Selden Sprit & Roller Furling?

[jeffphoto]

I will be buying an S2 7.9 once my cruising sailboat sale is completed – within the next two months or so. I plan to use the 7.9 for day sailing with my wife, cruising ditto, and local PHRF racing with a crew of 4 to 6 if they can make the change from a 39 footer (with which we had some non-spin PHRF success) to a 26.
It has been quite a while since I raced or cruised with a symmetrical spinnaker and I’m somewhat leery of doing so, especially the cruising (with only 2) part.
My notion was to sail with a roller furling genoa and consider adding a Selden deck mounted aluminum sprit for an A chute - kinda like a Melges 24. This would certainly make day sailing & cruising easier, but would the boat be able to sail to its numbers? I would probably get 3 seconds added to my rating for the roller furling, but am not sure how much they would whack me for the sprit. Has anyone tried to add a sprit or had any experience with PHRF committees where something similar has been rated? I realize I couldn’t race class legal, but at this time, I don’t plan to do that type of racing. Do the boats make up the 3 seconds a mile with the roller furling? I would put up the correct size head sail on the RF before the race.
I am also planning to dry sail the boat from a trailer in the marina with the mast up and ramp launch her. For distance cruising we plan to trailer to our destination and again ramp launch. I imagine I would still want a race ready boat, but I guess could get by with a boat that had no spin gear & did have roller furling.
Any and all suggestions are welcome!
Regards,
Jeff Smith

[fleck]

I don't think the sprit and A-sail will be faster for racing. Even with the same rating. The boat goes downwind deep with the board up. Thats its advantage in PHRF. The boat is too heavy to consider "melges 24" type angles downwind. It won't accelerate and generate enough apparent wind to gain an advantage. If you want a short handed spin, just use a cruising a-sail without a pole, fly it off the bow. But, use the symmetric for racing.

Roller furling is not going to make you faster. You probably wont gain back the credit if you get one in PHRF. But, if you need it to get around the course, or for short handed cruising, go for it. Whatever gets you more time in the boat.

Enjoy!

[jeffphoto]

Thanks Bob,
Makes sense to me.
Jeff