I have a standard “class” jib for my Freedom 21 which I enjoy and faithfully douse when the wind speeds get over 10 knots. I am interested in building a “blade” jib with a shorter foot such that I can fly a jib in a bit more wind. I understand from the archives there was such a “blade” jib design back in the day, however, I can’t find the dimensions in the archives anywhere. I believe the old Freedom21info.com site and all its wonderful resources is gone. Does anyone have the dimensions for this F21 “blade” jib? The luff would be exactly the same as the “class” jib. The foot dimension is what I am principally after.
If you look at topic https://www.freedomyachts.org/viewtopic.php?p=52908#p52908, I posted a picture of my jib. Not sure what a class or blade jib are but I have used mine to good effect in 15 to 20knts. I can measure it fir you if you are interested but probably not till the end of the month.
Having looked at the specs on web.archive.org, it looks as though my self-tacking jib is even smaller than the “blade”. From memory the LP is probably just under 4ft, so about 40sqft. Even so, I have noticed that it does improve upwind performance, even in lighter winds and as I said before I have had it up in 20kts to good effect. The sheet angle and wishbone tend to keep the luff tensioned.
I may not get down to Milford Haven for a while as my kids are back at school now. I do have a pic of the jib and main laid out in the back yard, which I attach and I’ll follow up with some pics of it rigged when I get down to the boat. Just added a blowup of the jib, it hanks onto the downhaul of a dyneema halliard and is tacked to the aft crossmember of the pulpit.
Thanks for everyone’s replies. Still looking for the length of the foot on F21 owners’ “blade” jobs. From Newt2u’s pictures I can get an estimate of his. Couldn’t find anything on the old Freedom21info site.
Here is the spec on from that link. Wayback does not work well for me and I can not export the whole pdf so here is a screen shot of the relevant information. LP is a line perpendicular to the luff. Area is 1/2LP*Luff. I guess you can put the clew wherever you wish, the foot will depend on where you place it.
Hi, sorry to revive an ancient thread but I didn’t want to take the video thread too far off topic.
I’m thinking about having a very similar setup made for my F21, except maybe with a full-length batten instead of a spar - I’m not sure. It sure would be convenient. This is a really cool setup!
A couple of questions, if you don’t mind:
Do you feel like a sail that small gives enough of a boost that it’s definitely worth having one (instead of no staysail at all)?
Do you have any issues with forestay tension? I was running into that problem with my much larger jib but maybe one this small wouldn’t be powerful enough to flex the mast like a larger one does.
I see it’s tacked behind the spinnaker chute; are there any concerns about bending that bar? Is it reinforced at all? Do you keep it centered on the bar, or do you allow it to slide side to side?
Finally, what would it take to get the dimensions of your specific sail?
Thanks so much for these pictures and info - this is extremely helpful!
Firstly the pulpit seems quite strong enough to support the jib, it has to be rigid to support the spinnaker which puts much more load on it. My jib clew is shackled to a small eyebolt, which goes through the rear crossmember of the pulpit, the halliard goes through two soft shackled blocks and back to the cockpit to provide raising and lowering the jib, which currently clips onto the tail of the line used to raise the jib, so that when tight (and I use the port side winch) you have a “forestay” from the halliard. I have no problems with mast bend but you do need to keep the stay tight as you have quite a bit of force from the turning moment produced by pulling vertically down on the sheet. It is for this reason your batten idea will not work, the spar needs to be rigid to get lateral movement from your vertical sheet and you will not self tack without that. My tack just brushes the mast as it goes across and the sheet goes vertically down to a block (two in my setup so I can adjust the sheet either side of the cockpit).
I plan to add a permanent forestay just to keep the jib tidier but tension will still be applied via the halliard and winch, you need this tension to keep the fore end of the spar relatively static, it does push forward a bit when tight on the wind.
As to performance, I use the jib in all conditions and have seen at least a 1 kit speed hike in reasonable winds (10-15knts), it also allows me to point that bit higher.
Hope this helps, I am not at the boat right now but can get measurements sometime next week if you want, when I will be sailing again. However luff length and LP measurements are in an earlier post.
