Sail Trial

The new genoa jib flies for the first time!

After waiting a few weeks for a combination of no rain and sufficient wind, the sexy new North Sails jib was finally hoisted Wednesday for a trial run. The new sail has a much lower clew than the old one and did not trim all the way in upwind before the sheets ran into the turning blocks. The forestay has now been tightened up about an inch to reduce rake (with corresponding changes to the shrouds) so we'll have to see if that takes care of things by raising the clew height just slightly. Once dialed in, the new sail should be awesome!

String Theory

Full Moon has been getting by with a 16 year old and very worn-out Halsey Lidgard genoa (which was wonderful when new) but the boat got an early Christmas present on Friday in the form of a brand new genoa from North Sails. The new sail is a gorgeous tri-radial made from laminates with black aramid fibers. A 3DL sail was considered, but the tri-radial should be more durable due to the manufacturing process of the laminate. Other sail-makers were also in the running but North came through with the best value.

Hopefully there will be some decent weather over the holidays for a test run or two!

One reason why not to go with a "string" sail: catastrophic failure!