What happens when you fly the spinnaker in heavy air?

[jameswilson29]

Maybe they shouldn't have hoisted the spinnaker in these conditions:

Planté de Figaro - YouTube

[jameswilson29]

I love these Beneteau Figaros, second wipeout video:

Figaro 2007 Corentin Douguet dans le baston.mpg - YouTube

[blt2ski]

Just goes to show, a well designed boat will go over, but not fill with water etc. Try that with a typical boat used/recomended on here for cruising, and it would be sinking or sunk about now. Paulo will also know the skipper. But the first one looks like someone that races and does very well in SH/DH style ocean races in boats of this type, so can and does use sails that many would consider crazy. Ive seen another vid with this boat doing 20+ with a main and jib in 40knot conditions. Amazing fun looking boat.

Marty

[blutoyz]

Chalk me up for one that considers this crazy...

[nolatom]

They needed more crew, hanging off the starboard stern pulpit ;-)

Still, they *really* picked up speed.......for 15 seconds..

[PCP]

Originally Posted by jameswilson29

Maybe they shouldn't have hoisted the spinnaker in these conditions:

Planté de Figaro - YouTube

I had seen photos of that one but I did not know that there was a movie. Thanks for posting.

Regards

Paulo

[jameswilson29]

Those Figaros look like great boats. Too bad they are so rare in the U.S. The few available on Yachtworld are almost always across the pond.

[PCP]

Originally Posted by blt2ski

Just goes to show, a well designed boat will go over, but not fill with water etc. Try that with a typical boat used/recomended on here for cruising, and it would be sinking or sunk about now. Paulo will also know the skipper. But the first one looks like someone that races and does very well in SH/DH style ocean races in boats of this type, so can and does use sails that many would consider crazy. Ive seen another vid with this boat doing 20+ with a main and jib in 40knot conditions. Amazing fun looking boat.

Marty

Marty, all are professional sailors and do that for a living, I mean sailing fast and racing those or other sailboats.

They are training and exploring the limits of the boats or exaggerating for the photo. That boat is a boat used for solo or duo sailing in offshore races and transats.

On a real race they would go very fast but they would not take that kind of risks. Well, not really risks except the first one that is quite unusual on that type of boat, the second one happens frequently when the boat simply has too much sail for the autopilot. It is normally a not dangerous situation on those boats (that have a very good stability) just a warning from the boat to the skipper, something like this : "You stupid ass...reduce sail right now!!!!!

Those boats have also several spinnakers and they are using a medium one in circumstances were they would use normally a smaller one.

Flying a spinnaker in heavy weather is possible, if the spinnaker is adequate and if you have an expert crew to make weight where it is needed (that's the problem with the first video), to take care of all the lines and steer the boat. Even so it is a bit of an acrobatic act. Of course it all depends of what you call heavy.

Regarding boats, the ones that have as genesis Open boats like the Pogo 12.50 or a class 40 racer can be slower but much more easy to control on those circumstances and that allows them to do that with a small crew. Boats like a Ker 40, Farr 400 or a J122 can be faster but demand a much bigger and more expert crew and are a lot less suited to be left on autopilot.

Anyway, no mater the boat you have to be a dam good sailor to do it and have the rightly sized spinnaker.

Regards

Paulo

[PCP]

Originally Posted by jameswilson29

Those Figaros look like great boats. Too bad they are so rare in the U.S. The few available on Yachtworld are almost always across the pond.

They are race boats, great boats but quite naked in the interior and expensive since they are very requested for racing. The French offshore solo racing championship is raced on them.

But that is going to change soon because there are talks about a new boat to substitute this one. Then it would be a great time to buy these boats at a very low price because there are plenty and will not serve for top levell racing anymore.

That would make a very good offshore small cruising boat if the boat is provided with a good cruising interior and that should not be very difficult or very expensive. The boat has already everything that is needed to live in the boat in a spartan, I mean, head and a kind of a galley. After all on one of the races the boat is duo sailed across the Atlantic so it has to provide minimum conditions for that.

I remember a Canadian that had done that with the previous Figaro model, the Figaro I, a smaller 30ft boat also built by Beneteau. Well he had made more than that. He sailed the boat from France and after that circumnavigated with it

Pogoria.org - Off Around the World

DOCK TALK- Karma Yacht Sales Blog:: Around the World in a Beneteau

Bénéteau Figaro 1, histoire d'un sprinter... - Le blog de Somed Sailing Team

Regards

Paulo

[jameswilson29]

Averaged 135 n.m. a day, that is great mileage for a 30 ft. boat.