Tom,

I understand your disires, I sail on San Francisco bay and in the summer time a 100 or 110 is more than enough head sail most days.

I have seen a sistership Das Boat that had a nice curved track forward of the mast and jib boom set up for a self tending headsail. This would make tacking quite decadent for us less ambitious types. Have you given this any thought or are there others out there that can give some input if they have used a self tending head sail?

Molly - It's a matter of geometry.

A 110 "working" jib is a great all purpose head sail for our boats. The weight ought to be heavy enough to handle the higher winds you would use it in 'cuz it's NOT a light air sail, but could be used for that, too. What you will find is that if you run a 110 you simply reef and double reef the main before you even think about reefing the jib. As Steve says about sailing San Francisco Bay, I run my 110 during the winter when the winds are lighter, and the 85 blade we have during the summer with the higher winds. I usually leave my "summer reef" in the main from April to September! For some years we've left the 110 up all year.

The geometry comes in for this reason: A 110 can have a low clew and be a deck sweeper, OR it can be a high off the deck high clew sail. And still be a 110 because the LP is the same.

Because of this "movable clew" concept, you have to have your sail maker take into account the most forward position of your jib fairlead and the track. Some folks have added track forward of the existing track to obtain a good fairlead for higher clewed and smaller headsails. If the sail is designed properly, you may not have to do that with extra track.

It can also be a 110 with a shorter luff dimension, which will raise the tack.

And the depth of the sail is important, too, 'cuz here we need flat sails for the high winds, so you'll have to decide on the draft depth for a good compromise between a light air sail and a heavy air sail.

Also, because we don't reef our two headsails, we do not have to "worry" about moving the jib fairlead forward to avoid the top of the jib opening up when reefed.

Have your sail maker recommend that appropriate cloth weight for you. Our experience is that the stock Catalina 110 jib material is sufficient for the heavy winds that you'd expect that size jib to be up in. I just don't know that #. Both our jibs were made by a local loft, they're not Catalina stock sails. Because of that, the sails are cut flatter than Catalina stock sails since the local loft is familiar with the need for flatter sails with the high winds we experience here.

The picture shows our 85 closehauled in heavy wind with the high tack and high clew. This sail is a cut down standard C34 110, much the same as your C36 working jib. The foot was re-cut to raise the clew even higher than the standard 110. The ProFurl furler is deliberately selected to raise the tack off the deck for best visibility. It "just makes it" for sail shape with the fairlead as far forward on the track as it can be. Please note that the top of the sail is quite "slim" and had been cut that way to keep "center of gravity" of the sail low for the higher winds: less of the sail area is higher aloft.

My 110 has the same jib fairlead position for good sail shape based on the clew location. Since the fairlead's as far forward as it's ever gonna get, I can't reef either of my jibs without the top of the jib opening way up. So I don't ever reef the jibs.

That said, if you want to consider a self tending head sail, then the cut will be different and the sail can't be more than a 90 to pass in front of the mast. The hardware for the track and jib sheet arrangement is pretty standard for this type of arrangement. I've seen many C34s and C36s with this, most out of Stockton, CA, an inland large boating area in the California Delta with relatively narrow channels, rivers and sloughs. It's quite a popular rig there. I've sailed there without a self tending rig - it's a lot of work flopping the jib over but upwind sailing in the Delta on narrow sloughs is tough work regardless of rig, and the wider rivers don't necessitate that rig. The clew would be lower, too, to work with the track, and with less visibility. I recommend that you consider the self tacking rig only if your physical condition is such that you simply can't tack normally. You can read more about self tending jibs by Googling that phrase on this website, or on the internet. There have been lots of discussions about it with great detail provided by others rather than copying it here. I recall a discussion on the old message board, too.

Any input on smaller head sails?

I have located and intend to purchase a near new jib from a C34, the sail warehouse list the head sail for a C36 and C34 as having nearly the same dimension, though it is listed as a 95% for the C36 and a 110 for the C34. The sail I am looking at is 298 Sq. Ft, that would make it a 90% by my calculations. This may work well as I have contemplated rigging a self tending head sail on my boat. As a SF Bay summer sail this should work well when it is blowing 25+ KT's, may be a bit small in the lighter morning conditions.

Just wondering about how that will balance? We recently had a wild ride with a small headsail.

We got caught out in a totally unforcast blow (aren't they all nowadays?) and I decided to reef the genny down to about 100% and leave the main alone. That was a huge mistake, we got a big puff a bit over 30 Knots and the boat just rounded up into it totally out of control. Way too much power in the main and not enough in the headsail I guess maybe partly because the reefed sail shape is not good. Felt like we were back on a Bene in the VI's!

Now we reef the main first and that works way better. Lesson learned. In fact we also put in all the lines for the 2nd reef, we are getting a ton of wind this year.

Stu,

I do not think most folks understand how windy it gets on San Francisco Bay in the summer. After 11 AM or so the wind starts building and by 1 or 2 PM it is usually blowing 25 plus in the main bay and can often hit 30 or more in the slot the area between Treasure Island, Alcatraz, Angel Island and Berkley. The funneling effect will also give you sustaned winds in this range under the Golden Gate Bridge. The South and North Bays stay a reletively sedated 15 to 20 Kts.

Stu I picked up the C34 100% Hood blade sail I spoke to you about, it has no U.V cover on it and was alway stored in its bag and was only hoisted four times, it looks absoulutly virgin. I payed $360 for it including the freight to get it here from the East Coast. This sail at 289 Sq. Ft. should work out to a 90% on my 36 and hopefully will be a great self tender for single handing.
I will speak to Rui at Rooster sails about putting a UV cover on it.
I will also talk to him about a bit of nip and tuck on my main so it looks less like a mothers belly after giving birth to twins.

Steve, good news about the sail. Don't forget to figure out which side the UV cover goes on. Rui will have to know that. About $400 nine and six years ago for my two headsail UV covers. Don't forget to decide on a color. One of mine is white and the other is blue so I can remember which sail I have up at any given time. Now if I could only figure out which color is which...:eek: