MIRADORS FAVORITE SAIL

Our 165% 2.5 oz nylon drifter is our most frequently used headsail.  The sail was designed and built, in Spring 2000, by Seattle North Sails based on their experience with similar sails they had built for several other long distance cruisers.  The drifter is cut with a fairly deep draft and is only useful up to an apparent wind angle of about 55 or 60 degrees.  When we can use the drifter at apparent angles of 60 to 180 degrees in winds of 4 to 10 knots we see Mirador moving at about 65% of true wind speed.  We  fly the sail poled out opposite the mainsail in a wing&wing configuration when we have an apparent wind angle of more than 160 degrees.

The important design feature of this drifter is that we fly it off it's own internal forestay but it is attached to the boat via a Harken small boat roller furler that attaches to a U-bolt mounted between the steel anchor rollers in front of the heavy wood and steel bow sprit.

The drifter is about 630 square feet but is very easy to manage since it is on a roller furler.

We have found that our 120% genoa is more effective in any winds greater than 10 or 11 knots, with apparent wind angles of less than about 110 degrees.  We carry the drifter in winds up to 18 knots apparent at angles greater than 110 degrees, if we think the wind is going to diminish within an hour or so.

 North Sails says the sail is strong enough to fly in 22 knots apparent with the wind is aft of the beam but the only time we tried that it appeared we had way too much sail up and were making more leeway than necessary.

We still use our 1200 sq foot asymetrical spinnaker if the wind is between 90 and 150 degrees apparent and in the 6 to 15 knot apparent wind range.  AND - we think the wind is going to stay that way for a while.

When the wind is shifting a lot or up and down we use the drifter because it is so easy to handle.

Here is another picture of the furling drum.  You can see one of the two internal forestays for the sail.  They are 1/2" kevlar lines which are attached to the large stainless ring mounted on top of the furler drum.  We raise the drifter on the spinnaker halyard and tension it until the entire furled sail is about 6" in front of the Profurl forestay that holds the genoa.

The drifter has a UV cover built into the leech so we can leave the sail up when we expect to use it again within 24 hours.

We just drop the entire sail on the fore and side deck when we want to stow it.  We then fold the sail into 3' long sections and cram it, fully assembled, into a big sail bag, sail, furling drum, link plates, furling line and everything else we need to fly it.  We can then hoist the sail directly from its sailbag the next time we need it.

Here is the drifter poled out with the main in a wing and wing configuration. This picture was taken about half way from the Baja Peninsula to Puerto Vallarta.  During the 294 nautical mile crossing of the South Sea of Cortez  we had 6 to 12 knots from aft of abeam for 21 hours straight. 

That is the stern and side of the Portabote sitting on the foredeck ahead of the mast.  That is the normal cruising location for the dinghy while we are underway.