Hi Robbin, The advantages of putting your jib and genny on an extender, and getting the genoa off the deck as you did, is that it increases forward visibility. You can see under the foot of the genoa, and don't have a big blind spot caused by the sail. The racing boys station a crew member at the bow to serve as a lookout; or in the small classes, they get the sail maker to install a window in the genoa to improve visibility. Another advantage of getting the genoa off the deck is that if you get a wave over the bow, the genoa doesn't get hit - stopping the boat, and maybe tearing the sail. If you are racing competetively, then the last square inch of sail you can set is important. If you are cruising, .... who cares? Connie ex M15 #400 LEPPO Robbin Roddewig wrote:
My jib and 170% Genny attach right on the bow at deck level using a bow shackle that I bought. From what I see on the web pictures this seems to be what most others with M-17's do. I noticed the other week that I have what appears to be two feet of head stay available at the top with the head sail attached at the deck level. This deck level attachment means that the head sail is always distorted by the bow pulpit which cannot help the shape of the sail and worse yet gets the head sail dirty! What I did yesterday was put a foot and a half of line from the bow plate to the Tack of the 170 which raised it clear of the bow pulpit and higher overall. This seemed to work well. So my question is are there any draw backs to this configuration that anyone can think of? If I have this much extra room should I look to have a bigger head sail made?
Thanks in advance, Robbin
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