SO43DS sail recommendation

[davidknell]

The sails on our SO43DS are coming up to their tenth birthday and looking as worn out as their owner. As it's off-season discount time, I thought it might be time to treat her to some new ones.

We're not racers, so normal Dacron looks like the right way to go; anyone got any thoughts about the optimal size of genoa? I've seen talk of 135%, 140% and 150%; I'm not sure what the standard one is, but I do seem to take it in a bit at the first sign of a decent breeze, so I can't see I'd need anything larger than that.

Comments, opinions, advice and experiences all gratefully received!

--Dave

[MartyB]

TO me the size genoa to get depends upon "where" you sail. If on some places on the east coast of the US, or puget sound like myself, we get a lot of under 10 knot wind days, so bigger is better! If on San Francisco Bay where the wind pipes up into the 20's ea day, a 110-135 might be all you want!

OR, my personal choice, get a BIG genoa you can use on light days, along with a 110 or slightly smaller when the wind does pipe up to over say 25. Yeah a bit of work to change out, but you have a MUCH BROADER range of wind you can work with and stay comfortable.

As far a cloth goes, I would suggest you look into some of the pane4l sewn laminates, like Ullmans Cal offering. A laminte that is lighter in weight to handle light wind days, yet stronger with less stretch than dacron for the windy days, so not as much healing, better speed etc. Cost for the CAL is about 5-10% more than a good quality dacron. Other brands have equal offerings if you have a favorite maker locally etc.

Marty

[flightdeck]

As always Marty hit's all the right nails, being a DS model I would think changing sail's is not on the menu, but furling up would be. If you plan to keep the boat for some years yet then get something better than dacron, after a year or two the genoa will be like a sack of potato's when furled and defeat the point of furling, my new laminated headsail works really well even furled. Get your local sail maker or maker's involved use their years of knowledge to guide you.

Cheers

[yachtingtypes]

This is a quote I received from Doyle during the summer for my 43DS.

Mainsail
Vertical Batten Main 8.77 Marblehead 431 $3,247
Includes: 3 Vertical Battens, Clew Block, Moderate Roach
Profile and Sail Bag
Headsail LP%
DuraSail II RF Gen 150% 7.77 Marblehead 554 $4,073
Includes: UV Cover, Rope Luff Flattener and Sail Bag

I have had Doyle sails before and have been very happy with quality and service.

[davidknell]

Thanks to all for the advice. We keep the boat in the Aegean, so have more windy days than not.

I suspect this would then answer my next question, which was going to be about a vertically battened main and whether the extra area that that would provide would be worth having.

Again, thanks all - I'll prevaricate for a bit longer and report back with what I did and how it all went once I've given the new rags an outing.

--Dave