Can anyone shed some light on the appropriate sheeting angles on an I-20 with a self-tacker? Upwind, how far from centerline should the car be for different conditions? Also, what are the advantages and disadvantages of the fully battened vs. furling jib, and the different materials for the jibs (pentex vs. dacron).
Every sailor I've sailed with sheets the jib to a different spot on their 20. Tybee leaves it all the way out, Nigel Pitt likes in far in. I leave mine about 3 inches from the end.
As far as jibs go, I prefer the roller furling dacron jibs. It is much easier to get shape into, and seems faster in light wind. The fully battened jib is rather flat, which probably is better in heavier wind. I'll stick with my roller furling dacron jib though...
My boat does not have a furling setup on it though.
I agree with you on the dacron jibs. On my 6.0 my older punched out jib was very good in light air.
However my infusion has a great cut for the jib..nice curl at the front just like the old 6.0 jib I had. Infusion sails are really cut well..
Yeah, jib development hasn't seen much in the I20. The battens in the fully battened jib (at least the top one), tend to flatten the sail too much - I don't think the cut is any different and we've started leaving the top batten out. I do like the Pentex jib though if nothing else than from and aesthetic standpoint. There's certainly no speed difference between the fabrics - I'm not sold on the theory that one is any faster than the other.
As far as settings, Trey's right - everyone is all over the place. I generally do the same as trey, two or three inches in from the end when sailing upwind. If it's really blowing, we'll go all the way out with it. Bringing the jib in more than that makes the speed groove REALLY narrow - Nigel can sail with it that narrow, I can't. Regardless of the setting of the car, we've been sheeting the jib to where it is about 1/2 to 1" away from the spreaders.
It may be that there's some agreement going on for jib settings - we also run the car about 2-3 inches from the end, and also trim the jib so 1-2 inches from the spreader. These are settings we've figured out from time on the water. We recently added the self-tacker, but have found that things work best if we limit the car to about where we were sheeting from the beam, again about 2-3 inches from the end.
For us, any tighter than that and it seems to choke off the back of the main. We also sail heavy, 420 or so on the crew weight.
Can also vouch for the roller jib looking nicer until the wind is up, then both seem to be about the same with maybe a little edge going to the non-roller jib. For all-around I think the roller jib works better.
Is there a difference between self-tacking jibs and non-self-tacking jibs? Can they be used interchageably?
Only difference is the clew plate which changes the sheeting angle alittle and also gives you some choices for opening and closing the leech. I put the non self tacking jib (just grommet at the clew) on the self tacker and it doesn't quite set right - it closes the leech. My opinion, you definitely need the clew plate. It shouldn't cost much to have them put on.
TB
When chatting with Skip Elliot when ordering sails for the SC20, he said that the primary advantage of Dacron over Pentex for a jib, was that the luff breaks quicker on the Dacron sail, and is therefore easier to read when pinching upwind, particularly in light wind. The Pentex should theoretically be able to retain it's shape longer and in higher winds, if handled carefully throughout it's life (3 to 5 yrs for the recreational sailor?).
Dave