When would you run with just the genoa?

If the wind was very shifty and I didn't want to rig a preventer.

When you have roller furling and you're too lazy to hoist the main!

You do see a lot of this, though, and I think that my statement above has some truth to it.

We often sailed into our home port in an increasing breeze, typically peaking in the high 20s on most sunny days, with just one sail. We did not have furling and generally preferred to sail main-only mostly for the stability of the sail.

True, we had to be vigilant to avoid an accidental gybe, but - esp when running deep where the genoa can have a tendency to collapse and refill with a bang - all in all we felt more secure flying just the main. It's also easier (and safer, IMO) to drop and secure a mainsail than a non-furling genoa in high wind conditions.

However with the now-ubiquitous headsail furling, running genoa only is commonplace when there's enough wind that you get the speed you want. And lets face it, it does simplify things quite a bit. (But is it really "sailing"???)

Only rarely -- usually in light air if we're feeling particularly lazy.

What kind of boat do you have? Masthead rig, fractional? Is it an older design, or a modern boat?

You may be interested to read this thread, where a few years ago some of us discussed the pros and cons of sailing under headsail alone, and in which I had an interesting exchange with former member Robert Gainer (Sailnet monicker "Tartan34C", now deceased). Robert was a highly knowledgeable and experienced sailor -- much missed here.

I see a lot of boats on the ICW that run a genoa. It's easier do roll it up if the wind is shifting. I run a 175 Genoa most of the time, and only raise the main if someone is with me.

Dave

If you are off the wind, it will often make it easier to steer. The main tends to push the stern around and give the helmsman a workout whereas the jib pulls the bow off the wind and makes it easier to steer.

If I am in no hurry I will only use the genoa but mainly in light airs or any strength aft the beam. If its blowing hard and on the beam you will put too much strain on the steering, so the main has to go up to balance boat.

We sailed with only the jib on two occasions that I remember, one was at night and the wind was blowing 30kts so I did not want to have crew go forward to hoist/reef the main. It was just easier and safer to un-furl the jib and reach to our destination.

The second occasion was a daytime blow when it must have been blowing in the high 40's if not 50's. We had to sail from SF to Richmond and we sailed with a roller reefed jib (50%) on a deep reach nearly the entire way. We hit 8kts on occasion, 7.5kts sustained, with only 50% headsail!!

I am surprised nobody has yet said - It depends on the boat. Some sail pretty well that way and others not so much. Check out your own boat and see how it does.

nereussailor said:

....I see a lot of boats on the ICW that run a genoa. It's easier do roll it up if the wind is shifting......Dave

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Not only easier with shifting wind, but if you're sailing in a restricted passage you may not have the room to come into the wind to lower your main. If you're sailing to a dock at a "dead end" channel, etc. 'take care and joy, Aythya crew

I sail into my slip with a jib. It feels like I have more control of the sail and I can come in slower. Like flying a Kite.

When in tight conditions with the wind anywhere abaft the beam, sailing with a main is dodgy because you can't depower a main. If I have to enter a marina or anchorage under those wind conditions it's always jib only.

Where we sail, we often move from one anchorage to the next to hook up with friends then it's also jib only - it's too much trouble to jockey the boat into the wind twice to hoist and drop the main just to sail two miles downwind.

The third is when the wind really gets tough and the second reef (my last isn't deep enough) the main comes down first and we sail for as long as we can on the jib.

But any other conditions, the main is always up.

Omatako said:

When in tight conditions with the wind anywhere abaft the beam, sailing with a main is dodgy because you can't depower a main.

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Trim it. Over trimming the main when off the wind will depower it. Depending on the conditions you may not be able to depower it enough, but that's a different discussion.

danielgoldberg said:

Trim it. Over trimming the main when off the wind will depower it. Depending on the conditions you may not be able to depower it enough, but that's a different discussion.

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Trimming also causes the problem of making the boat much harder to steer because it will be trying to round up. It will depower and is a great technique when needing to go from a dead run to facing the wind very quickly like when anchoring against a lee shore. It is also great if you just need to depower for a little bit but it does make a lot of boats hard to handle.

I think that it would be instructive for a lot of people to try sailing their boats on all points of sailing with the rudder lashed midships. On most boats, this isn't hard on a beam reach and isn't too tough when beating. However, when trying to broad reach or run, it becomes very difficult to fall off enough. Even with an overtrimmed headsail and the main all the way out and crew weight all the way aft on the windward side, the boat simply won't fall all of the way off. Try it again with a reefed main or no main and you will succeed.

We do it occasionally when short-handed and we're feeling lazy, as many have mentioned. We'll also sometimes bring the main down and just use the genny when we're running downwind and the main is flopping, or getting close to gybing. In those cases when the wind is shifty, we often also pull out the genny. Instead of bringing down the main, I suppose we could rig a preventer, as has been previously mentioned.

I'm a bit surprised to hear this from a few people:

Omatako said:

The third is when the wind really gets tough and the second reef (my last isn't deep enough) the main comes down first and we sail for as long as we can on the jib.

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I was always under the impression that running just a headsail in heavy air put a lot of awkard pressue on the rig. Any truth to that? Or would a heavily reefed/furled headsail negate the worries?

I think the only boats that may suffer structurally from such a practice would be those like the newer backstay-less Hunters. There is a well-known anecdote of three such boats losing their rig in the Charter fleet somewhere in the cariibbean on the same windy day. They had reportedly been using headsails only in a big seaway.

With a typical properly stayed rig I doubt there would be a real problem.

You're really not going that much faster with both sails on a run. When I was sailing on Naraganset Bay using the main was rare among boats going home downwing. It's also the jibe risk and injuring a not so salty crew. Unless you're going to rig a preventer genny alone works. I had a Hallberg Rassy 41. It was rigged with a headstay about 18" in front of the normal headstay. That way I could wing out a genny on each side. Great !

I quite often run under genoa alone without the main. Particularly when I'm singlehanded and only going to be holding that course for a short period.
I'm disabled having a right foot with no movement and other problems now with the good foot. Putting the main up by myself involves quite a bit of balancing on deck and walking around as the main halliard does not run back to the cockpit. Also the tiller pilot does not always hold her into wind and I have often have to return to the cockpit to reset it. All this walking around causes me pain so I only put the main up for a longish sail as I need to rest my foot before I do more walking around deck getting the main down again and getting fenders and warps out to go into a berth.

When I got crew the main goes up much more often. Even hauling the main up by myself with crew on the tiller is a lot easier.

I am however, generally a very lazy person