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Thread: Pillar Point/Monterey round-trip under twin jibs

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  1. #1
    Join Date
    Nov 2010
    Location
    Sunnyvale, CA
    Posts
    104

    Pillar Point/Monterey round-trip under twin jibs

    I sailed from Pillar Point Harbor to Monterey round-trip over Thanksgiving weekend. Just thought I'd report that Ad Astra handles perfectly under twin jibs sailing downwind. When sailing within 30 degrees either side of dead downwind, jib poles were unnecessary, and steerage can be accomplished by adjusting each jib sheet's tension. I had a separate jib sheet attached to each clew.

    The twin jib configuration naturally resists deviations from a downwind heading. When the following seas would kick the stern to the side, one jib would be taken aback, causing the boat to yaw back to a downwind heading. The real beauty of the twin configuration is the ability to sail up into the wind on a close reach while allowing the windward jib to lay against the lee jib, and then easily turn back to downwind with both jibs inflated -- while never leaving my seat in the cockpit.

    There's really nothing new about this - old salts have been sailing twin jibs across oceans, but I haven't seen described the real flexibility of "sailing on any point" using the setup. Try doing that with a spinnacker! And since the twins can't swing out athwart, there's no danger of a "roll of death" oscillation developing. In fact, there's very little rolling at all.

    I had following seas both ways: northbound and southbound, because I timed the return while a low was developing into a storm offshore, giving me southerly wind and seas for my return.

    I was able to surf on the following seas and achieve a speed over ground of 8.6 knots with 15 knots relative wind. Exciting! I'm attaching the track and speed plot from marinetraffic.com.

    You can follow Ad Astra on marinetraffic.com here: https://www.marinetraffic.com/en/ais...444883/zoom:14
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    Last edited by pbryant; 11-29-2017 at 09:07 AM.

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