Cats With A Self Tacking Jib aka Solent

[yeloya]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

I see self tackers on the new Outremer 45 and the 49 and 51 also. I wonder if they all come that way now?


Keep up the good work everybody.

The O51 that I've sailed with has a overlapping gib but I know that they have the options of supplying with self tacking one as well.

BTW, self tacking gibs are getting quite common on recent mono's as well. Even if not self tacking, for sure smaller genoas are getting increasingly common, from 140-150 % genoas towards 110-120 %..

Yeloya

[LeeV]

Originally Posted by yeloya

The O51 that I've sailed with has a overlapping gib but I know that they have the options of supplying with self tacking one as well.

BTW, self tacking gibs are getting quite common on recent mono's as well. Even if not self tacking, for sure smaller genoas are getting increasingly common, from 140-150 % genoas towards 110-120 %..

Yeloya

Yeloya,

What's your experience been with self-tackers, in terms of performance?

Lee

[yeloya]

Originally Posted by LeeV

Yeloya,

What's your experience been with self-tackers, in terms of performance?

Lee

For cruising and single handed use, they are great !! Upwind they are almost as fast as an overlapping one provided that you have a good , full battened mainsail that many cats have anyway. (Unfortunately I see increasingly furling main on cats as well..)
Whether it be a mono or cat the worst combination is a furling main + self tacking gib..
The problem with self tacking gib starts when the wind moves aft the beam particularly if the wind is not strong enough. To me a genneaker or assymetrical is indispensable for such conditions..

Cheers

Yeloya

[LeeV]

Originally Posted by yeloya

For cruising and single handed use, they are great !! Upwind they are almost as fast as an overlapping one provided that you have a good , full battened mainsail that many cats have anyway. (Unfortunately I see increasingly furling main on cats as well..)
Whether it be a mono or cat the worst combination is a furling main + self tacking gib..
The problem with self tacking gib starts when the wind moves aft the beam particularly if the wind is not strong enough. To me a genneaker or assymetrical is indispensable for such conditions..

Cheers

Yeloya

It looks like we may have sold our tri so we’ll continue searching for our “retirement” cat to cruise on a few months at a time along the east coast. Do you have any favorite cats you’ve sailed with self tacking jibs, Yeloya?

Thanks!

[yeloya]

Nauthitech 40 or 46 Open if you can afford. They are good compromises between performance and volume. They are reasonably priced too. If you don't like the helm position for Nautitech's, then you can either take Fly version (which I don't like but I bought because charter customers love it..) or Lagoon 42 . I haven't sailed yet any FP Astrea but she seems to be a good boat. Remember tough that this latter is at least 20 % more expensive than L 42 and I'd doubted that they offer a self tacking version.
Cheers
Yeloya
Yeloya

[LeeV]

Originally Posted by yeloya

Nauthitech 40 or 46 Open if you can afford. They are good compromises between performance and volume. They are reasonably priced too. If you don't like the helm position for Nautitech's, then you can either take Fly version (which I don't like but I bought because charter customers love it..) or Lagoon 42 . I haven't sailed yet any FP Astrea but she seems to be a good boat. Remember tough that this latter is at least 20 % more expensive than L 42 and I'd doubted that they offer a self tacking version.
Cheers
Yeloya
Yeloya

Thanks, Yeloya; I appreciate your time and opinions as always. We like the Open 40/46 (don't like any fly bridges), but the O40 is quite a bit more than the other 40s. I've never been a Lagoon fan, but the 42 does appeal. We don't like that mast support in the middle of the salon, and my wife didn't like the color/interior, and there weren't other options. We'll see what the upcoming Annapolis show reveals!

Best regards,
Lee

[dancor01]

I have a Tri-Star 46 with a self tacking jib boom. Working Jib is in the 300sq feet. What I noticed over time is that the Jib would have to much of twist into it. What I did is run 2 more lines, One of side of the boom from the ama. Those 2 lines control where I went the boom positioned. And with the main line I can control the shape of the sail. Also when going down wind it act as a preventer so the sail doesn't jibe. Another bonus, when you are in very light wind, it does happen at time you don't have enough momentum to cross the eye of the wind when tacking. A quick pull on the control line bring the jib against the wind. And turn your bow.

[Rimica]

I have a 2017 Outremer 51 with a self tacking jib. Performance are very good up wind. At 31 apparent with 7 knots of wind, we sailed at 6.5 to 7.2 knots yesterday on flat water.



