Do you leave your screecher hoisted?

[Jef & Marin, Netherlands]

I left the code 0 up for more than a year. It led to rapid wear of the genoa furler.

It is a heavy Hydranet triradial cut sail of 80 m2, with a UV strip. It has a Facnor FX4500+ furler. I use it both upwind, up to 55-60 degrees apparent, down straight downwind in butterfly with mainsail or genoa.
It was not a good idea. To prevent it from moving too much, even with both sheets pulled tight, it needed a lot of tension on the 16 mm Kevlar 1:1 halyard. This tension reduced the tension on the genoa forestay, which then also moved too much, leading to rapid wear of the genoa furler profile.
So I had a 3 meter long sailbag made that is attached to the trampoline opf our catamaran. That is quite practical: when lowering it goes straight into the sailbag (which has a mesh bottom)

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Jef & Marin, Netherlands

I left the code 0 up for more than a year. It led to rapid wear of the genoa furler.

It is a heavy Hydranet triradial cut sail of 80 m2, with a UV strip. It has a Facnor FX4500+ furler. I use it both upwind, up to 55-60 degrees apparent, down straight downwind in butterfly with mainsail or genoa.
It was not a good idea. To prevent it from moving too much, even with both sheets pulled tight, it needed a lot of tension on the 16 mm Kevlar 1:1 halyard. This tension reduced the tension on the genoa forestay, which then also moved too much, leading to rapid wear of the genoa furler profile.
So I had a 3 meter long sailbag made that is attached to the trampoline opf our catamaran. That is quite practical: when lowering it goes straight into the sailbag (which has a mesh bottom)

Being heavy made from triradial hydranet with UV strip and a facnor 4500 thats basically a oversized Genua cut as flater code 0 with a high cut luff but not a screecher. Good allrounder sail, my buddy has that on his Amel too but never saw that on a cat. He has it permently rigged as genua and has another inner forestay with a 100% jib. If you have damages on genua furler the stays are too close.

A screecher is a lightwind sail made from storm spinnaker cloth if you wanna have it heavy duty on an endless furler.

[Leadfree]

Originally Posted by CaptainRivet

A screecher is a lightwind sail made from storm spinnaker cloth if you wanna have heavy duty on an endless furler.

Well, according to Randy Smyth, who likely knows about such things, a SCREACHER is a laminate sail…

[FlyingScot]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

A screecher is primarily an upwind sail, apparent wind from ahead of the beam, interested to know how a parasail could function as such even with a barber hauler.

We have a tri-radial Rolly Tasker screecher made from MPEX350.
Use use up to 20 kts true but typically below 15 knots.

It doesn't have a UV cover, therefore we never leave it hoisted when not in use, unless we expect the winds drop. Normally secure it to the trampoline until the sailing is complete then bag it and stow it.

Rolly info sheet claims 65-155 TWA. We have used it for most of those angles. Basically a reaching sail.

[DragonflyBob]

Leaving a furled screacher (or Code 0 or gennaker) up that is rigged to a bowsprit especially if the boat is going into waves will significantly increase the boat’s pitching moment. This results in the motion of the boat being uncomfortable and putting more wear and tear on halyards and furlers due to the increased pitching motion. The only time I would consider leaving a furled sail up on my bowsprit is if I was sailing with the wind and waves aft of abeam.

[Letterkenny]

Originally Posted by DragonflyBob

Leaving a furled screacher (or Code 0 or gennaker) up that is rigged to a bowsprit especially if the boat is going into waves will significantly increase the boat’s pitching moment. This results in the motion of the boat being uncomfortable and putting more wear and tear on halyards and furlers due to the increased pitching motion. The only time I would consider leaving a furled sail up on my bowsprit is if I was sailing with the wind and waves aft of abeam.

A lot of my sailing is in the harbor so flat seas which is one reason why I leave it up.

[CaptainRivet]

Originally Posted by Leadfree

Well, according to Randy Smyth, who likely knows about such things, a SCREACHER is a laminate sail…

Upsi you are right, mixed Reacher with Screacher.
Sorry, just a human making mistakes and learning from them in best case....

