Having just returned from a very rewarding sail from Cargreen to Fowey, Falmouth, Penzance, the Helford and back again... i thought id share this image of Roquetta at anchor off Restronguet creek near Falmouth. The water was like glass the next day, and the sunrise was pretty spectacular
this is the youtube video of the last part of the trip, the sunrise is in it..
have a nice day everyone, i wish i could've made it to the classics..
Justin
Thanks for that, Justin! A very enjoyable video.
One question:
The foot of your mainsail reaches right to the end of the boom but Tammie Norie's stops a couple of feet short since I had a new sail made according to the MkIIa sail plan some years ago. I think it spoils the look of my boat a bit. I wonder if you are still using the original sail plan or have you a shorter boom than Tammie Norie?
20070720-twister_class_association-document-sailplans_by_kim_holman.pdf
Hi John,
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
It very interesting that you should mention the sail. I have two mainsails for roquetta. One is from 2014 and is apparently a 'racing main' whatever that means. That's the sail that is currently fitted,and I must say that I often 'feel in my water' that I would like to put a small reef in it to balance the boat in winds over 12 ish knots. Perhaps it is longer in the foot than the original. The other sail matches the genoa, and I have never fitted it. You have piqued my interest. I shall bend it on and report back when I get the chance.
As far as I know the boom is the standard length, but it is not the original, so who knows. how long is your boom? I shall measure mine on wednesday,
Regards,
Justin
Edit: I've just measured the older sail, it's 11.7 feet in the foot (!). I believe this corresponds to a mk11 sail plan. I'll measure the height of the fore triangle and foot of the racing main on Wednesday. This should clear up what sails I've got, and what they should be. Either way,there won't be two feet of spare boom! If your sail plan is right and the extra boom offends your eye, why don't you shorten it? Very useful document you attached, thanks.
Hi Justin
Tammie Norie is in Brittany at the moment so i can't take any accurate measurements but from documents I have on file it seems the boom is 12.8 feet long and the foot of the sail is approximately 11.3 feet long. So, a foot and a half of bare boom sticking out; not the "couple of feet" I guesstimated, but still (to my mind) unsightly.
As you can see from the photo (with the aid of a magnifying glass), shortening the boom (which I have considered doing) would result in the mainsheet being at an even shallower angle than it is now and it would be in the way of my head when I'm standing up. Also her overall winter cover would need a lot of altering. I have lived with it for 13 years so I suppose I will just have to get used to it!
Hi John,
Yes I see exactly. Funnily enough after I wrote that post I pictured what I had suggested and imagined having to duck under the main sheets all the time. Your genoa is a different cut than mine also. The suspense is killing me, I'm going down the boat in a couple of hours to measure the main😁
Well, the plot thickens.
My boom is 13 feet, the foot of the main is 12.75 feet. The luff is 29.5 feet. Yes, I'm sure. This doesn't correspond fully to any of the sail plans...
Even more disturbing is that the genoa, circa 2000, seems to be 150 percent.
I have two oversized sails, I reckon the footage to be 188 square feet for the main and 178 for the fore triangle. The actual genoa nearer to 250 square feet. That's massive isn't it? It reaches back to the spray hood...
It also appears that the mast may have been shortened, possible to deal with rot (in the traditional manner) as the measurement from the head to the working deck is 33feet, not 34.
My mast is 33 feet long, and I have no reason to think it has ever been shortened.
I'm not sure what percentage my genoa is. I've an idea it's 120% but I can't be sure. Godfrey Stonham's Edith Rose has a very large genoa; much larger than mine.
I am tempted to have my next mainsail made without battens, as recommended by Eric Hiscock and Larry Pardey. One penalty is the loss of sail area resulting from the absence of roach but I am thinking that if I had a sail made whose foot was the full length of the boom, the extra area thus gained might compensate for the area lost by eliminating the roach. It would also mean I didn't have a bit of bare boom sticking out and spoiling my boat's good looks! The problem is that sails are so expensive that most of us can't afford to experiment with variations from the normal.
Ah, from reading the sail plan letter, the measurements for mast head to deck are all 34 - 35 feet, so I thought my mast was short, it seems not then. I think my weather helm issues are down to my own incompetence more than anything.
Wouldn't making the foot longer whilst decreasing roach lower the aspect ratio of the sail? Making it less efficient... What is the argument against battens?
I have reached an age where ease of handling is more important than speed to windward and, of the several advantages claimed by Larry Pardey and Eric Hiscock for the battenless mainsail, the one that most appeals to me is the ability to hoist and lower the sail without having to head into the wind.
Anyway, battenless mainsails are not so uncommon nowadays. In-mast furling is quite popular and obviously doesn’t permit the use of horizontal battens. I once crewed on an East to West trans-Atlantic passage in a yacht with that system and the absence of battens didn’t cause any problems. With everything set up for down-wind sailing, it was possible to quickly reduce sail area without having to turn into the wind; very useful when hit by a squall.
Interesting - I had exactly this same question after the first time I sailed Lissanna. A friend took a photo, which brought home to me how short the mainsail looked (I'm trying to upload the photo without much luck - get an error telling me that the upload URL may be wrong or doesn't exist).
I haven't measured it exactly, but I think the foot must stop at least 20" short of the boom end. I saw Dream Twister at the weekend in Troon and the owner showed me a photo (which is in the gallery section of this site) where her mainsail also stops well short. In fact, reviewing the gallery there's a number of them like that. Dream Twisters' view was that wasn't bad thing in terms of not being over-canvased and avoiding weather helm. I don't think it looks as good, but faced with a bill for a decent 2nd hand sail I'll settle for a slight dent in aesthetics.
Hi Gerard,
Congrats on your new boat. My main has been made to fit the boom, the sail was new in 2014 and is longer in the foot than any of the standard sail plans. Great in lighter winds but a bit of a handful when it's windy. I discovered this yesterday whilst storming out to eddystone lighthouse. 6. 5 knots fully reefed, the winds must've been 25kts,great fun 😁
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