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OK, it's kind of a slow Friday, so I've been playing that game where you put a search term into Google and compare the number of hits to another search term.
I've only been sailing for a few years, and am almost brand new to Sailnet. Every boat I've sailed on has had a genoa. The people I've sailed with call the sail either the jib or the genoa, but they always call the sheet the "jib sheet" and they always call the car the "genoa car" and Google searches of both the internet overall and just the Sailnet forums confirm this tendency.
Sailnet
"Jib Sheet" 69%
"Genoa Sheet" 31%
"Jib Car" 42%
"Genoa Car" 58%
Internet overall
"Jib Sheet" 59%
"Genoa Sheet" 41%
"Jib Car" 23%
"Genoa Car" 77%
So why do we run a jib sheet through a genoa car?
And why do Sailnetters seem to just in general prefer jib to genoa?
Jib is a generic term. Genoa is specific to jibs which are larger than 100%. Jibs that are approximately 100% historically were called working jibs. When I started sailing, working jibs had fixed sheet leads, but Genoas were lead to an adjustable track. That track had Genoa cars. That would be my best guess.
Where is George Carlin when we need him to explain why we drive on the parkway and park in the driveway?
Jib - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. This calls a headsail that overlaps the mainsail a "genoa jib" or genoa for short. I always figured a genoa was a type of jib, so calling its sheets "jib sheets" makes sense. As for the genoa car, does one need a moveable fairlead to adjust the the angle on a non-overlapping jib with a high clew? If not, and they are for the purpose of doing this for genoas, then "genoa car" makes sense.
To further expound on Jeff's answer, the GENOA sail may be several different sizes; 120, 135, 155, even 180 % of the foretriangle. These different sizes needed the sheet car located in different positions for the most efficient trim. (And that depends on the height of the clew too!) The JIB usually only needed a fixed location, or on some boats you will see a very short section of track so you can tweak the leech a bit.
OK, these answers make sense. A boat that had just a jib would have far less need to adjust the foot/leech tension than a boat that had a big, furling genoa.
You people are great! So many answers so fast.
But....
Only 23% of the overall hits for car used the term "jib car" but when searching just Sailnet forums that number went up to 42%. Still a minority with "jib car" but much higher than the internet overall.
So why are Sailnetters more likely to talk about a "jib car" than the rest of the internet?
Someone will jump in here and correct me, but here is my take;
A genoa is a type of jib sail. Thus the sheets for this sail are referred to as jib sheets.
To be more descriptive, a genoa is an oversized jib. A genoa is also (usually) installed on a roller furler, thereby allowing for the sail to be reefed, by simply rolling it up. Because the foot and leech vary with the size of the genoa, and whether or not it is reefed, and because the angle of apparent wind will have a greater affect on the sailing characteristics of the genoa, it benefits from the use of position-changeable blocks, called cars, more than a simple 90% jib would. Therefore, these cars are referred to as genoa cars.
As for why the percentage of hits searching for jib car is higher on sailnet- blame sailingdog. he punched out damn near 40k posts, and liked the term "jib car.'
especially when you get to the yard on the splash day and take the genoa out of the car.
and the jib out of the car.
and the drifter out of the car.
and then put the winter cover in the car.
you need really really big fairleads to make all of that happen.
The numbers are much easier for me to understand, communicate and remember. A#1, a #2, a #3 head sail. Simple, no?
I need simple! Remembering or inventing the country of origin is too much for me.
Down
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