Sailing performance of 45DS

[highcoastsailor]

Hi,

I just want to learn if anyone out there has any views to share about the sailing performance of the 45DS. Of particular interest would be info of any 45DS performing really well, e.g., in racing with other cruisers, but any thoughts on its sailing performance are appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

[ianpowolny]

Hi there from Affinity.

I also have a 45DS as does dslittle on this site. We have been exchanging ideas for the last six months about all sorts of things about our boats.

The other boat has a new main with short leach battens made by Kemp Sail. I have a price for the same sail and may buy it next year.
I have just bought a new Feather Stream prop from Darglow. The other boat is fitting a Gori prop this winter.
We both have CooperCoat which in my case seems to have added a little more speed.
My wife ( make sure she agrees!!) and I tend not to fill the forward water tank.
Both boats have blade jibs for F4/5 and above. This allows us to point higher. We use Dyneema inner forestays that stow more easily than steel at the mast and can be kept out of the way when short tacking the 140% Genoa.
We reef early to keep Affinity more upright as this adds ease of handling and hence we go a little faster.
We don't tow our dinghy. This definitely makes a difference. We stow ours between the spray hood and mast with the life-raft on the pushpit.

Not sure what else to say but more than willing to discuss your ideas.

[dslittle]

As Ian says above. The battens in the main seem to assist but the main increase in performance came with the up wind jib. The boat pointed MUCH higher and we had a comfortable sail close hauled into 25-30 knots. When I got the sail Matt said "you will thank me for this one day as you are beating into a bit of weather". That happened sooner than we thought it would (we don't particularly chose to sail upwind!!!). I am very happy with the Coppercoat, we came out last week and there was only slime on the hull. That was after 14 months in the water and five years after it went on - definitely a good investment. Gori prop went on last week and hoping to see even more boat speed soon...

[highcoastsailor]

Thanks to both of you for your feedback. Interesting read.

I should probably expand a bit on my interest in this. I currently don't own a 45DS but am seriously interested in becoming one after chartering them the past three summers. Of course, the charter boats come with heavily used sails of low quality and are in now way trimmed for performance, so I haven't really had a chance to assess how it could perform. Back home, I have since 20+ years been sailing an Omega 34 which sails great for its size and allows us to fight in the top in regattas with other family boats and even family racers. Comfort for living on-board, however, is not in any way comparable to what you experience in a 45 DS, neither inside nor out in the huge 45DS cockpit. Hence, after being at the top of my wish list for quite some time, m only concern is wether it is possible to make it perform well enough. Not that the main purpose is to race it, I anyhow know that I will be disappointed if I cannot keep up with same-size boats outside of races or perform good enough w.r.t. to handicap numbers to be at least somewhat competitive. Therefore I've searched the net for racing results to find at least someone that at some occasion has proven it possible to be in the top, but I have actually found only very, very few results at all and none that shows what I want to see. (On the other hand, the number of counter examples are also too small to prove it is hard to make it competitive.)

That said, your suggestions for performance improvements makes perfect sense. The boat that I'm currently most interested in comes both with 140% and a 110% furling genoa, and a releasable forestay that I understand is used only for the storm jib. I should also tell that I have out ruled the furling mains, mainly for performance reasons. I haven't been so engaged in prop investigations. This one has the 3-bladed folding-prop which I believe is a original option - Any thought on that?

[ianpowolny]

It sounds like you need to find the 'performance' version of the 45DS. This comes with a deeper keel, taller mast, and slab reefing main sail. As far as the prop is concerned dslittle and I have more cruising type props. I guess you'd need a 3 bladed folding prop. Copper Coat may be heavier than standard anti-foul but if you have the money the trick would be no anti-foul and just polish the hull every month or so.

The inner fore stay is set up on my boat for a 35m2 jib, the same size as the full mian, not just a storm jib. Not sure what size the jib on dslittle's boat but understand it is a laminate sail.

You need to decide what you're not going to carry.

My wife and I are cruisers so although we like to have the boat perform well it is our home for 6 months of the year and hence home comforts are consider necessary and that adds weight.

Interesting conversation. Let me know what you think, Ian.

PS: my wife just mentioned that you'll probably not carry baking trays, kitchen scale, flour and the other powders need to bake cakes, make scones and bread not forgetting her gym weights!!!

[sjm]

To revive a very old topic..... regarding installing an inner forestay on a 45ds. I'm keen to do the same on my 45 ds performance - can either of you tell me what you did regarding reinforcing the deck to withstand the strain, and how far back to placed the attachment point? Very interested in any other thoughts you might have on the issue.  Many thanks in anticipation.

[ianpowolny]

This is from a post 2 May 2013.

Here's the info I got from Jeanneau for our 45DS (2008).

We have a 110mm x 11mm slot in our Z-Spars mast and will have a Wichard 9150 babystay tang fitted.

I should also say we used a Wichard 10mm watertight u-bolts. If you use the Wichard u-bolt go to Halfords and buy 2 anti-vibration nuts. The ones that come with the u-bolt are only plan and I suspect will lossen in time.

The tang cost £45 and the u-bolts £25.

Jeanneau have also advised that we use 8mm s/s rope for the forestay. Owen Sails can make the forestay with tensioner and fit the lot for £600.

The underdeck plate is an original Jeanneau part purchased through our dealer in Brighton. Don't ask why I use a Brighton dealer and live in Scotland!!!

Read more: jeanneau.proboards.com/thread/2551/inner-forestay-43ds#ixzz4Wfhuh8KG and see the pdf for underdeck fitting.

Since 2013:- We found that storing the inner forestay in stainless was very difficult. We should have gone for a 2 part forestay so we could shorten it for staorage. We then tried a Dyneema forestay but found that the jib stuck when hauling it up. The jib tends to stick but that is similar to the stainless forestay.

We now don't use the jib. Its just too much hassel.



Ian

[sjm]

Food for thought!  Thank you for your comprehensive answer.
Simon