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Re: Sails for light winds
We have a nylon gennaker, as seen in the thumbnail, that is fairly straightforward to deploy. There is no sprit at all and a whisker or spinnaker pole is not usually needed. Having furled the genoa, you attach the gennaker tack to the forestay via a strap, with a downhaul led through a snatch block at the stem fitting and back through fairleads (visible along the starboard side of the cabin) to a jam cleat at the cockpit. The gennaker sheet attached to the clew and is brought to the stern, where is does a u-turn via another snatch block secured to a padeye and on to the genoa winch. There is a separate spinnaker halyard and an ATN snuffer to corral the beast when things get unruly.
The photo was taken about 2 years ago off the RI shore when the wind was about 7 kts out of the SW as we were heading East, enroute to an overnight stop in the Pt Judith Harbor of Refuge. If we did not have this sail, we would have been motoring. We get nervous when the wind is over 12 kts with this lightweight sail and, so far, this 1990 sail remains in virtually new condition, but that is partially due to the fact that we don't use it--or need to--very often in our sailing area.
Last edited by fallard; 04-15-2019 at 11:18 PM.
Reason: corrected location