parasail

[onotoa]

hi,
anyone out there using a parasail on a BB385 ???
comments highly welcome.....

[mobydick]

I assume you have seen the blog by Cat-man-d0 on the 2007 ARC? They used the Parasail(or) and seemed to get on well with it. Quite a fast time across the Atlantic (faster than most)

MD

[onotoa]

hi,
yes i know about cat-man-do, you can see their blog at:
http://blog.mailasail.com/cat-man-do
but i couldnt find any post from them in one of the forums so it looks like they are not active in that....anyway we already have our parasail (120sqm) and will test it next spring....
have a good day!
helmut

[mobydick]

I look forward to a report, Helmut. I have been concidering either dual polled foresails or a Parasailor approach.

MD

[Troutbridge]

I looked into it, but couldn't justify the price. The UK agent told me I needed a size-up from Helmuts (I think 150 sq ft?). Anyway, by the time it was couriered to the Canaries I was looking at about £7000. I've found that 'fully loaded' [the boat, not me] with poled-out headsails I can make progress if I have 10kts true wind.
The guys in cat-Man-Do reported surfing at 25kts.....crazy, really. I've heard from two sources 15kts is about 'it' if you want to stay right side up.
Anyway, have a good Crimbo guys, I'm in Las Palmas at the moment, crew arriving on dec 29th and casting off on the 31st for Barbados. I'll try and keep my mailasail blog up to date.

[mobydick]

Yes, I have hit 15kts on a few occasions and it seemed fast enough, but I guess the Parasailor lets you do it in lighter winds (and so smaller waves, and smoother ride)

Troutbridge, what is your headsail set-up? Two poles, gennoa/screecher or other? Are the spinnaker poles attached to the mast?

Thanks

MD

[onotoa]

hi,
our parasail is 120sqm = 1292 sqft and i think i got it for 4400 euros from istec at the dusseldorf boatshow 2008, i am not 100 percent sure about the price cause all the documents are on the boat in greece now....

i dont think that i would use the parasail above 15kn, we are not racing. we just have the genoa, no sceetcher - see some pics of the boat on our blog at www.onotoa.blogspot.com (http://www.onotoa.blogspot.com)

i think blogs are not a secret so do you think we should have them all listed in an own thread???

regards from austria,helmut

[ForumAdmin]

There is a library of multihull blogs in the Links Library.

See the links above or Click here (http://www.multihulls4us.com/links/browselinks.php?c=59)

There are 64 blogs there already and it very easy to add any amount more - anyone can do it.:)

[ForumAdmin]

I have just added the blog you mentioned so there are now 65 multihull blogs in one easy reference place.

[Troutbridge]

I'm planning on flying the screecher to leeward and poling out the jib to windward. I tried just using an unguyed whisker pole, which was better than trying to fly both foresails without any poles, but have now decided that the whisker pole will need bracing to get the best effect. I'm using the spinnaker halyard as a topping-lift and have rigged-up fore and aft guys. Not had a chance to try it out yet, the first time will be in anger during the Atlantic crossing.
At the moment, the big discussion centres on what sort of average speed we can expect. I got an average of 6.5kts from Cascais to Porto Santo, which translates into about an 18 day crossing to Barbados. I have a feeling the main factor in deciding the average speed will be comfort (apart from a lack of wind, of course!). I found that at 7/7.5 kts the boat was fairly comfortable when below, but any more than that and things were moving around a bit and there was a lot of noise (not the least from me shouting at the crew to reef). The good thing is the autohelm lets you know in no uncertain terms when you're carrying too much sail.
My blog
http:blog.mailasail.com/troutbridge

[Jeannius]

We took 17 days with the ARC a few years back. Averaged 7.05 for the 2900 we sailed (rhumb line 2700). That was on a Privilege 435 just using main and genoa as I wrecked the gennaker on the 2nd day. This years ARC has been much slower with most boats coming in around the 20 day mark.

A word of warning about Barbados... Don't even think of trying to clear in at Bridgetown. C&I make you bring the boat into the cruise ship harbour which has a dock height about 6 foot above the average cat deck. Nothing to tie up to and if there is a swell running you can do some serious damage to the boat and crew if you try to land. Go to Port St Charles up the coast. Much more comfortable experience.

Are you in touch with BajanSailor off YBW?

[Troutbridge]

I'm planning on Port St Charles. I emailed Bajan Sailor about six months ago and said I'd contact him when I get close to Barbados thanks for reminding me. I reckon you'd be a bit faster than me, I really can't see me getting in less than an hour or so under 19 days!

[Nordic]

Troutbridge, I just got back from Las Palmas last week! What a shame we didn't get to drink a beer together....

Best wishes for a successful crossing, and for the New Year.

cheers

Alan

[therapy]

I assume you have seen the blog by Cat-man-d0 on the 2007 ARC? They used the Parasail(or) and seemed to get on well with it. Quite a fast time across the Atlantic (faster than most)

MD

I could not find pictures.

IE problems with script maybe???

[Tulliana]

hi,
anyone out there using a parasail on a BB385 ???
comments highly welcome.....

We were keen on fitting one to our Leopard but the SA Leopard sales agent sent me this email.
Quote: -
"one of my clients currently in the Pacific doing a
circumnavigation, bought a parasailor, I dont have the exact detail but it started tearing in the first week. It blew out completely before he reached the carribean.
Please proceed with caution."

