Sails well on 100% jib

[bayme]

I''m interested in knowing which sloop in the 27-32'' range will sail well on a 100% jib, even in the relatively light winds of LI Sound.

The reason for this question is that I share a boat with my father who is not as athletic as he once was. I test-sailed an alerion 28 with a hoyt jib boom which was great. Tacking consisted of pushing the tiller over.

Unfortunately the price for a new alerion is out of my range, so I am interested in installing the kit in a used sloop. Any suggestions?

[windship]

bayme,
Yes, I have a suggestion.Can the sloop idea and look for a cat rigged vessel.
Buy it and set up the sail for easy reefing.
With a cat rigged boat you won''t be sailing the boat unbalanced all the time and you will still only have one sail to contend with.
Good luck,

Dennis

[Jeff_H]

Laser 28''s sail very well with their 109% lappers. These are easy sails to tack and so really do not need the Hoyt boom which is more about marketing than sailing.

Jeff

[gstraub]

Fractional rigged boats are good in this respect. They have smaller jibs and usually sail fine on a 100%. In fact, they usually sail great with just a main up, since the main is the major source of the power in a fractional rig.

Gerhard

[bayme]

Any suggestions on better fractional rigged boats in the 27 - 30 range I looked at the J027 and J-30 from jboats, but found them overpriced, and I dislike cored hulls

[Jeff_H]

One of the great fractionally rigged PHRF raceboats of all time is the Soverel 33. These are really well rounded boats with a good turn of speed. They often sell in the same price range as J-30''s. I have always liked the Kirby 30''s which are somewhere between the J-27 and the J-30 in terms of accomodations and pricing. Pearson Flyers can often be bought pretty cheaply. They are not great but sailed well can be quite competitive and offer a lot of room down below. The Oyster SJ30 is a very high quality IOR era racer with reasonably nice accomodations and nice sailing charactistics. If you like to go fast downwind you might look at a Olsen 29. The Ross 930 is a really fast Austrialian design but a little rough around the edges. Dehler built a nice 29 footer but I can''t recall what that model was called. X-boats had a very nice 29 footer called the X-79 and the X-99 is a nice 33 footer as well. The J-28 is more of a cruising oriented design than many on this list but I always thought they were good little boats. I previously owned a Laser 28 and found this Farr designed, Kevlar hulled, fractional rigger to be a really wonderful boat that offered nice accomodations, excellent build quality, and good speed.

Most, if not all, of the better built 27 to 30 footers will have a cored hull if they were built during the period since fractiobal rigs have come back into popularity.

Good hunting,
Jeff