Has anyone used one of these, as listed on the Haarstick web page? And more importantly, if you have one, good? Bad? Don’t bother? How easy is it to deploy and furl??
Freedom Jib Top Reacher
The Freedom Jib Top Reacher is made to increase performance when sailing in light to moderate winds when the standard sail combination of of Full Battened Mainsail and Camber Spar Jib do not provide enough horse power.
The sail is made from 2.2oz CZ 15, Code Zero Laminate and has an apparent wind angle of 50-130 degree’s.
Had a terrific summer sailing on Tyche - lots of great sailing, although a cruise to Maine put more than 100 hrs on the engine, with no wind from the E end of the Cape Cod Canal up to Penobscot Bay on either trip. Sadly, sailing season ends in the next two weeks, but a good list of winter work tweaks to the boat, including new lenses for the overhead ports and hopefully a new traveler system.
I have one on Scherezade and used a lot this summer on long stretches with little wind, mine comes with a snuffer which is
easy to use. When choosing anew I would probably prefer it to be furled along the luff, I think that’s even easier to handle.
I love the sail, really makes a difference. Kept me sailing where I would use the ‘iron genoa’ instead. While it’s a large sail I use it mostly
on longer stretches.
Hans,
I saw Scherezde when she was at Warren River Boatworks. On your long runs with the Top Reacher, do you use running backstays? I don’t recall if you had them or not.
Brien,
I have them on Scherezade but almost never use them with the jib top reacher, it’s not a sail you hoist with a lot of wind. When sailing to windward when the main is sheeted in, the mast top is enough stabilised by the mainsail to carry the jib top reacher and keep the luff quite straight. When the wind pipes up to more then around 15-17 knots ( apparent ) I take the jib top down. I use the running backstays mostly when the wind is really abaft the beam or almost completely aft, sailing with standard rig with 20+ knots. When using them in those circumstances they take away a lot of the strain on the deck where the mast goes through. The boat has already a lot of blue water sailing miles on her and some small creaks are appearing around the mast base. Use them also sailing with standard rig, when wind and sea conditions are making the boat slamming through the waves and resulting in moving the mast top too much to my liking. But generally speaking I use them less then I expected to do. When I started sailing with her I was a little worried about the movement of the mast top. Now I am more confident in what the mast can handle and wonder whether you need running backstays at all.
I have a snatch block to the toerail aft near the cockpit, from there to the winch on the cabin top as shown in picture. Not ideal, there’s some chafing over the cockpit coaming you have to check.
I considered having winches on the cockpit coaming. But the coaming isn’t made for it and should probably be strengthened. I found it too much of a hassle. Besides that, I use the jib top seldom, this configuration suits me well so far. The small ball bearing carbon block forward of the snatch block is for adjusting the sheeting angle.
I use it also to keep the camberspar to windward when I want to heave to.
Indeed more or less a Code 0. I asked Haarstick to make me a Code 0. He answered that’s not a good sail for a Freedom. A Code 0 needs a real tightened luff, which by definition is impossible for a Freedom.
He makes for the Freedom’s a sail which functions almost like a Code 0 and named it ‘jib top reacher’. Points not as high as a real Code 0. But high pointing isn’t the reason I bought my Freedom for in the first place.
Hi Hans, thanks for your reply. Do you know how the jib top reacher is different from a code 0? How does it not need the tight luff tension that the code zero needs? The reason being is im in the Philippines and rolly tasker Thailand can supply me with a code zero and sock for approx $800. Where the top reacher and sock from Haarsticks is $1800 plus shipping, which is a little more than I would like to pay. Not sure you can answer this but thanks in advance.
Cheers Dale.
Hi Dale, indeed I can’t answer for sure. I imagine it has something to do with the cut of the sail like entry and chord depth. Code 0’s are meant to point as high as possible. I think you need then a flat entry and little cord depth and therefore a really straight luff, which you cannot have with a flexible mast.I am sure when rolly tasker knows you have a flexible mast he can compensate the cut for that. Good sailing,
This is the response from Steve Haarstick about the difference –
The original “Jib Top” genoas were high clew genoas that were popular for offshore racers in the early sixties/seventies. They were designed for close reaching when the wind was too high or the reach too tight for the spinnaker, but the low clew genoas were inefficient as they had too much twist in the leech, even when the leads were moved forward as the sheet were eased.
These Jib tops were either hanked to the forestay or hoisted on a headfoil, but not hoisted like a spinnaker staysail on it’s own luff wire. Although fuller than an all purpose genoa, they were usually made from the same or heavier weight of cloth as they were used in moderate to heavy air.
Our “Jib Top” genoa for Freedoms also has a high clew, but it is designed especially for light airs, using our triradial genoa panel layout and a very light, low stretch Black Aramid laminate. We added a low twist, low stretch luff line, and the result was a new type of light air multi-purpose genoa especially for Freedoms.
You only have to experience sailing a Freedom with its Camber Spar jib in winds under 10 knots, to appreciate the difference a much bigger, lighter genoa can make! It is difficult, if not just painful to attempt to sail most Freedom sloops upwind or even close reaching in winds under 10 knots. While our “Jib Top” genoa can’t point as high as The Camber Spar jib when the wind is up, you can sail at apparent wind angles as low as 45- 50 degrees, which is pretty close to upwind, and a lot more enjoyable. Our bigger, lighter, fuller, and much more powerful “Jib Top” genoa really gave our Freedom 35 customers a big performance boost in the lighter airs.
I hope this explains the difference between our Freedom “Jib Top” genoas, and the “Code 0” asymmetrical spinnakers.
I recently purchased a jibtop reacher and gave it a try today.
Firstly I didn’t purchase from Haarsticks due to I’m currently in the Philippines where Hydes sails are manufactured thus saving me the import duty and freight.
I’m very happy with the sail, first test sail was great, as Hans said in a previous post it can be the difference between starting the engine or continuing to sail. In approx 7knots apparent and 45-50 degrees I was doing a constant 4.5 knots sog. Freeforms quite loaded up and dosent have the cleanest bottom so I’m quite happy with this
I haven’t tried her on different angles but think I’m going to see a big improvement. I have a sock but I’m now going to look into a furler because I want to use it as much as possible.
Also it looks really cool.
Cheers Dale.
Sounds a lot like the drifter I had made for my F21. The class staysail was too heavy at 4.4 oz. to fill properly in less than 5 kts so I had Schurr Sails in Pensacola make me a tri-radial jib using Dimention-Polyant’s CZ5 laminate. Will fill with 1 kt of air and increases my pointing in winds up to 9 kts.
We’ve used the Jib top reacher a couple of times this spring. It is a great sail for when the wind is too light for the jib and you need something. We were out in about 8 kts of wind, and while flying the reacher, added about 2 kts to our speed, which was awesome. We were able to point higher than we thought, given what we’d heard from Haarstick. Haarstick suggested using a snuffer sock; I think we may switch it to a small continuous roller furler, as the additional lines of the snuffer sock made things a little complicated on the foredeck.
Having just seen that Haarstick has sold the company to Quantum, I do hope that Quantum will continue to offer this sail - it is a great addition to the boat.
Wasn’t able to get pictures when we had it up, but will the next time we fly it.