I also found out that the Parasailor rep was with them on the leg from SA to the Caribbean. Now this might, as we all know, be an isolated occurance as I have seen a number of blogs from people who have done circumnavigations with these so I'm not sure? I just couldn't pay 3 times as much for a piece of kit that by the looks is just as likely to blow out as a normal one.
We eventually went with 2 gennakers, a 150msq 1.5oz and a 85msq 2.5oz. The larger one for light airs and the smaller one we used in up to 28 knots and we could confidently leave it up for night runs when most people would be taking them down.

Andy

[onotoa]

hi,
just back from our 6 month cruise in greece......winds had been very strong almost all the time but we could also try the parasail a few times and it was nice and soooo easy!
two pics are on our blog (www.onotoa.blogspot.com (http://www.onotoa.blogspot.com) - date:sept13),
if anyone of you wants more info just let me know!
helmut

[Scarab]

Friends of mine used a Parasailor on their monohull ( Dufour 525 ) during the 2008 ARC. It was up for the first week non-stop ( day and night - light winds ) and then suddenly it blew up.

Greetz,

Koen

[jkd]

Friens of mine used a Parasailor on their monohull ( Dufour 525 ) during the 2008 ARC. It was up for the first week non-stop ( day and night - light winds ) and then suddenly it blew up.

Greetz,

Koen

Any reason noted for it's failure?

John

[Scarab]

An possible explanation is that the seams of the sail broke because of the constant filling and releasing of the parasailor due to instable (light ) winds.

[ForumAdmin]

The Parasail stand in Cape Town Boat Show had no Parasail on show because they had to send their only one to replace on that had blown out on a round the world boat.

I really wanted to film this sail so that I could give it a fair crack of the whip but they would not cooperate and were very suspicious of both this site and my motives.

[IreAneY]

Love it, if they have something to hide then they should be very wary:eek:, if it is as good as they say it is then no problem. ;)

Honesty is the best policy.:)

were very suspicious of both this site and my motives.

[jmac]

Well, I like mine. Been flying it all summer in winds up to 28kt. Had no problems so far although I met a boat who had torn one - but it was blowing 40kt at the time.

We had our best 1/2 day run of 96 miles recently - under parasailor.

[onotoa]

@jmac - whats the size of you parasailor? as far as i know you will be crossing the atlantic now....would be nice to get your feedback....
have a great day,
helmut

[jmac]

Hi Helmut,

We have a size 7! I can't remember the sq m. Will let you know how we get on.

[onotoa]

Nice downwind sailing from Lipsi to Kalymnos with our 120sqm parasail
http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq355/onotoa_album/CIMG3304.jpghttp://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq355/onotoa_album/CIMG3308.jpg

[mobydick]

Very nice.

I can't see how you have rigged the sheets/guys Helmut, any tips?

Do you think the Parasail is different in operation in reality to a normal spinnaker etc rigged in the same way?

MD

[onotoa]

hi md,
we only have two winches so one rope port and one stbd is going back to the winches, another one (2,5meter long) is fixed on the cleat on both port+stbd.
i think i will try a block next year but anyway it worked pretty fine just with this....
if you need any other info let me know...thks-helmut
http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq355/onotoa_album/blog/CIMG3307.jpg
http://http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq355/onotoa_album/blog/CIMG3307.jpg

[onotoa]

md-sorry i forgot about your question re the spinnaker: onotoa is our first boat and i have no experience with spinnakers so i can only tell you about the parasail. its just me and my wife sailing so we want easy handling. all the ropes are attd to the sail so i just take it out of the bag, put the stbd+port rope into the winches (we always keep the rope which is used to get it back down around the stdb rope so it cant fly around and its easy to get it back), attach the other two ropes to the cleats forward and than the sail goes up to the masttop (i tried different heights, for the best one i made i mark on the rope so now i know how high up the sail should go) together with its recovery sock. if the boat is in its right postion to go downwind the sail opens easily. we found out that we can sail about 130 degrees so its good for about 100 degrees (at least). we only had sailed with it for two days cause in greece the wind was always strong last summer, in august we had just one day with less than 25 knots.
i also think that 120sqm are fine, maybe we get a chance this year to compare the performance with the parasail of the ladysoul, claus the owner of BB385/29 told me his parasail has 140sqm.
just a few days ago a email with a friend who crossed the atlantic with the arc and the parasail on his lagoon380 has 105sqm but he mentioned that he wished to have a bigger sized parasail.
i have stored the sail in the compartment where the anchor chain goes but i think i will change that and keep it in the fwd cabin stbd (its my storage room) in future - so once the sail is back in its recovery sock i loose all the ropes and take it down into the storage room, later i have enough time to take it back into the bag. it can be tricky to hold the sail on the deck and store it there.
hope that helps....helmut

[mobydick]

Thanks Helmut, very helpful. For some reason I thought you had the two u-bolts near the bows, but obviously not, so you use the cleats.

MD

[onotoa]

md, yes i also have the u bolts there which i use for the bridle (on the pic its right behind the drum) but its easier with the cleat...helmut

[sailorofkinsale]

We took 17 days with the ARC a few years back. Averaged 7.05 for the 2900 we sailed (rhumb line 2700). That was on a Privilege 435 just using main and genoa as I wrecked the gennaker on the 2nd day. This years ARC has been much slower with most boats coming in around the 20 day mark.

A word of warning about Barbados... Don't even think of trying to clear in at Bridgetown. C&I make you bring the boat into the cruise ship harbour which has a dock height about 6 foot above the average cat deck. Nothing to tie up to and if there is a swell running you can do some serious damage to the boat and crew if you try to land. Go to Port St Charles up the coast. Much more comfortable experience.

Are you in touch with BajanSailor off YBW?
It takes 1/2 a day to clear in and the same to clear out! 100 US is also taken! The anchorage is rolly!