the 5.2 has a big overlapping jib, 4.12m2

even when mine is loose it still manages to flap around until it fills on 1 side or the other and drags the boat round

will try keeping it sheeted next time as rolf suggests

was lake sailing my 5.2 today while the wind blown waves were whitecapping. with both sails up and on the wire the boat was flying up on the gusts and giving a rodeo like ride on the wire

when one of the worn jib cleats starting slipping allowing the jib to flail around i went back in to remove the jib

had trouble on the first tack as even completely releasing the sheet wasn't enough to prevent the wind weather-vaning the hulls into irons

from then on i blew the traveller as i ducked under the boom and all was sweet

tacks were probably faster that way as all i had to do was pull in the short traveller sheet and get back on the wire

having no crew to take care of the jib has been killing my boat speed in tacks as i wrestle with getting it across and in before driving off and pulling in the main

now studying the gps tracks with gps action replay, (excellent software), and it looks like sailing without the jib allowed me to point about 2 degrees higher

most of our sailing is with winds that aren't that strong, so the jib is worth keeping, but when the wind is up enough to make hoisting and tieing off the jib a noisy effort i'll probably go without from now on

loving those big, fat,long bows on my 5.2.
when broad reaching downwind at 14knots, the windward hull would start to come up too high, steering down a little would send the bows under but by being as far back as possible with feet under straps they would come back up again with only a little loss of speed