Which "Howard" would that be? I hope it isn't me. I've got 3 headsails, but only use them one at a time. I do have a spinaker halyard, but don't have a sail to use it on. Dead downwind I'd be running wing and wing (main out and jib poled out on the opposite side).
As I understand it, the skinny on twin forestays is that for the most part, they are a bad idea. You can never get enough tension on them from the backstay to keep the one in use from sagging and giving you a bad sail shape on the wind. If you have them, you must leave the one not in use a little slack so that all the load is on the active one. You might be able to use them both downwind. For our boats, a bettter solution might be an asymetrical spinaker or large drifter set flying and/or poled out on a spinaker halyard. But that will involve going forward to take it down eventually. Bill Riker uses an asymetrical spinaker on his M15 and it works really well, as far as I can tell. It went up when it needed to, and came down when it needed to, and it didn't look like it was a problem. I don't have one, but I understand that being made of light nylon, you can stuff them in a bag instead of having to fold them. If so, it would make life easier. Howard M17, #278 Steve R wrote: > Does anyone have twin forestays on a M-15? (or M-17 for that matter?) I found a >reference in the archives that Howard uses two foresails to run downwind, but I do >not know if that means two forestays or if the two sails are hanked on to the same >stay. Is it possible to have one sail in use and one hanked on and ready to hoist if >the weather changes? You would have to deal with one set of sheets being on top of >the other. Any other issues that I do not envision? I am trying to get roller >furling without the big bucks or increased set-up/take-down times. > > Steve R. > M-15 #119 > Lexington, KY > > _______________________________________________ > http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats _______________________________________________ http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/montgomery_boats
