+x+xwe have a 105 m2. on our cat, and it is easy to handel. it is very strong, can take a lot of wind. and it is a very soft puller. if i can use those words, if you comp it to a normal spinnaker, that will snapp your line and put a lot of force to everything, one the rig. the parasailor pulls gently, and it does not hurt your gear like a hard working spinnakker will do. here is a film from our first sail. with it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7uKokn3Wlk, sorry for bad english.
A few years ago I was helping a couple who had recently bought a boat and were planning an Atlantic crossing. They had bought a second Parasailor which still had cost a considerable sum of money even though they had inherited a cruising shute with the boat. As mentioned in earlier posts its a well made bit of kit but we decided that if the wind increased and there was only one person on watch the boat could feel scarily overpowered.
They successfully made their Ocean passage but I am pretty sure they didn't use the Parasailor at all.
For my own East to West crossing I decided a Parasailor was way beyond my budget and we crossed 'Goosewinged' with a preventer on the main and the kicker quite tight to stop any chafe and the yankee poled out with pole held by uphaul,downhaul and a guy led aft to fix it in position.
With this set up it was faily easy to roll in some of the headsail and reef or shake out reefs in the main. Also the Monitor windvane steering did its job without difficulty.
So Dan, unless you have large cruising budget, I would consider what else might be worth buying instead.
Hi Martin and all,
I have found, over the decades, that very few cruising sailboats use their spinnaker (or asym, or cruising chute, par-sailor, etc.) much. This goes double for those who sail as husband/wife and triple when passage making where a single person watch at night just feels too risky. Those with racing backgrounds are much more comfortable with chutes.
I believe also that spinnakers, in all their manifestations, are a wonderful coastal cruising sail for couples, but that your decision of running wing and wing on passage is a good one for most couples and conditions. Most well designed, (and not overloaded), sailboats should approach a comfortable cruising speed wing and wing in 12kn (or so) TW DDW and right around hull speed in 14 kn T.
Then, if set up the way you describe, a cruising couple can relax knowing that they can reduce sail (and respond to changes) with total control.
I do wish to underline your description of your set-up:
"a preventer on the main and the kicker quite tight to stop any chafe and the yankee poled out with pole held by uphaul,downhaul and a guy led aft to fix it in position."
It may sound like a lot of work to set up the pole with fore and after guys and a topping lift, but, with a bit of practice, it is quite easy and results in the pole being completely tamed and not the scary spar many treat it as. With the pole fixed, one can roll the jib in or out “dialing in” the amount of sail one wishes.
And using a yankee means the jib is high-clewed and therefore there is little danger of having the tip of the pole rolled into the sea. I use a high clewed jib-topsail to have more sail are available, but the idea is the same.
For more on these thoughts and making wing and wing easy, safe and a comfortably fast way to sail downwind, please see my essay “Taming the downwind whisker pole” in the “Sails, Standing and Running Rigging” section of the Forum.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy