A lot depends on how tender your boat is. Fireball is a C&C 35 Mk2, a
fairly stiff boat, which sees a lot of racing and has a good sail
selection ( #1 150, #2 138, #3 120, #4 85) cut for Narraganset Bay
(average 15+ kts wind most every afternoon, except August .
For cruising, when the wind pushes up to above 12 knots apparent, I will
use only my cruising roller furl (~135), no main; the boat stays well
balanced until we get over 20kts. Above that cruising, I will use a
reefed main and a #4 (85%).
For racing we use the twin foil (roller furl car dropped) and go to #2
before the first reef (Note: C&C factory maximized the boat for SORC and
reduce the main's foot 2 ft by truncating the boom) then to the #3, as
wind increases we throw in the 2nd reef, above 25 or 30kts, depending on
the waves, we go to the #4. We always put people on the rail and keep
the lee rail out of the water by easing the main sheet with the traveler
up and moving the Genoa's sheet block aft a couple of notches to let the
top of both sails twist off in gusts.
Had a interesting cruise this summer from Beverly YC to Bristol YC. Left
Beverly (Marion MA) in NE 8kts wind, so my son and I threw up the
spinnaker when cleared the harbor. However! the wind increased to 25kts,
which gave us a very narrow angle to sail between death rolls and
broaching with the spinnaker heavily choked. We were off Cuttyhunk in
2hrs (fastest we ever had the boat, peaked at 11.7 kts) and got the
spinnaker doused (quite a lot of fun for two people) in swirling wind
off Cuttyhunk. Reached off to Sakonnet under our cruising roller furl
and full main and made Sakonnet Light in 2 hrs (max out at 10.2 kts
surfing). Up the Sakonnet in an adverse tidal current, thru the bridges
(one being torn down with multiple barges and cranes), and on to
Bristol. Total of 49 nm in 7 hours. Picked up our mooring and decided
it was beer time! After a few, we were laughing that we survived with
nothing ripped or broken - this type of passage is not recommended for
casual cruising, but we delayed too long to get the spinnaker off,
because we were enjoying the initial ride way too much.
Don Kern
Fireball 12708
C&C 35 Mk2
Bristol, RI
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