UV Guard on Genoa or Not

[DrB]

I am pretty sure that I am going to get a new Genny for our boat over the winter. The genny will most of the time be on the RF and our workhouse headsail. I do mostly cruising, but want to start doing a few beer can races next season, so I am leaning towards a performance oriented cruising headsail. Even when I cruise, I constantly tweak the sail trim to maximize boat speed.

One thing that I am debating is to leave the UV leech and foot protection off the sail and use a RF sunbrella UV sock cover instead. With the UV protection on the sail gone, it should perform better. Cost of the sock or to have the UV barrier bonded directly to the sail is roughly the same.

The sock has it's advantage also of allowing me to leave on the RF a few other sails, that came with the boat, thatdon't have UV protection on them. The UV cover on the sail does offer some chaffe protection one the sail.

Thoughts?

DrB

[sailingdog]

As long as you're good about putting the sock on the genny... get the sock, it will be less expensive over the long haul and more versatile.

[Faster]

If you're moored in a windy area a sock can chafe the exposed stitching of the rolled genny over time.

FWIW we have no UV protection on our headsail, and we simply drop it and put it away between trips. No risk whatsoever of an accidental unfurl in a blow, and the sail is less exposed overall.

[T34C]

Instead of the traditional Sunbrella type of UV protection for the RF'd sail you can ask your sailmaker to use a adhesive backed dacron material. The dacron UV cover reduces much of the performance issues that you are concerned about with the Sunbrella material. It is much lighter, protects the sail and is pretty durable. It could also be easily added to your other sails at a pretty minimal cost.

[Quickstep192]

Originally Posted by Faster

If you're moored in a windy area a sock can chafe the exposed stitching of the rolled genny over time.

On the boat I used to race on, we wrapped the spin halyard around the sock to keep it from flogging.

[121Guy]

Originally Posted by DrB

I am pretty sure that I am going to get a new Genny for our boat over the winter. The genny will most of the time be on the RF and our workhouse headsail. I do mostly cruising, but want to start doing a few beer can races next season, so I am leaning towards a performance oriented cruising headsail. Even when I cruise, I constantly tweak the sail trim to maximize boat speed.

One thing that I am debating is to leave the UV leech and foot protection off the sail and use a RF sunbrella UV sock cover instead. With the UV protection on the sail gone, it should perform better. Cost of the sock or to have the UV barrier bonded directly to the sail is roughly the same.

The sock has it's advantage also of allowing me to leave on the RF a few other sails, that came with the boat, thatdon't have UV protection on them. The UV cover on the sail does offer some chaffe protection one the sail.

Thoughts?

DrB

Hi Dr B,

Congratulations on deciding to do some racing. Before my opinion on sun protection, I would suggest, if you haen't yet, that you look at the type of racing and fleet you will most likely be competing in. As an example, will you be racing in a main and jib fleet against boats much like yours? If so, what handicap system will this be under? If PHRF, what are the restrictions and credits for a single headsail on a furler versus multiple sizes that you will change? Also what type of boat do you have? What are the predominant local wind conditions? If this is to be a downwind sail as well, can it be used with a whisker pole?

The answers to these questions will tell you a lot about what size and construction all purpose headsail to make. Most all purpose headsails start out between 125 and 135% LP. Wouldn't be fun to race against a bunch of similar boats with that sail when the others might have 155% LP light air genoas....and the racing body provides no credit for your smaller and heavier one.

Most all purpose headsails are at their worst in light wind. That is because they are made heavier, and somewhat smaller, than a purpose built sail for light air so that they will not explode when reefed to a smaller size. They are at their second worst when asked to do the job of a purpose built smaller headsail when rolled up.

It's very hard to get this one sail to be an excellent race performer in all wind strengths and points of sail...and still be a robust cruising sail.

Let us know some and I'm sure you will get some good advice.

Good luck!

121Guy