Use of mainsail

Why do you think YouTube to be a worse source than "books?"

And why is this forum not a good source for a good question such as this?

pdqaltair said:

Read books, for goodness sake. The library is full of them. There is no one answer (varies with boat, course, conditions) and forum answers will be bits and pieces. And don't learn from you tube.

As for White74, it depends on the boat. For beach cats, for example, the main is the power and the jib is for flow control. The main is 3-5 times the size of the main.

So it depends.

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Here is my philosophy. I sail a Beneteau 47.7 which has a nice large main.

I try to keep as much main as possible and first reef the roller furling jib.

Here is why. First, focusing on the main allows the boat to point higher. Also, the main can handle a wider range of wind speeds than can the jib. So, when there is a gust, having more main and less jib will make it easier to handle that brief moment of being overpowered. A quick dump of the traveler, etc.

Finally, my boat just shines in strong winds with a full main and a small jib. Whatever is "lost" furling the jib is gained by having the power and pointing ability of the full main.

Most people that sail jib only do it out of laziness, and there is nothing wrong with that. For me, when you consider the cost per hour of sailing, I think it worth the "trouble" to hoist the main

sirtang said:

After watching a lot of cruising youtubes I find that a lot of people sail with just a jib or a combo with a deeply reefed main. Is this really that common?

Is there a narrow window of wind speeds that merit the use of the main?

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