Genoa
I think I need to spend a few words describing each of these sails. First the Genoa is a head sail that is bigger than the front triangle of the boat. If you take the triangle formed by the mast, deck forward of the mast and the wire that holds the mast up connected from the bow, that’s called the front triangle. A sail that is larger than that area and is flown using that wire as a anchor point is called a Genoa. They are generally described in terms of percentage of the triangle. Our boat is rigged with a 140 Genoa.
We knew the Genoa needed a new UV Cover once we got out and sailed a bit. What we didn’t know was how much damage there was to the sail canvas underneath. We got several quotes after the local sail loft told us it was not worth repairing and went with Precision Sails – they are heavily marketing to the full time sailing community via You-Tube sailing channels as they have provided sails to most of the top 10 channels.
Our “Genny” is our power sail under most conditions. It provides the power to drive us through the water. It works in balance with the mainsail. It is made of pretty heavy material and has a protective cover sewn to the out 18 inches or so, so that when it’s rolled up when not in use, that cover takes the brunt of the UV Rays. That cover gets replaced about every 5 years.
Code Zero
A code zero is something of a cross between a huge Genny and a Spinnaker. It’s used in lighter winds, but is still anchored to the bow sprit of the boat. It generally doesn’t have a UV Sacrificial layer on it because the sail is much lighter weight material. The previous owner used his so much it had disintegrated by the time he sold the boat. He did provide us with all the rigging related to it though. As of this writing – Oct 2022 we’ve used it now several times in lighter winds and it’s larger size and lighter weight really enabled us to keep the speed up when the Genny just couldn’t collect enough wind energy.
Precision Sails – British Columbia, Canada
Stack Pack
A stack pack is a real convenient way to collect and manage the mainsail when it’s lowered. There are guidelines (Lazy Jacks) that help guide the sail into a “folded” pile on the boom. Racers will then just tie and cover the sail because they don’t want the wind interference created by a permanent bag attached to the length of the boom. After fighting with that arrangement for several months, I wanted something easier to manage.
Our stackpack was made by Evolution Sails in Deltaville. They came to the boat measured it out and then built and installed it for us. It’s been much easier dealing with the sail as a result. My only issue is that the upper batten on the main sail has a habit of hanging up on the Lazy Jack if the mainsail is pushed one side or the other by the wind when raising. Something we will have to address with the design of the new mainsail at some point in our future.
Jib
A jib is a sail that is the size of or smaller than the front triangle. There are 3 predominant types of Sloop (Mainsail & Headsail) rigs: Sloop, Cutter and Solent. Both a Cutter and a Solent have 2 head sails, but they are different shapes.
The Cutter’s forward stays are parallel to each other so the smaller sail is just a smaller size (same shape) as the larger sail. The smaller sail is often referred to as a Stay Sail and sometimes that stay can be fitted with a storm sail. Both of the head sails can be and are often flown at the same time to increase sail area.
The Solent rig is different in that the inner sail is a different shape then the front sail. The inner sail is referred to as a Jib and it’s purpose is to sail with power very close to the wind especially if you are going to be tacking back and forth to move up wind. The big Genny is the wrong shape and not rigged to allow for much tacking.
Because the Jib doesn’t get as much use on a Solent, ours is still serviceable, it just needed a new UV cover to help maintain that serviceability.
Evolution Sails – Deltaville, VA
This is a good picture of the boat before we received the new Genoa. You can see the old Genoa in grey. The Jib has it’s new UV Cover, in red, and the stackpack is also rigged with the mainsail safely tucked inside of it.