I got the idea from one of the the Pardey's books. It takes some thought to get it right, and it's not a racing sail at best. The Pardey's set-up was ridiculously heavy duty. The version on my Sabre 30 "Excalibur" was too stretchy at the luff attachments. It isn't the zipper that gives out. When the wind kicks up and the luff is under tension the luff attachments have to take the FULL load or the zipper gets started at that end and ZZZZZZZZZZIP! My conclusion is that line or tape is not enough for this attachment. You need something that has zero stretch - like a shackle, or carabiner (Maybe the Pardeys did know what they were talking about after all). For my M17 I'm thinking a 110 worker with a single zippered panel that takes me right down to a semi-storm jib (hence no luff attachment issues in high winds. In San Francisco Bay here are only two occasions when the wind blows 10 knots: 1) The wind was dead calm and it's on it's way to 20 knots 2) The wind was blowing 20 knots and now its dropping down to 0. I am exaggerating - but only a little. Jim M-17 "Spirit" On Aug 19, 2013, at 6:09 AM, Thomas Buzzi <thomaspbuzzi@gmail.com> wrote:
Interesting idea. Who would have thought, a zipper in a sail. Think I will talk to a sailmaker about that. One trip to the foredeck, even on an M17 would be great. I would like to try the roller reefing jib but since I trailer my boat it would add a whole nother bunch of motions to launch and retrieve.
Tom B #258
On Sun, Aug 18, 2013 at 11:31 PM, James Poulakis <picfo@comcast.net> wrote:
I tried a zippered reefing jib on my Sabre 30 years ago. It worked fine in light winds with both panels in. It worked great in heavy wind with both panels out. But in intermediate wind with one panel out, the remaining panel would often unzip itself. I was thinking about trying a single panel zippered foot for my M-17 that would take me from working jib to semi-storm jib in one trip to the foredeck. The size of the reefing panel for an M-17 would be smaller than a table cloth. Hmmm…
Jim M-17 "Spirit"
On Aug 18, 2013, at 2:42 PM, "Karen and Smiley" <magoo252@comcast.net> wrote:
When I bought M 15 #616 from Stan he had blown out the full set of sails and I knew better and ordered from the knowledgeable Dr Judy B some custom Hyde sails. Specifically I asked for a sail range of 15-20 knots and I knew she would cut them FLAT baby because we like to point in a blow. Had the wife out in 18 gusting to +20 last season and YES we had a tiller extension and yes we sat forward to the cabin and she was between my legs all of us FORWARD. The boat powered up and blew through the Chesapeake Bay chop just like Jerry designed her to do. FLAT sails and moving your weight forward and If I had a trapeze wire I would have been out on it. Full Main and Jib when everybody around us was reefed. I knew that day that this boat was right for us.
Now to the question of swapping out to a storm jib (I have one of those on board too) I would never feel comfortable going on the fore deck and swapping it out, Hey Sal and Jerry you hearing me on this one J I could have tucked away somewhere on a beach and done it but was I was never over powered. A FLAT main and jib will do this for you. Good luck Daniel with new sails cause that is the solution, use your blown out ones on drifters J
Smiley M 15 #616
Smiley and Karen
magoo252@comcast.net