Sail Plan, SF37

[richy]

I'm planning on some new sails for my SF37 (hooray!) main use is likely to be 50/50 family cruising and racing. I intend to use the roller furling as I don't want to be stashing sails below. Any thoughts on what size Genoa to go for? Ive heard they go well with a 150%, but does the likely handicap justify the larger sail?

[hoppy]

I'd be inclined to go for a smaller genoa and get a Code 0 for the lighter days. However I guess it depends on the racing you do and the conditions where you sail.

[davideso37]

Hi I have the SO37 souped up to SF standard and race against the SF37. The SF37 needs all the sail you can cram on her to perform unless you are in an area where it blows all the time.

We do a lot of no spinnaker races where the 150% genoa is a real asset.

Roller furlers have their advantages but I am ditching one on my next yacht for hanks and a bag on the deck to store the sail overnight. We cannot race in heavy airs with a part furled genoa so we are changing sails all the time. The latest multi million dollar day sailer on Sydney Harbor (The Red Hand) has their huge genoas on hanks.

I have had a cover on the large genoa rather than UV protections strips which really distorted my Norths Norlam tri radial. It is so much nicer with the UV protection removed. Next boat, no furlers, not uv strips, no genoa cover.

Code Zeros are an interesting concept. If you real a lot of polar diagrams for yacht with and without code Zero sails fitted you will see that the main use is in light conditions on from around 50 degrees to 90 degrees. Over 12 knots the 150% genoa will be big enough. They are an absolute necessity on yacht with non overlapping genoas but a luxury on a yacht with a 150% genoa. Your money would be better spent on a nice racing No 2 or 3 genoa.

We have a nice big masthead Asymmetric spinnaker off a prodder or pole for beam reaching and on the right angle it is awesome but so often we set the symmetric as it is simpler to gybe. Very few production yachts will be able to gybe downwind with an asymmetric better than running squarer with a poled out symmetric spinnaker

In a breeze we do rather well with a 105% No 3 on the outboard tracks. I have the inboard tracks for the SF37 but have only used them once. That was a wast of money!! If the breeze is light enough to have the sail set inboard we set the larger genoa and if it is heavy enough for the No 3 it goes like a rocket on the outboard tracks.

Our big weakness is boat speed in the mid ranges where we lack the power and water line length of the SO 379 and SO39i

Regards

David