[Rhodes22-list] Raven 155.pdf

[Peter Thorn]

Bill, Wally and all~

Attached is a sketch of Raven's new 155 headsail provided by Dan Calore of
(Cruising Direct Sails).  The sail hasn't arrived yet, but so far I am quite
pleased with the price and service at CD Sails.  The sail was designed by a
North Sails designer in San Diego, who carefully attended to my concerns.

To respond to Bill about 175 vs. 155, I really don't have anything to add to
Wally's comments and think he nailed his response pretty well.  I purchased
the sail to race at NYRA in New Bern, NC and I think it will be just dandy
for that purpose.  I do not want to give up 9 seconds/mile rating for an old
175 sail that probably won't point or tack as well as this one in medium
air.

The opening photo on General Boats website shows a R22 sailing with a
standard main and a high clew headsail.  That sail is much more like this
one than the decksweeping 175 that came with Raven.  A few advantages:  1)
you can see to leeward and see under the sail (I often sit to leeward to
observe headsail telltales and like to see to leeward under the 175), 2)
the high clew will hold the sheets up higher during a tack -- hopefully they
won't snag as much on rigging etc. during tacking, and 3) more area of the
sail is up higher where it overlaps the main.  This sail was cut to maximum
luff for maximum unpenalized legal area.

Commenting on Dan Snyder's red 175 headsail in the picture someone recently
reposted:  that sail looks great!  The furler goes all the way up the
forestay, as also does the luff of the sail.   I've seen too many furlers
and headsails that leave significant amounts of luff sail area unused.  PHRF
raters measure only LP, and just assume every sailor would use maximum luff
area, but that's usually not the case.

The North design sketch (pdf attached) shows the mold patterns the designer
uses.  The sketch makes it look like a crosscut, but it's really a
tri-radial.  These are not the cloth cut patterns, but "molds" used in the
abstract design process to form the sail.  The actual sail is cut as a
tri-radial.

It will be a while before Raven's mast is stepped again and the sail is
fitted.  I'll let you know how this turns out.

PT


-------------- next part --------------
Name: Raven 155.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 56450 bytes Desc: not available
Url: http://www.rhodes22.org/pipermail/rhodes22-list/attch/200702/22/Raven155.pdf