General Info: Fountaine Pajot Sails

[Boatfreak]

Hi Everyone

Why does it sometimes feel like you are wading through treacle. All I want to do is fit my FP Athena with a code zero/gennaker for more sailing and less motoring in light airs. It seems so hard. It goes without say that FP don't respond, sailmakers won't quote because they have no dimensions, the boat was designed before code zeros were invented so there is no standard equipment. My insurance company won't say whether I am covered for the sail or not. The french mast manufacturer and rig designer are not responding to my emails, the UK Z Spar office were helpfull but won't commit to anything formal because it's the french offices design.

The boat and rig are basicly the same as the Lavezzi 40 which was supplied with the option of a bowsprit and code zero/assymetric. Why should it be so hard !.

My next attempt to get a chink into the defensive wall around me getting a sail is to contact the official supplier of sails to FP and find out what they supplied to Lavezzis or other boats in that size range.

Please, Please, Please if there is anyone out there who know who made or makes the sails supplied as original equipment to Fountaine Pajots , could they let me know.

Thanks

[Sailmonkey]

Do you have the halyard and pole already for the code zero?

If not, start with a rigger and get the pole, halyard, sheeting points, etc all built and installed.

Then call a sailmaker of your choice to measure for a new sail.

[Sand crab]

I second the monkey man. I see Athenas with a sprit so it can be done. You really are going about this the hard way, it's a 20 year old boat after all.
Not all code 0s are created equal btw. Some are more of an upwind cut if that is what you want. Or downwind, etc.

[Boatfreak]

Well no, thats sort of the point. I have information on the existing rig which does not have a bow sprit. Using a bow sprit length typical of the standard optional Lavezzi bow sprit and the existing spinakker hoist, North Sails came back and said that the sail was not going to be big enough to make an appreciable difference to the performance. I therefore need to increase the hoist and the length of the bowsprit to get a sail of usefull area. I have asked Z Spar France who designed the rig and got no response, I have asked Z Spars UK who gave me a guide but won't commit as they didn't design the rig. As the Lavezzi is of a similar displacement and has a similar rig and mast section, it is reasonable to assume that a Lavezzi Code zero would be about right. So I am trying to find out who supplied that and what its dimensions are. I might even buy one if all else fails. To make matters worse the insurers policy wording says you are only covered if the rig mods and sail are approved by the manufacturers, which of course it can't be since the Code Zero was invented in 1997, the year the Athena 38 model was launched. It's sort of chicken and egg.

[Boatfreak]

Well I do tend to be bit over thorough sometimes, however the only person I have been able to communicate with who has done this is having trouble insuring his boat and somewhere on this forum there was someone in Scandinavia, I think, who went too far and lost his rig.

I know it's a 20 year boat (nearly) but it's still a lot of money to me and I think that if I'm going to spend £1000 a year on insurance, I kind of like to know that I'm actually insured.

I't shouldn't be impossible to find out what a reasonale, insurable set up looks like.