I have a Kayaksailor sail with jib that can point to about 65º without paddling. (I can sail 230º of the compass.) I do that with it mounted on an Eddyline Sandpiper 130 and a Hurricane Skimmer 140. I am wondering whether the Falcon sail will allow me to point any higher, again without paddling. Anyone with experience?
What sparks my curiosity is that the Falcon sail is loose footed and seems to be cut higher. The latter is important to me because if I paddle sail, I would not have to adjust my stroke to prevent the paddle from interfering with the boom/sail. Also the mechanics of the mast raising system appears to be much simpler on the Falcon.
Any comments welcome.
Thanks.
The sail specifically won’t make much of a difference as to how high you can point if you don’t have leeboards of some sort. You need something in the water producing lift as well as the sailbto really point close to the wind. On your Kayaksailor rig, the other thing that could limit pointing is if there is any sag in the luff of the jib. I’m not super familiar with that rig so I don’t know what is providing the tension on the luff - main sheet tension or some sort of backstay? Either way a saggy jib luff will kill any pointing ability.
To summarize - I doubt the Falcon sail would inherently be more close winded than the Kayaksailor - you’ll want to add leeboards to really point with any rig.
I have an adjustable backstay on my 38’ sailboat which serves two purposes - adjust tension on the headstay (better pointing) and bend the mast (flattens mainsail).
Thanks for your comments Brodie.
The luff is tensioned by a line that pulls down from the tack. I keep the luff fairly tight. As far as leeboards go, if I used a falcon sail I could easily add the leeboards that came with my kayaksailor rig. It would be very simple to do.
Marc