I have lost track of who is building F16 sails now. I know Glaser and Ulman, who else? Yesterday Robi and I sailed in light air. Whe we were done, we put our mainsails over each other on the grass. His Ulman was a good 6 inches longer at the foot but narrower on the leach, by about 6 inches at the mid point. What are the other builders doing? Wider or longer? I think in a blow, his might be faster due to more sail area down low vs. my wider sail up high I might have to de-power earlier. His square top was "more square" than mine too. That is, his makes about a 90 degree line, luff to leach, at the top while mine slopes down toward the leach a little more.

Thoughts?

Tim,
What kind of main do you have? I have an Ullman now- probably similar to Robi's and I have a Glaser on order so I will be able to do the same comparison- same with the spinnaker. I have a pic of Robi's main that he had during the seminar and that is clearly a different cut than recent sails.
Nice you guys could go out and sail one on one. I wish I could do that. I am trying to get together with the Blade on pensacola.
As for other sailmakers in on the F16s- when I asked the question a while ago, Landenburger (sp?) and Ashby were the others that came up.

The thing I have noticed about the Ullman main I have is that it is somewhat full.. but I don't have that much experience with uni sails (or any sails for that matter <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> ). Compared the the HT uni sail it is MUCH fuller.

I believe I have one of the first Ullmans. One thing I notice in comparison to the other (non-F16) boats in our fleet is that the top batten is at a very shallow angle to the mast. I feel as if it doesn't provide much control of the shape at the very top of the sail. Curious to know how it compares with later Ullmans and other makers.

Mark:
That is the same exact sail I have. I believe they are from the same batch of orders from VMI.

I was running around 3" of mast pre-bend to flatten out the sail. But it killed my boat speed. Tim, was doing laps around me. The winds were around 3 to 5 kts max.

Tim:
My spreaders are now further forward and I am running 35 on the loose gauge. Yesterday while at your lake, they were further back and I was at 37 on the loose gauge. The mast surely looks straighter now (less pre-bend). Now to test sail this saturday, only problem is no other blades to test with.

I bet my Ullman is the same as the rest of yours also. I haven't gotten around to measuring my prebend and diamond tension but 3 inches sounds/seems right for my mast set up also.
Robi- I just decreased my rake some. now to about an inch or so ahead of the transoms. I think it sails better now... however I think I coudl very well just be confusing myself <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

MArk,
How do you do against the Nacra 17s?

Pineda Park ... Saturday and Sunday.

Be There

I've actually had limited time on the water so far, but based on a small amount of experience against two 17s - I feel I have equal or better straight-line speed against one of the guys I sail with, though well beaten around the course just on sailing skill. The other guy is Jim Young. If I manage to get close to him sometime I'll let you know how I do <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

Thanks but no can do.

Sorry I forgot to mention my sail is a Glaser, not an Alter Cup Glaser but about the same cut I'm told. If you look at that picture of #705 above, you see with no down-haul on, it touches the boom. Mine is about 6" above my boom with no downhaul.

Robi, I'm not sure if our sails were the biger factor in that light wind, I think I got a couple lucky zyphers of air. Be glad you are not here today, even less wind! Complete glass across the lake most of the day. Now at 6pm there is about what we had, being caused by remnants of a far off Tstorm.

How are you guys measuring your rake? Both my trap lines are too short to reach either the transom or the forward bridal attachments. Do you just add a short piece of line (or as Robi likes me to say, ROPE <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" />) to your traps to measure?

My ullman main doesn't get close to making it to the boom even when max downhaul. With just taking the slack out of the downhaul it probably makes it to about 8-10 inches above. I could be way off (I have problems estimating stuff like that!)

yeah, just take the trap line off of the bungee and tie a small piece of ROPE to it and then run it to the front bridle then measure where is comes to at the stern.

went out today in mild/moderate wind. Does anyone else sail consistently with a GPS? I use it to sort of pace myself since there aren't any other boats around. How fast are you guys going in moderate wind pointing? I seem to do about 9kn (I can hit 10-11 I guess when footing) or so upwind and 14-15 down in mild/moderate wind. I could suck as far as I know <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Why spend all that money and time on an inferior cut main that you will never be happy with? By comparison the Goodall F16 main looks strikingly different. The foot for example is about six inches shorter in length, the leech shape is fuller and the head is bigger. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

I don't think I would call Ullman or Glaser inferior cut. They are different yes, but go ahead and prove "inferior."
I wouldn't mind an Ashby or Goodall or Landy set of sails if the exchange rate didn't suck and I wouldn't have to send it 4000 miles or more away if there is a problem- and then still who could say they were "superior" to Ullman or Glaser?

BTW, go ahead and give us a nice long explanation of how the sails we are discussing are inferior.

Is there any good reason it would be cut that way?

I need to look at it a little closer to be sure of my estimate. Maybe I should refine it to 6-8inches. I am not sure why it would be made that way other than getting more sail area up higher I suppose. I would think that would be of some benefit. Sail design is serious rocket science to me but I would love to play around with it someday.

Sure you can save a little money but what do you get in return? A jury rigged main you’ll never be happy with…. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Are you calling the mainsails created by the likes of Ashby, Landenberger, Glaser and Ullman "jury rigged that you'll never be happy with" ?

Just checking !

Wouter

Now that I look at the picture of #705 a bit closer, it appears he has a little bit of down-haul tension on, (note the lack of luff wrinkles and camber in the sail, at rest) which makes the foot look closer to the boom than it would be without tension.

My Glaser main is a good 6-8" above the gooseneck with no tension on, but I can easily pull it down to the boom with some downhaul. So to re-cap. Robi's Ulman was about 6" taller and a little narower, my Glaser was a little shorter but fatter at mid leach. Kind of like it's owner... <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Yes, I can confirm that there was some amount of downhaul on. I hope someone takes lots of photos of different sails from the GC next month.