Investing in sails is a big thing. A lot of thinking goes into it before placing the actual order. We were convinced that a gennaker was the right thing for us and our Linjett 33. But did it turn out true or were we wrong?
Prevous experiences with gennaker sailing
For our previous boat we had a gennaker for a number of years. It´s was a cruising gennaker from North Sails and we sailed with it a lot. We used it mainly in light to medium winds and everything from reaching to running downwind. When running downwind we always took down the mainsail, otherwise the mainsail would through a wind shadow on the gennaker.
The gennaker we ordered for our Linjett 33
Together with our sailmaker at UK Sailmakers in Stockholm we agreed that the best option for us, our boat and the way we planned to use the sail, would be a A2-gennaker. The A2 is the go-to gennaker on most boats.
The A2 is a light to medium wind gennaker. It is full size with big shoulders designed to rotate to windward of the headstay to get as much of the sail as possible out of the wind shadow of the mainsail. The A2 is best suited for 8 – 18 knots apparent wind speed and an apparent wind angle of 105 – 155 degrees.
Apart from the gennaker we also ordered the UK Sailmakers dousing sock to simplify handling.
Adaptations we made to the boat
There were two things needed on our Linjett 33 to fly the gennaker.
- Pad-eye
We needed to add a pad-eye to the bow of Festina Lente. That was an easy job. I had been looking at how it was done on other Linjett yachts. I got a pad-eye from Hjertmans and mounted it with and stainless steel bolts. - Protective rail
What we didn´t anticipate was that we needed to add a protective rail to prevent chafing on teak in the cockpit. We noticed the first time sailing the gennaker that the starboard sheet rubbed against the teak by the winsch. It was an easy fix, we bought a thin rail from Hjertmans and mounted it with stainless steel screws.
How we have used the gennaker
We have actually used the gennaker on Festina Lente3 the same way we used the gennaker on our previous boat, not so surprising.
We´ve used the gennaker in light to medium winds and everything from reaching to running downwind. When running downwind we always taken down the mainsail, otherwise the mainsail throughs a wind shadow on the gennaker.
The gennaker has been sailed both solo and in crewed mode. Sailing it solo is actually quite easy, it just needs a bit more planning.
One thing we noticed is that gybing the UK-gennaker on our Linjett 33 is easier than gybing the North Sails gennaker on previous boat. I guess that is because the UK-gennaker is designed to rotate to windward of the headstay at deep angles. So inside gybing the gennaker works really well.
Is it any good having a gennaker on the boat?
We are sailing our Linjett 33 with a self tacking jib, that is common among Linjett 33 sailors. Since the self tacking jib is small, the Linjett 33 needs help going downwind, especially in light to medium winds and this is where the gennaker comes into play.
We sailed Festina Lente one season without gennaker before we ordered the A2 and I wouldn´t like to be without the gennaker again. How about a symmetrical spinnaker then? I don´t think would use a symmetrical spinnaker, it is too cumbersome for us to handle.
The gennaker is perfect: it´s easy to fly and provides all the horsepower we need!
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