2 Genoas on 1 furler - practical experience

[Caroline Joan]

Hi team. Just after some practical feedback on sailing downwind with 2 genoas on the 1 furler.

As there is just 2 of us on a 50ft yacht I am not that keen on hoisting & re-hoisting sails too often in the larger rolly seas that we are likely to encounter crossing Atlantic & Pacific.

I have 2 equally sized genoas (1 old 1 new) and have heard that 2 headsails are better downwind that going goose-wing. There is less rolling?
Is life a lot better without using the main?

How do you handle the sails when squalls hit and wind direction increases & changes quickly? Normally you would head closer to wind & furl in - but with 2 sails on opposite sides I'm not sure how to handle this situation. Is it easy to furl in when 2 sails attached?

Assume just 1 sheet on each sail?
I only have 1 pole so do I connect a block to middle or end of boom to "pole" out the 2nd genoa
What's the handling like with 2 sails Port & Stb

Any advice at all most appreciated.

[Albro359]

Do you have two tracks in your furler foil? do you have two halyards ?
If so then yes you can do it.
We have an Amel which has this system as standard with 3 grooves in the headstay furler foil, but we also have two poles so we can pole out both sides.
We can sail from about 150 degrees each side with this. Furling when the wind gets up is no issue, both sails furl on the headstay foil.
You could put a block on the end of your main boom and use that as a pole but it wouldn't be as efficient as two symmetrical poles.
Do you have an inner forestay with a staysail?
If the wind changes dramatically, you can always furl in the genoas and deploy the staysail
OR you can drop the windward genoa.....

On our Amel the two headsail system is much more comfortable and controllable than trying to sail wing on wing downwind.

Originally Posted by Caroline Joan

Hi team. Just after some practical feedback on sailing downwind with 2 genoas on the 1 furler.

As there is just 2 of us on a 50ft yacht I am not that keen on hoisting & re-hoisting sails too often in the larger rolly seas that we are likely to encounter crossing Atlantic & Pacific.

I have 2 equally sized genoas (1 old 1 new) and have heard that 2 headsails are better downwind that going goose-wing. There is less rolling?
Is life a lot better without using the main?

How do you handle the sails when squalls hit and wind direction increases & changes quickly? Normally you would head closer to wind & furl in - but with 2 sails on opposite sides I'm not sure how to handle this situation. Is it easy to furl in when 2 sails attached?

Assume just 1 sheet on each sail?
I only have 1 pole so do I connect a block to middle or end of boom to "pole" out the 2nd genoa
What's the handling like with 2 sails Port & Stb

Any advice at all most appreciated.

[donradcliffe]

For a transatlantic passage from Grand Canaria to St Lucia I put two genoas in two slots in the same roller furling. Used the same halyard for both--one was a bit longer so had some lashing in the short one at the tack. One sheet on each sail. First two days was reaching, so had two jib sheets with separate leads as the genoas had different clew heights. Once we got into the downwind phase, the main came down and we kept the weather genoa on the pole--the leeward genoa stayed quite full with its normal lead.

Squall management was great--just slack off the two genoa sheets a bit and wind the furler in some--a one man job. If there was a wind shift in the squalls, we just changed course a bit to keep the sails full. We tended to sail straight downswell, and the rolling was quite a bit less than I experience with a main and poled out genoa on other boats.

[Caroline Joan]

Hi - Thanks for info. We only have furler, no stay sail.
How do you get on with 2 haylards on furler?
You may have special swivel fitting at top of furler that allows you to have 2 sails and therefore avoiding halyard wrap.
I was thinking I would have to put a block on to my swivel & run a halyard that ties back down to the furler drum, unless I hoist both sails on one halyard.

[Caroline Joan]

Ok thanks. So reaching with 2 genoas "stuck" together was really no different than having the one genoa? I hadn't though of just doing that.
So with squalls changing wind direction you had time to just react to sail flapping and alter course. As you saw squall coming you just reefed in quite a bit first, making it easier to alter course? Cheers

[Sulaire]

We have this system with two poles, works really well-from about 150° to dead down wind as said.

You do not need two halyards, just one with a good strong connection to the swivel, think about replacing the current snap fitting with a shackle.

Stress free stuff once set up, we on occasion gone on a beam reach by simply rolling in the twins, then move windward sheet to leeward so you have two sheets on one side and unroll again, so one sail ontop of another. Had to drop poles for this, but otherwise on probs.

At the moment we have both twins permanently rolled on the forestay as we tend to try and go with the wind anyway!

[Markhunter1097]

https://youtu.be/l00xY1D3Uts

This shows you how it’s done

[GrahamO]

This site is worth a look. Lots of info and a few possible improvements to the basic concept

Graham