Frers 38 downwind

[shred55]

I have had many suggestions about the sailing angles downwind from put the pole on the forestay or nay...anyone with some practical experience with the Frers 38.

[Jeff_H]

I have limited time on these boats but have raced against them. Like many boats of that era they have huge chutes and a lot of wetted surface so they generally can and should point lower then more modern designs.

[svsirius]

Raced a 36 for years, generally like deeper angles as Jeff said however you can close reach with them as well, I don't remember the polars but I bet US Sailing still has them for sale. The real key with these boats is keeping the speed up so depending on wind it's pretty easy to figure where you see big increases in speed relative to angles. We did fairly well running a little hotter angles then was common but compared to modern sprit boats we ran very deep. It also helps to have 2-3 chutes on board. We carried a 0.5 runner, .75 runner and .75 reacher. Depending on the day, we could use only one or all 3.