very light cloth and even in light airs the sea state can knock the sail around and the risk of tearing is too much. It’s also a better reaching sail than any of the other S kites.
Our go to kite is our 1oz S-1. 1151 sqft of love that is currently bringing us home. It flys well in the really light 10 knots of breeze and would last much longer than the crew in 30 knots.
That’s my little sail geek morning briefing for y’all. I have to be should go. I’ll do a crew brief later. Tomorrow if you want I can do a navigation lesson on how we find the needle in the haystack that is Hawaii.