I changed out my sails and had the rig re-tuned and it made a huge difference. My boat is a 96 and I bought it in 2003 w/ 155hrs on the engine. I would guess that the rig was never tuned. I went with a loose foot partial batten main and a 145 genoa. I chose a 145 since I wasn't going to get multiple headsails. Both sails are from North and the genoa is the Nor-Lam material. I have been very happy with both. I use my original headsail in the off-season.

I would check your local racing rules. Our club does not allow anything larger than a 155 for PHRF racing.

John
In our area a boat with a 135 to a 155 gets the same PHRF. Over 155 gets a penalty and under 135 gets extra time. A few years ago I wanted a new 155 for Caprice. The sailmaker came out and took measurements. He said he would build a 155 for Caprice, but the sailtrack on the deck is a little short to properly carry a 155 and recomended a 150.

This is one reason I would not buy a sail from a mail order company unless the sailmaker himself actually came out and measured my boat or at least measured an exact duplicate of my boat. As we know there were several changes made to the C36 over the years so the sailmaker measurments are important.

Also, we keep our cruising sails for such a long time it is worth the extra money spent on having a good Dacron sail, after all this is our boat we are talking about, not our car or house or cemetary plot.

Good point Mike. They may be very close but no two are the same. Attached is the form I used from North back in 2005. With 23 entries it became clear to me that production boats are going to be a little different here and there.

[ATTACH]58[/ATTACH]

The NorLam material is a Dacron/Mylar/Dacron sandwich so it is very resistant to stretch, but it is hard to keep clean. Mildew spots can get traped in it and make it very hard to get them out but the sail will provide greater performance over its life compared to a straight dacron sail.

It depends on the winds wether a 170 will do you any good. anything over 12kts on a reach will stretch the sail. I sail mainly on near New Orleans and our winds for the most part are less than 15 during the summer and my 1983 Catalina weighs 15000lbs compared to anything after 1985 13500. a 3 second knock does not seem to hurt my in a good breeze and the folding prop helps too. if you have more wind I would probably go with the 155.
I added a new track that will deal with the longer sail but it was a pain to put in and then stop the leaks. ( still leaks). I recently found out I was sailing with too much sail a 130 handles better in 18-23kts.

Mike

A tough question. When we raced a C&C 27 we had 4 jibs (155%, 100% blade, #4 a short luff 90% jib and a storm jib) we also had 4 spinnakers. Now we cruise on the great lakes. We opted for a 135%. It works fine on both inner and outer fairleads. I had the sailmaker (UK) maximize the hoist and lower the clew a little. They installed 2 reference marks on the sail to help in furling to 120% and 100%. Beyond that I just roll it up. We came to that arrangement to allow some sail shape when partially rolled up. The lower clew keeps the finished clew position low enough to stay within the limits of the track length, allowing some chance of sailing with the wind forward of the beam. Not exactly a true beat. High clew jibs are good for visibility, but after rolling in the jib, the clew finished position is so high they are tough to lead fairly.

If you live in light air region go with the biggest headsail the rules allow. If you expect winds up and down the scale, you might consider following a similar path.

Regards,

Lou Bruska
Sojourn, Hull 495
Lake Macatawa, Lake Michigan