Last week we received two of our new headsails from North. We’re rigging the furling lines now and waiting for the self tacking staysail to arrive in the next few days. Here’s some video I took of the North 3Di Genoa and the Storm Jib.
Last week we received two of our new headsails from North. We’re rigging the furling lines now and waiting for the self tacking staysail to arrive in the next few days. Here’s some video I took of the North 3Di Genoa and the Storm Jib.
Nice sails, hope you get to do some races. I did not see any spreader tip boots, carbon spreaders are sharp, they went through our spinnaker like a knife through butter. Suggest spreader boots and spreader patches on that nice new 3DL.
Excellent suggestion, thanks Frank!
Looks great, Sweetie!
Sent from my iPhone
>
Looks grear, when do you guys getting sailing again, seem to have been sitting idle for ages.
Hi Dan, we’re taking off for Italy and Corsica in about 3 weeks.
Doug, Great looking sails! Regarding the remote monitoring issue (may be too late) Verizon sells a camera that is weather proof, holds a charge for 3 months, and uses their cell network for $5/month. cost $350. https://www.verizonwireless.com/connected-devices/arlo-go/ (they tried to sell me one yesterday. All the best from Texas, Marshall
Hello Doug,
we own an Outremer 49 (extended to 51ft and retrofitted with a carbon rotating mast). After reading your summary on the 3Di sails, we decided to go the same route and end of last year we purchased a North Sail Code Zero and a 3Di Genoa. The Code Zero works great, at or below 7kts we pretty much sail at true windspeed. The genoa works great too but we are having issues furling the sail wrinkle free (North Sail indicates the UV cover is too tight). And we have wrinkles in the center of the sail, with North Sail having no comment so far for a root cause.
I am wondering if you have seen similar issues (I can send photos if you are interested, ‘not sure how to attach photos in this comment section).
Also, were you offered battens for the genoa? I didn’t realize they were an option and I would have opted for them, maintaining a better sails shape and (hopefully) reducing the flooding noise in low wind conditions.
Do you reef your genoa? We keep our genoa fully unfurled up to 20kts true, then furl it and raise the inner forestay with a (much) smaller jib. Our genoa tracks are fairly short, I am wondering if it makes sense to add the ‘trackless’ genoa to trim the sail, similar to what I have seen on the new 5X’s.
Cheers, Tom
Hi Tom,
Our genoa has three battens in the top third of the sail, we don’t have any trouble with noise or luffing in light winds and it remains very stable. There are creases when it furls. These occur mostly in the bottom half of the sail where the camber is the greatest. Because the 3Di fabric has 0 stretch, there’s no way to furl a cambered surface without creating creases. It looks unusual to me, but the creases flatten out and the sail is perfectly flat when unfurled, and so far I haven’t had any reason to worry about it. It seems it might create a weak point over time so I’m going to keep an eye on it.
I use the genoa in apparent wind up to 15-18 knots, then I furl it and switch to the self tacking staysail. This also has creases when it furls, but is completely flat when deployed. The genoa is best when reaching, so if sailing close hauled in winds above about 12 AWS I find it better to switch to the staysail. We do not partially furl the genoa. It was not designed to be reefed, and placing stress on the creased luff seems like it would damage the sail, so I never do it. We fully furl the genoa and then switch to the staysail which has plenty of power in strong conditions. Same thing with the staysail, I don’t reef it. We just furl it and switch to the ORC jib when AWS reaches 30 knots.
The barber hauler system works well on the 5X for trimming the genoa, we also move the clew outboard and run a sheet through a block attached to a mooring cleat when going downwind to convert the genoa into a mini-gennaker. That said, in most conditions, I find the adjustment range that I actually use is fairly small. I would think that a well positioned short track should work well.
Regarding the battens, from what I understand of the manufacturing process, North makes the sail at one of their manufacturing centers, and then the regional lofts do the final assembly including adding battens, attachment fittings, reinforcements, suncover, etc. I would think it would be easy for them to add battens to your sail.
Best regards,
Doug