Ditto this part... On 11/16/2018 08:47 AM, Jon Barber wrote: ...
A further concern is the head sail. I see far to many of my sailing friends furl their head sails when the wind gets sporting, instead of reefing or double reefing the main. The next step is to fire the motor as without a head sail, these small pocket cruisers do not go to windward. Moving jib fair leads aft will flatten and depower the head sail.
As Jerry and Dave have said here many times, the M17 is a masthead rig and jib is primary power source (that's how I understood it anyhow). Until I got the reefing jib I had to play it safe with what hank-on jib to start out with, so as not to be overpowered and have to douse the jib and live with just the main. So usually I was a bit "under-jibbed." With the reefable jib, I am able to play with having a full reef in main and more jib, and it definitely seems more powerful that way. And less easily overpowered. I will say that my M17 at least (#38, close cousin to your #44 Jon) is not a complete dog with only the main. Definitely not as much power, but caught downwind on a lake once in rising gustiness, I doused the jib and tacked back to marina on main alone (with flattening reef in) and she did OK. I might have had to take one more tack than normal, on a straight-line distance of ~2 miles. And she went a bit slower so it took maybe an extra 20% of the usual time. But she just chugged along through the chop, safe and comfortable. cheers, John -- John Schinnerer - M.A., Whole Systems Design -------------------------------------------- - Eco-Living - Whole Systems Design Services People - Place - Learning - Integration john@eco-living.net - 510.982.1334 http://eco-living.net http://sociocracyconsulting.com