I hope it's happy hour where you are. No boat yet
...but I wanted to get your thoughts on another idea that I've been working out. I've gone back and forth between eyeing a working Jib and/or the 150% genoa. Some dealers are recommending the 100% working jib for first buyers as they feel it points better, and is not as easily overpowered. The former makes sense since the smaller jib is tracked well-inboard, and can be close-hauled to a much better shape. Of course, in lighter winds, that's about where the benefit ends. I've read a lot of great info here, as well, and I'm wondering if it's possible to get a bit of the best of both worlds.
My first question is…what is the biggest jib that can be close hauled on extended working jib tracking? That is to say, the clew needs to slip in under the lower shroud. In the factory diagrams it looks like no more than a 100%, but that's a perfectly flat sail. With a normal draft it looks like about a 120% to me.
To make this work, I think I'd like to use a four sheet system - but with a twist. The two sets of sheets are - one set on the inboard-forward tracking, the other on the outboard-aft tracking. Because I wouldn't be using a full 150%, the genoa tracking can't be used, as it pulls from the wrong angle. I'm thinking (if it's at all possible) that tracking could be added to the gunwales, to correct this problem.
The additional tracking is shown as blue rectangles. The 100% working jib and 150% genoa are shown with dotted lines. The colored lines show the 120% and its sheets (note how they indicate where the tracking needs to be). The whole idea for this, is better control of sail shape in various points of sail. Below is a 100% working jib shown reaching (in green) with an outboard-aft sheet.
One would still want to use the working jib tracks for sailing close-hauled.
In general, I hate four sheets on a jib. There's normally too much lazy sheet length lying around, dragging thru the water, tangling, or in need of four-handed management when tacking. I'd like to minimize this by having the reaching (outboard-aft) sheets be allowed to slip thru the clew. In the drawing below, the red lines are the normal inboard sheets, the green lines are the reaching/running sheets that can slip thru the sail. There are two stop-knots (actually nylon balls) that grab the sail when desired.
The idea is that, when pointing up, the green sheets are kept just loose enough as to allow the red sheets to do their job tacking. No adjustments need to made to the green reaching sheets, they just slip thru. When the time comes to reach or run, one would slack the red sheets and cast off the windward green sheet and pull the slack around until the stop-knot 'picks-up' the sail and pulls it back for a better shape. Also, the green reaching sheets could probably still be cleated on the genoa tracks and just led thru blocks on the gunwale tracks.
This is still just a four sheet system. But I think there would be a lot less twisting and tangling of sheets, and mostly, it just allows you to do things one step at a time, without having to manage all four sheets at once while maneuvering.
Thoughts?Cheers...
~Bob
. People who use four sheets, do it to get the optimum configuration for a given point of sail, regardless of the wind conditions. The goal is to get control of the slot between the sails. The slip-thru thing is just a line management idea. Also, one should be able to do everything from the cockpit. 
) that when pointing, a close-hauled 120% beats an out-boarded 150% in nearly all wind conditions up to over-powered - and isn't as easily over-powered. Comparing to a 100% (105%?) - when sailing more off the wind, having better (multi-sheet) control of the airfoil allows the 120% to make gains that the typically-rigged 100% can't (the latter stays in-boarded and becomes too full). The 150% wins, hands down, from beam reach to run in light conditions. But perhaps now I'm in spinnaker territory anyway.
