Extra's for DF35 Touring

Mast, Boom, Standing and Running Rigging, Furler System, Reefing, Barberhauler, Lazyjack etc
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David Stiles
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri 05 Mar 10, 6:25
Your Country: Australia, Sydney

Extra's for DF35 Touring

Post by David Stiles »

Hi
Can anyone share experiences of light air genoa or code 0 on a DF35 Touring? I will get a spinnaker but would like something else for heavy downwind and light-air bean reaching. I am trying to figure out what I would get the most use out of.

Thanks
gminkovsky
Posts: 210
Joined: Wed 01 Nov 06, 19:58
Your Country: USA, Long Island Sound

Post by gminkovsky »

I have a light air genoa on my 920 and I sail in the area that has a lot of light winds in the summer.

The major plus of the screecher is that i can get 90-100% of wind speed with it. In light air it works well from downwind to close reach. For close reach to beam reach I mount the blocks on the inboard end of the akas. For broad reach to downwind the blocks go on the outboard end. I also used it successfully a couple of times downwind and broad reach in stronger winds getting 10.3 kn boat speed in 11 kn wind.

The major minuses are:
1. must furl the sail almost completely to tack
2. requires 2 people to handle one sail during tack - 1 to furl/unfurls, 1 to mind the sheets
3. the furling line has a tendency to wrap around the soft furler forcing to take the sail down to untangle the mess. This is extremely difficult when the wind picks up above 5-6 kn.
4. in winds above ~7 kn you must turn way downwind to be able to furl in the sail
5. you can't leave the sail up at the end of the day and must take it down and store in the ama because there is really no way to secure it and prevent unfurling in the wind. it even presents a risk of unfurling when the wind increases and you switch to the regular genoa.

920 has only one forward halyard so the choice is either screecher or spinnaker, but not both. So in light air you can't use screecher upwind and spinnaker downwind... I have no experience with the spinnaker on 920.

If I had a choice now, I probably would not have purchased the screecher. It is a very expensive sail that does not get much use because of all the problems. I would have been better off getting a larger genoa. I think the regular genoa is 115%. 125% would probably fit well with the standard genoa track. 135 or larger would require changing the sheet setup.

One other note:
In another post Larry pointed out that you can sail downwind very effectively on job alone without the main. I think it would be possible to fly two headsails and run before the wind: jib pulled out with a barberhauler on starboard side and screecher sheeted like a spinnaker on the port side (to imply starboard tack).
Paul
Posts: 93
Joined: Thu 28 Jan 10, 7:46
Your Country: Australia, Cairns

Post by Paul »

David I concur with the previous post, I have a DF 800 in Cairns, fitted with a bow sprit from which I can fly a screecher or spinnaker. Our wind strength here is generally around the 15 - 20 knot mark and I rarely use the screecher as it is just too much trouble above 10 knots-- same goes for the spinnaker. Previous owner raced the boat with a very experienced crew and did use the screecher and spinnakers (it came with 3 !) a lot. I use the boat as a cruiser and "fun racer" so often sail either alone or with inexperienced crew. The boat also came with a 150% dacron genoa which I intend to try out "wing to wing" as described in the previous post when running downwind without the main. Generally I like to tack downwind with main and small genoa.
Hope this helps you with your decision.

cheers,

Paul
DF 800 # 254
David Stiles
Posts: 4
Joined: Fri 05 Mar 10, 6:25
Your Country: Australia, Sydney

What about Code 0 ?

Post by David Stiles »

Thanks for replies. This seems to confirm that the "Light Air Genoa" in boat specification is basically what we know as a screecher; that makes sense.

What about a Code'0' (which might otherwise be called a furling gennaker). It is smaller than the Spinnaker and maymake a good multipurpose sail. Any experiences?
gminkovsky
Posts: 210
Joined: Wed 01 Nov 06, 19:58
Your Country: USA, Long Island Sound

Post by gminkovsky »

I would probably choose asymmetric spinnaker with sock over Code 0. The flexible furlers just don't work very well. Asymmetric will be larger and cost less than Code 0. You can fly it off the bowsprit and head pretty high in light winds.
Double Horizon
Posts: 440
Joined: Wed 09 May 07, 0:18
Your Country: USA

Re: Extra's for DF35 Touring

Post by Double Horizon »

David Stiles wrote:Hi
Can anyone share experiences of light air genoa or code 0 on a DF35 Touring? I will get a spinnaker but would like something else for heavy downwind and light-air bean reaching. I am trying to figure out what I would get the most use out of.

Thanks
Use your standard genoa for heavy downwind. If really heavy furl partially or run with bare poles -- even then you might need a drogue to slow it down.

For light air beam reaching I'd get a screacher on a continuous line furler sheeted to the aft lifting eye at the beam base, and for light air downwind get an asymmetric sheeted outboard at the aft end of the amas. If you want a dual-purpose you could go with a "code zero" but it will not be optimum for either purpose, and it should be made of low-stretch lightweight scrim -- not nylon.

If you keep your boat light it will perform well enough that you will be close-hauled even when reaching. With a light air headsail you should be able to have apparent wind angle well forward when true wind angle is at 80-100 degrees.
Larry - Former Owner DF-1200
Mika Harju
Posts: 218
Joined: Thu 02 Nov 06, 13:19
Your Country: Finland, Turku

Re: What about Code 0 ?

Post by Mika Harju »

What about a Code'0' (which might otherwise be called a furling gennaker). It is smaller than the Spinnaker and maymake a good multipurpose sail. Any experiences?[/quote]

I do have a Code0 in my DF1000. The boat equipped with 1.5m long bowspirit. The sail is quite small one (about 45sqm) because I do a lot of single handed sailing. I do use same sheets for both normal jib (about24sqm) and for Code0. Just furling the jib in and take the sheets to the Code0 and vice versa. My Code0 is made by UK-Halsey from a cloth specially made for these sails and it is equipped with Bartels flying furler with endless furling line; works well.

It works well especially in light air between TWA 50-180 and AWS up to 15 knots. It gives you an extra knot or two to your boat speed. In really light air, about 6 knots, it is possible to tack with it.

In light air it is really easy to operate but when wind goes up it is a little bit tricky to furl in. You need to be quite fast to take it down after furling it.

Take a look at topic http://www.dragonfly-trimarans.org/DF10 ... 6Model.pdf
Mika Harju
DF1000 Racing #8
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