Spinnaker questions

[Bruce Baker]

1. One of my numbers is coming unglued from my spinnaker. Do you have a recommendation on how to glue it back on?

2. This is maybe not a maintenance question, but it's a spinnaker question: What should be the optimal shape for a spinnaker for reaching? Doyle / Boston says that their big-shouldered spinnaker is preferable for reaching. But I also have an older North spinnaker that's got narrower shoulders. Is Doyle right, or is that just PR? Intuitively, I'd think that narrower shoulders would be better for reaching because the sail would be more genoa-like.

Thanks,
Bruce Baker
GIT-R-DONE

[dave]

Bruce, I was holding back for others to answer, but since they seem tardy, here are my thoughts as a competitive sailor and sailmaker:

1. If just one letter is coming loose you might try getting some seamstick tape from any sailmaker and sticking offending area down. If all of them are loose or coming away at the edges you may need new numbers, but that's rare in my book.

2. WHO REACHES?????? Seriously, big shoulders don't have to mean fuller in the head. Modern chute shapes are going flatter in the cross section, which makes for a flatter folded shape too, especially in the head area. By simple physics this pushes the shoulders out further. Sails shaped this way have greater projected area and can be great reachers as well as runners, but often take a better than average trimmer and more attention to pole height and twing/tweaker (when running) to see the maximum benefit.

[Bruce Baker]

Who reaches, you say? Those of us unlucky enough to sail on the Potomac River. It's too narrow to set true courses. The wind often blows north or south, but when it blows east or west, we reach.

Bruce

[dave]

Did you not notice the ?