The training is, as one might expect, as much about launching and recovering the sail as it is about sailing with it.įirst we learned about the Easy-Snuffer™ (aka “sock”) that comes with the sail. (You can see a video of one of these training sessions on YouTube. The guys run through blocks at the bow, typically on the tip of the anchor roller, and back to the cockpit, either on the boat’s centerline or along the stanchions.īefore purchasing this sail, Jill and I traveled across Florida to Tampa for a few hours of training on the sail (included in the purchase price), with Martin Town who is the North American distributor of this German-made sail.
The Parasailor is also most commonly flown without a pole, using a sheet and guy to each of the lower corners of the sail. It is said that the sail can withstand 25 knot winds because of this. The window in the sail acts like a safety valve, allowing air to pass through the sail when it is overpowered. And when the sail “pops” back open, it does so gently with little risk of blowing out the sail. If the winds die for a moment, the sail does not collapse as quickly as a normal spinnaker. The wing also serves as a structural beam to support the sail and hold it open. On the Parasailor, the wing provides lift which actually pulls the bow up. When flying a spinnaker, one of the common problems is planting the bow of the boat. The wing and the window create all the magic. To provide the wind to inflate this wing, the sail has a window cut all the way across it about two thirds of the way between the foot and head of the sail. This wing looks just like the high performance parachutes you might see ridden into football game halftime shows. The Parasailor is a symmetrical spinnaker that is deployed from a snuffer but with one unique feature- a wing that flies horizontally in front of the sail. Then suddenly the Parasailor appeared in our web searches. We started researching asymmetrical spinnakers, furling spinnakers, and other “cruising” solutions. The symmetrical spinnaker and its pole was just too much work. We anticipated plenty of light downwind sailing in the Pacific so we knew we needed a solution. These could be quickly tied onto lines fastened to through-bolted padeyes at the aft of the main boom and hung on the sides of the boom forward to near the mast where hammock hooks held them with a loop of bungee cord through the eye splice of the line.īut downwind in light winds, say 10 knots or less, we just could not get going fast enough to matter. We had also rigged a sturdy preventer system for the main with half-inch lines led to the bow through 60-Series Garhauer blocks and back to clutches on the port and starboard toe rails at the cockpit.
#Code zero vs genoa code
We could muster a reasonable boat speed with as little as six or seven knots of true wind at 50 to 70 degrees off the bow with the Code Zero.ĭownwind, we could run jib ‘n jigger (jib and mizzen) from 60 to 150 degrees or in lighter winds, wing-on-wing from 150 to 180 degrees with our Forespar extending whisker pole holding the jib out to windward.
Upwind we were set with the choice of the jib or Code Zero.
We found the “pole dance” to be just a little bit taxing what with rigging all the guys and stays and then changing it all over to gybe the sail. It was a beautiful rainbow symmetrical in very good condition which had to be flown with a pole. We just had not had much opportunity to work with the spinnaker.
#Code zero vs genoa full
We had almost two years of sailing on what should have been our full suit of sails, most of which were then brand new: main, mizzen, 135 percent genoa, Code Zero, storm jib, storm trysail and spare Yankee foresail. Previously published in BWS by Pete Dubler.Ībout six months before leaving for full time cruising, we decided to spend some time practicing with our spinnaker.
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