[smj]

Originally Posted by Leadfree

Well, according to Randy Smyth, who likely knows about such things, a SCREACHER is a laminate sail…

The SCREECHER is a name given to a certain type or cut of headsail, the name has nothing to do with the type cloth to build the sail. Ours have been both laminate and lightweight Dacron.
https://www.rollytasker.com/en/previ...ils/screecher/

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by smj

The SCREECHER is a name given to a certain type or cut of headsail, the name has nothing to do with the type cloth to build the sail. Ours have been both laminate and lightweight Dacron.
https://www.rollytasker.com/en/previ...ils/screecher/

Yes, it’s kind of like the term ‘whomper’ from the movie ‘Wind’, except it actually stuck. The French started it in the days before code sails and asymmetrical spinnakers. They are relatively flat and more like a full genoa - they are deployed when you no longer are going close hauled and before you could put up a spinnaker. They are so big that you screech with fear and delight as the sail fills and the boat takes off.

The size determines how close winded they are. If relatively big, they generate too much speed for their relatively full shape to do anything much closer to the wind than 80* TWA. Relatively small ones (say 1.5 to 2 times the size of your largest headsail) that are cut flat and sheeted inboard can be used to go upwind in light winds - think of the 200% overlap lightwind genoas racing boats in the 70s had for <6 knots TWS.

[Tupaia]

Originally Posted by fxykty

The size determines how close winded they are. If relatively big, they generate too much speed for their relatively full shape to do anything much closer to the wind than 80* TWA. Relatively small ones (say 1.5 to 2 times the size of your largest headsail) that are cut flat and sheeted inboard can be used to go upwind in light winds - think of the 200% overlap lightwind genoas racing boats in the 70s had for <6 knots TWS.

Ours is slightly larger than our mainsail 65 vs 63sqm has a high clew to clear the coach roof and is sheeted inboard of the shrouds. It is at the limit when sailing close to wind speed 7knots in 8knots with and AWA 35-40 and TWA 70-75. As the TWA increases the sweet spot is AWA 55-60 with TWA 110-120 that keeps the AWS around 10 knots in 10 knots TWS

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Tupaia

Ours is slightly larger than our mainsail 65 vs 63sqm has a high clew to clear the coach roof and is sheeted inboard of the shrouds. It is at the limit when sailing close to wind speed 7knots in 8knots with and AWA 35-40 and TWA 70-75. As the TWA increases the sweet spot is AWA 55-60 with TWA 110-120 that keeps the AWS around 10 knots in 10 knots TWS

Ours is 120sqm, compared to mainsail 86sqm. It sheets outside the cap shroud at the far stern corner and overlaps half of our cockpit. We can sheet it in to 42*AWA but it easily takes us to 100% TWS and the best TWA is just less than 80*. Same as you, the sweet spot is around TWA 110*.

We figure a 65-70sqm J0 that sheets inside the cap shroud and to the back outside corner of the cabin should be right for upwind to 10 knots TWS, about 17 knots AWS at 80% TWS. For reference, the stock genoa for our boat is 55sqm and it is reefed at 20 knots AWS. We have the 35sqm self tacking jib AKA solent and are definitely under powered upwind when TWS <10 knots (boat speed = 50% TWS at AWA 32*, TWA 47*). Above 9 knots TWS boat speed is 65-70% TWS.

[Leadfree]

Originally Posted by fxykty

. They are so big that you screech with fear and delight as the sail fills and the boat takes off..

Actually, the name is a portmanteau of ‘spinnaker’ and ‘reacher.’

Like any sail, the cut determines sailing angles, but the common knowledge about not only screachers but chutes is that the lighter the wind, the higher they can carry. The above pic is in about 8kt wind, and carrying it high in order to save the trouble of a sail change on a short leg. However, looking at the pic, shows that the halyard should have been tighter; some luff sag is evident

[smj]

Originally Posted by Leadfree

Actually, the name is a portmanteau of ‘spinnaker’ and ‘reacher.’

Like any sail, the cut determines sailing angles, but the common knowledge about not only screachers but chutes is that the lighter the wind, the higher they can carry. The above pic is in about 8kt wind, and carrying it high in order to save the trouble of a sail change on a short leg. However, looking at the pic, shows that the halyard should have been tighter; some luff sag is evident

Correct, except for the spelling.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screecher

[Leadfree]

Originally Posted by smj

Correct, except for the spelling.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screecher

Except that Wikipedia is crowd sourced info… and the first sentence also backs what I learned from Smyth, years ago. Mr Smyth is a far, far more reputable source than an Internet forum maven

[Sparx]

When you furl the screecher, do you leave the sheets on deck?

On my boat the practice is coil and stow the sheets. Running the sheets adds about 5 minutes to the preparations for launch, and I would like to hear of practices that neatly store the sheets fully rigged on the deck while also being quite secure when the sheets are not in use.