It is not quite self tacking as we need to release the tension a bit on the sheet for it to move across at those angles. The track is straight but should be curved to avoid that problem.



A broader angles apparent such as above 40, we have a Code 0 that we use to great results.

[tomfl]

Originally Posted by sailjumanji

Seawind 1000 was not self-tacking. I think the self-tacking was added when Seawind went to the 1000 XL model, with the stern extensions and front-opening windows. Several 1000 owners did their own conversion to self-tacking, but the flexible conduit holding the mast wires had to be moved as it was directly in the way of the extended track.

We had a Seawind 1000 w/o self-tacking jib. I do think the adjustable but-fixed sheeting angles made for better jib shape. And the dual wheels and jib winch on each side was conducive to single handed tacking. But having sea-trialed the new Seawind 1160 Lite with self-tacking jib, it is super convenient to tack - you just turn the wheel. No sail adjustments required.

I have a Seawind 1000 but with one meter stern extension added later.


There is a flexible cable housing for the mast stuff but I ignored it when I set up my self tacking system. In place of the two line which were jib sheets I simply switched to one jib sheet. I ran it through one of the pulleys on the car in the track, up through the eye on the clew of the jib, and back through the pulley on the other car and put a bowline in the bitter end of line to secure it to the car.


I have to say it was not really a big deal to switch to a self tacking system for me. Since I am almost exclusively a single hander it was a no brainer. Wish every thing I did on the boat was that easy.

[200MPH]

Seawind 1160 here with self tacking jib. Works well enough, especially upwind down to beam on or maybe 120 apararant. But in light winds need to go forward to push the traveller car across the tracks after a tack, or ease the sheet, as previously mentioned. Not big effort.

Downwind, well depends on wind speed. In the last couple of days just did some downwind sailing (150 deg apparent wind angle) in about 16 knots wind. Full main plus self tacking jib and it was happy sitting on 6-7 knots, which is enough to get where you need to go in my opinion and a very comfortable boat speed. But in light winds (say 12 knots or below) then we put up the spinnaker or also have a genoa on board if I can be bothered swapping sails. Not used the Genoa as yet however, spinnaker does the job well.

Where we live the summer seabreezes are typically 15 knots minimum and go to 25 knots easy a few NM offshore. So the small area of a self-tacker is not an issue most days as you're winding sail off rather than wishing for more! So I guess the main question of note is what winds do you plan on sailing in mostly?

[Dan GB]

My Shuttleworth had a self-tacker. Love the convenience, happy about the performance

[jdazey]

Originally Posted by Sand crab

A self tacking jib has a track in front of the mast so it's as easy to tack as turning the wheel. People also use the term solent for this however a solent may not always be self tacking. Did I get that right? I think self-tacking jibs (self tacking) are really cool but there is no list that compiles the makes and models. Let's not get into a discussion about genoas vs jibs, genoas are also cool.
I'll start and correct me if I'm wrong.


In no particular order:


Seawind 1160
Lagoon 42 TPI (the older 42)
Maine cats (all of them)
Lagoon 47
Lagoon 55/57 (didn't some of these have this?)

Catana 47 and 582 (were these an option because these models have both?)
Gunboats (was it all of them?)
Outremer 45 (old ones)

Outremer 50/55 in standard and light (option?)

So feel free to add to it or fill in some info.

Chris White Atlantics


Cheers,

[Sand crab]

Jdazey, Does your CW Voyager have one?


FWIW There aren't many multis up this way so I was surprised to find a Lagoon 39 in Gig Harbor and those also have a self tacker. Interesting that it was from Sanibel Florida which is just about as far away as you can get and still be in the US. The sails were off so maybe it was just shipped over.

[jdazey]

No, our jib is around 105%. Our boat pre-dates the Atlantic series by a year or two. There are detail differences, but the big thing for us was the aft helm.



Warning -- Thread drift.


We've never owned a boat with a self-tacking jib, but tacking our jib isn't a big deal. The way our rigging is laid out, we don't have the option of a genoa, so we have to make do with the lapping jib and an asymmetrical spinnaker. We toy around with the idea of adding a sprit for a screecher hoping for a bit more power in light air, but so far haven't found the need that compelling.


Cheers,

[admiralslater]

Pdq 44 has one