Sailing what is a genoa

And when unreefed you can ease it aft. Generally, when moving a lead forward or aft, this changes the angle at which the sheet pulls down on the clew.

And when pulling the clew down it trims the top of the jib, but when moving it aft it opens the top of the jib. Nowadays, you can choose between different types of sails according to the type of your sailboat, location, and experience. In order to clarify the main difference between a jib and genoa you should bear this in mind: When the foot of the headsail is longer than the distance from the forestay to the mast then we refer to a Genoa.

Otherwise, the headsail is called a Jib. Basically, a genoa is a large jib that reaches past the mast and overlaps the mainsail. Wish you a lot of adventurous voyages to come!

Peter is the editor of Better Sailing. He has sailed for countless hours and has maintained his own boats and sailboats for years. After years of trial and error, he decided to start this website to share the knowledge. Description of a Genoa The main characteristics of a genoa are its shape and size. Description of a Jib The Jib is also a triangular sail that increases sail area and improves handling.

Having Multiple or Less Sails on your Sailboat In case your sailboat has a larger genoa then you ought to think about getting a smaller headsail. Sail Area and Furling In the old times, boats used to have long and shallow keels therefore it was crucial to fly a significant amount of sail in order to produce horsepower.

Sailboat Rigging Sailboat Types Sailboats. Peter Peter is the editor of Better Sailing. Prev Post. Next Post. Related Posts.

Sailing , Sailing Info. Sailing Info. Search for:. Popular Posts. How to Restore Teak on a Boat. How Much Do Sailboats Weigh? Moving the lead aft reduces power for better performance in stronger winds.

An aft lead position flattens the foot of the jib by letting the clew rise. Think of it like tightening the outhaul on the main. Moving the lead aft also increases twist, spilling power from the upper part of the sail. For heavy air sailing, we want the top of the sail to luff before the lower section. The leech cord does not control sail shape. It is intended to prevent leech flutter, which can damage the leech of a jib.

Tension the leech cord just enough to stop flutter, and no more. If your sail has a foot cord, the same principle applies. Large overlapping genoas are difficult to handle, hard to tack, easy to damage, and impossible to see around. A smaller jib is much easier to handle. On boats with large mainsails, a genoa is an unnecessary burden. The revolutionary polyester sail, designed for small… Read More.

Read More. Related News. Yemen Zambia Zimbabwe. Would you like to receive North e-mails, including information about your class? When sail twist matches wind twist, the genoa is perfectly trimmed from top to bottom. Now the sail should luff simultaneously up and down the luff when you head up slowly past close-hauled. Set your lead position by luffing up slowly and watching your tell-tales. The windward telltales should 'break' evenly from top to bottom at the same time.

If the top telltales flutter before the bottom, the sail is twisted too much. Move the lead forward to pull down on the clew, increase leech tension and reduce twist.

If the bottom telltales luff first, the sail needs more twist. Move the lead aft to relax tension on the leech, allowing the clew to rise and the sail to twist.

Moving the genoa lead position also affects foot depth, much as the outhaul controls foot depth on a mainsail. To add depth, move the lead forward. This shortens the distance from clew to tack, and moves the foot of the sail farther away from the chainplates. The upper two-thirds of the genoa will keep about the same shape.

Use your Sailscope to measure the depths of your sail at each of the three draft stripes the middle one is most important. The table in Figure 12 gives approximate target depths for the various genoas. Note that the depths do not vary too much from sail to sail. The acceptable range of genoa depths is actually quite narrow.

If your boat has an unusual sailplan, hull shape or sheeting angle, these suggested depths may not work for you. The backstay masthead rig and running backstay fractional affect depth in the middle and upper genoa sections by controlling headstay sag. To a lesser extent, they affect twist. When you have power-hungry conditions light air, choppy water you need a deep sail.

Sag the headstay by easing off backstay tension. This adds depth to the genoa as the luff moves closer to the leech. On a fractional boat, ease the running backstay for the same purpose.

The added depth will be noticeable in the upper half of the sail where the sag is large relative to the chord length. Also, sag will add depth mainly to the front of the sail, making a rounder entry and a more forgiving shape.

In light air, take care to ease the backstay enough to actually increase sag and fullness, especially in the lulls. You'll know it's too loose when the luff snaps and curls like a spinnaker. To check sag visually, sight up the forestay from the tack while someone plays the backstay.

You'll notice that gusts automatically add a lot of sag. This is exactly the opposite of what should happen. When a gust hits, you want to flatten the sail and depower it.

Your backstay will need a lot of range and power simply to counteract undesirable sag, let alone lessen sag as the wind strengthens.

For each of your genoas, you'll have to adjust the backstay quite a bit to change the sail's shape from the low to the high end of its wind range. The nice thing about fractionally rigged boats is that the runners are so easy to play. Consequently, they should be adjusted continuously, in concert with the genoa trimmer and helmsman, to keep the boat sailing as fast as possible.

Twist -- Besides adding depth, headstay sag adds power by reducing twist. It does this by letting the luff drop slightly to leeward, which rotates the leech slightly to windward. This is fine for medium air and a chop, but disastrous in a breeze because it adds power where it contributes most to heeling force -- at the top of the rig. In these conditions you need a tighter headstay to open the leech and depower the sail.

Draft position in a genoa is controlled primarily with halyard tension. This works a lot like the cunningham -- more tension moves the draft forward and less moves it aft.

Be sure to put a reference mark on each halyard as described in Preparation so you can compare and duplicate settings. Use your Sailscope to locate the position of maximum draft on each of your draft stripes. For No. Refer back to Figure 12 for some rough draft position targets for each headsail. Move the draft forward when you need a wider groove, such as in a chop or with an inexperienced helmsman. Move draft aft in ideal conditions i.