Very soon ; my crew and I will be discussing how to do the coming 2006 season. We will also discuss what to modify and replace on the boat. Now I'm not giving any garantees but it is possible that we decide to replace one of the sails. The spinnaker sail that I got now is one of the more attractive pieces of equipment to sell and ship to a new owner. It can be folded into a letter sized envellop and mailed internationally for about 10 bucks. (The package that is
the spi will be more expensive).
Before I start considering wether to buy a new spi and sell the old one I really would like to know if there is interest among you guys for buying this spi and how much I can ask for it. If the price difference is too much between the two then I will gladly continue using this spi for a while longer; there is definately for several years life in it. I'm pretty careful with my stuff.
So just asking about how much this secondhand spi will find a buyer :
Specs of the spi :
Make : Goodall Yacht sails
Year : Delivered to me in july 2003
Shape : it has the 2003 Goodall shape; this was one of the first Goodall spis that had a good competitive shape to them. Pre 2003 spi were cut rather full. Newer models have slight improvements but nowhere as noticeable as the difference between 2003 and pre-2003 spis.
Colour ; light blue
Spi is suited to snuffed operation. It contains three patches and needs a snuffer sock that is at least 2 mtr long. I always snuffed it using the AHPC snuffer system.
Material :
Plain, slightly heavier rip-stop nylon cloth. It is NOT silicone coated and to be honest I think I will order the same cloth again for my new spi. I have never lubricated the spinnaker as it goes into the AHPC snuffer quite well as it is. The slightly heavier cloth makes it abuse resistant. The ripstop nylon allows you to damage the spi and continue sailing. Holes and ruptures do not grow, not even when under load. Afterwards you can stabilize the damage using spinnaker tape. Works great and I will even send you some tape with the spi.
Use :
2003 ; only on 3 days of sailing (on a befriended boat) as my own boat was still under construction.
2004 ; used on about 10 days of sailing after boat completion in july 2004
2005 ; used extensively, in the order of 20-25 days.
Condition :
Spi is has no noticeable wear expect near the bottom patch were it got caught on a broken strand on my forestay. One other time the spi got jammed while singlehanding and I had to muscle it into the snuffer to prevent greater damage due to collision. On both occasions I made tracks near the bottom patch of small holes. I stabilized these by sticking spinnaker repair tape over these tracks on both sides. I think I have 4 or 5 of those 4 inch patches near the foot of the spi. And that is all the stuff that shows the spi is not new anymore. The rest is in excellent condition.
Flying shape :
The spi likes relatively short poles and be sheeted of a short foot. Meaning the distance between the pole tip and point of sheeting is rather short. In the order of 3300 mm (3.3 mtr). This makes it especially suited to the Taipan 4.9 design which seems to like shorter poles and has the sidestays quite close to the mainbeam. The Taipan 4.9 will feel rather well balanced with this setup. The spinnaker sails deep very well, but is more nervous when you try to carry it high. I found this to be a benefit when singlehanding because typically you are sailing relatively deep in this setup, while reaching under spinnaker is not what you are looking for then. When 1-up reaching is faster under mainsail alone. The spinnaker has good speed and actually I'm finding that I (when 2-up) have slightly higher speed on the downwind legs compared to the F18's at my club. This experience comes from racing these F18's crews in my club races for the whole of the 2005 season. My crew is relatively inexperienced so this speed is not due to superior sailor skills. In my experience it is a good secondhand spinnaker that will be more then sufficient for beginning and intermediate crews. Only really race oriented (and really race active) crews may want to look for a new spi, as I'm doing. If you are not racing in more then 5-10 events a year then you are NOT a seriously race oriented crew.
Reason why I considering buying a new spi :
My boat is a home-build one-off Formula 16. My sidestays are in a different position then the Taipan 4.9's. And my crew is rather small in size. This spring a fellow club member will be racing his Blade F16 with a new Landenberger F16 spinnaker. In the past I always likes the landenberger spinnaker because they are really easy to trim and they are really calm. In addition the sheet loads seems to be lower still on these spis. If his spi works on my boat as well as the past Landenberger spi's that I sailed with then I think that will help me get better results when singlehanding and doublehanding with the small crew I got. In both instances; the lower sheet loads are advantagious. You don't pump that spinnaker that often when singlehanding and can only use one hand and arm. In addition, I can optimize the new spinnaker design for my one-off sidestay position and additional width (when compared to the Taipan 4.9's). In my club races the level of skill is pretty decent and I'll need to make my boat run as good as I can to stay with the pack. The last reason is that the current spinnaker I got is still in a good enough shape to get a considerable price for it. If I don't sell it this year then I'm better off just keeping it as a spare or training spi and use it till I destroy it myself in a few years time. If I can't get a good price for it then I'll continue using the spi this season and buy a new spi the next winter.
So that is all the info you may want to know.
Anybody interested ?
Wouter
