The manual recommends that, when using a standard jib, the sheets should be run to the cabintop fairleads rather than the cockpit fairleads. This is important to improve pointing.
I never take my genoa off, but I could furl it down to 100% so that it (badly) mimics a jib. Could I run my sheets the the cabin top fairleads and expect a modicum of increased pointing?
I recently took a grizzled long-term sailor out on my boat for a day. He has quite a history - sailed on the Polish Olympic team in his youth, and has built the fastest boat at the marina. He has a large enough influence that when he mentioned to a number of the racers that he was impressed with the Mac 26M - nothing like he expected -that there was a line-up to come out for a sail.
We've been working together to make a few mods to speed up the boat. His latest suggestion is to mount tracks that lead to the cabin top winches on the top sides of the cabin, just ahead of the cockpit. We'll tie the Genoa to a block along the track to get about 2' of adjustment ahead of the cockpit. To mimic the new block location I tied the Gen sheets around the mid stancheon. Seemed to work so I've ordered the parts.
First order of business though is to tighten the upper shrouds. This had the most significant impact on being able to point.
@DaveC426913 - You are correct, if you reduce your Genua to jib-size or smaller you will get better pointing when you move the sheets inside the shrouds and the sheet-blocks to the tracks on the cabin-top.
DaveC, I tried exactly what you described two weeks ago. Wind was coming about 8 knots from exactly where I was headed and with my 150 Genoa sheeted in tight, I wasn't making good headway to the destination.
So I rolled it up, ran the lazy sheet through the block on the cabin top track and tacked.
I didn't find tremendous success. Lost some speed, seemed a bit better closer to the wind. But overall didn't seem to help.
Rolling that much of the genny up without a significant wind (like when you roll it up to reef) created a really inefficient foil.
When I replace my head sail this next season I am planning to replace with a jib, and follow on with an a-sail. From the many posts this seems to be a good balance and flexibility.
I have at least one of these blocks in the parts box on my boat.
Are they functionally different from the standard blocks? Or do they both do the same thing, just one is expensiver?
Oh hang on, they're not as floppy as standard blocks. They're designed for a sheet that runs essentially straight through, not taking a 120 degree turn on two axes. OK, I see how they are more suited to the cabintop fairleads.
Those cabin top tracks THAT COME STANDARD ON THE M BOAT will work with the factory genoa reefed (furled) but only if two things happen:
1 - lots of wind: at 8 knots furling the sail will only make the boat go so slow as to negate any pointing performance gained by moving the fair lead.
2 - Headsail must be small enough to not backwind the main - or even more performance loss will be experienced.
I have use the cabin fairleads on my genoa a few times but it only worked in winds above 11 knots and with the headsail furled well under 50% so the main is not getting a bump in the luff. ANY DISTORTION OR BUMP IN THE LUFF ON THE STOCK MAC M BOAT WILL SLOW IT DOWN CONSIDERABLY AT ANY TIME no matter how your configured. That bump in the luff is like a giant brake pad.
The sweet spot for using the cabin fairleads is rather small - 11 to 15 knots of wind speed - at 17 knots of wind speed I found the boat was heeling too much and I had to switch back to the rear track to get the boat back to 20 degrees. At 25 degrees the boat slows down, and under the same wind at 20 degrees it picks up a full knot of speed. The heel of the boat is important, that's why the cabin fairleads are not useful very often on the M boat.
If you do use the cabin top leads on your furled Genny don't forget to slide your traveler on the main all the way over to get that main out of the way and that is about as high as your going to point in a 12 knot wind. Great wind when you can find it. If I were going to race the boat I might practice a bit more. Use your GPS to trim for best speed.
And? Does this mean I could use my jenny if I furl it?
These 7ft genny tracks & my 4ft bowsprit allow me the opertunity to fly staysil , storm jib , 100% jib ,150% gennoa all @ the same time if I optioned too or in many various configurerations , with & including a 350sq ft drifter & 350sq. ft cruising spinnaker for a total inventory of 6 head sails , 5 of which r on furling systems , I spent 2 yrs on the internet learning about standing & running rigging systems & configurations but when its all done & finished it still takes & requires time to find & mark ur best car postions for ur sheet lines in differnt scenerious , as of the last 2 yrs unfortunately my work & the weather schedules seem too be working in opposite directions along with eng. problem isues the last 2 yrs , along with other family comitments I think my sailing season is yet again toaste for another yr , I was marking all my jib & genny tracks with red marker for what I thought was their best possitions but most have faded away now i should have used red & yellow paint to mark their best locations yellow for full sail carr possitions & red for furled sail carr possitions live & learn
FYI with my genny 3ft out on a bowsprit I can point a lot higher than the genny on the bow
manual recommends that, when using a standard jib, the sheets should be run to the cabintop fairleads rather than the cockpit fairleads. This is important to improve pointing.
, I was marking all my jib & genny tracks with red marker for what I thought was their best possitions but most have faded away now i should have used red & yellow paint to mark their best locations yellow for full sail carr possitions & red for furled sail carr possitions live & learn 
