Hello all. After much thought, and some sailing, i decided to replace the camber spar headsail on my new/old 45. What convinced me was an event undersail when a shackle broke and i almost got knocked overboard by the flailing camber spar, which also hit the mast a number of times and left some marks: thankfully, no damage. Between that and the fact that you cannot shorten this sail in a blow it outweighs the benefits of self tacking, in my humble opinion. Plus a hank on headsail is a “p.i.t.a” to drop and deploy, and I sail single. So, ill be putting a fractional roller on the boat, and welcome any opinion on the size of the sail, plus whatever else you feel like contributing.Thanks!
Replacing the sail should not exclude self tacking there are many options available, do not underestimate the ease of self tacking .
however I would have thought that once the wind blows enough to require reefing in the jib it will probably require a storm jib
I would also imagine there would be 2 reefs already in the main before needing to reef the little headsail
Its little but its mighty. I went from St Kitts to St Maarten on a broad reach on jib only in 18-20 knots and the F45 was doing 5 plus, approaching 6 knots all the way.