| SJ23 Tech Tip F21, (Updated 2024-08-12) Hal Mueller, Bill Sweeney, Bob Schimmel, Mike Raleigh, Tim Woods. | |
Replace Your Sails INDEX - Upgrade Considerations, Blade Sail, Cloth, Loft Contacts, Tight Piston Hank Claws, Black Sails. | |
| THE ORIGINAL BLADE SAIL (1998) - This is quest that started it all. "In the spring of 1998 Hal decided to
replace the mainsail and 110% working jib on his boat. He called several
big name sail makers for bids, asking for their
"Chevrolet/economy/cruiser" line of sails. I specified cruising grade sails, including a full batten main, mostly for
day sailing, occasional trips, and perhaps some local club racing. Both Ullman and Sobstad recommended that only the upper
mainsail battens be full length. Ullman pointed out that the top of the sail wears out
first, and a full-length upper batten slows that process plus it gives great shape. Full length lower battens don't have
as dramatic an effect as they restrict the shape adjustments that can be
made during a race. All the vendors were within about $50 of each other. One of them has an office about 120 miles from the lake I sail at. Their sail representative came to my boat to measure the rigging and spent a good bit of his Sunday morning teaching me about various sail designs. We talked a lot about jib sheet placement. He also concluded, as did Mick Roberts, that the genoa track (abeam the cockpit) is too far aft for a small jib. We kicked several possibilities around. His favourite was to mount tracks on the edge of the cabin roof and run the sheets inside the inner shrouds. He believes this will give the best possible upwind performance. Almost as good but easier to install, would be tracks mounted on the deck parallel to the cabin, roughly as far out as the chain plates. (See Tech Tip F06). Hal will install the deck tracks, a standard West Marine item, after the jib arrives. In the meantime, he noticed that the 110% jib sheet blocks are removable from the cars, so he'll clip them to the toe rail till the permanent deck tracks are installed. Hal made several general points:
"And now for the specifics. The working jib that North Sails made for me looks nothing like the original. It is full hoist to the masthead and is quite narrow. Instead of a short stubby sail, I now have a long thin sail, sort of like the wing of a sailplane. I've noticed that the boat heals less, feels less laboured and is more comfortable in the wind conditions when I need a working jib. The boat goes faster too. It really dances across the water instead of wallowing through the waves. See Note 1. For those of us who are PHRF racers, there might be a penalty since the sail suit no longer complies with the "class rules". On the other hand, there is no class association in any formal sense. My SJ23 was never measured nor raced in PHRF, so I don't know the answer to this. North Sails got my business and I was quite pleased with the results." Hal Mueller. ___________________________ NORTH SAIL DESIGN _____________________________ NOTE 1: The style of jib that Hal is referring to is what North Sails calls a Blade Sail. A friend of mine has a North Sails blade for his SJ28 and he swears by it. He has both control and performance in the medium to heavier air that Hal writes about. Unfortunately I have to take his word for it since we never had the weather to hoist this sail on his SJ28 and he has since sold the boat. In 2003 a group of us who sail at Wabamun Lake invited Dave Miller from the North Sails Vancouver, BC loft to speak at our club meeting in Edmonton. Dave offered the following tips;
NOTE 2: If you ever have the opportunity to have a sail loft representative step onboard your boat, do so. What you can learn is amazing. Dave Miller came onboard Panache and within 5 minutes he had the boat sailing 1 knot faster than my sail settings. He said there was nothing wrong with my settings but the knotmeter confirmed that his subtle adjustments were obviously better than mine. Listen and learn then ask questions later! Their time is valuable. ___________________________ NORTH BLADE DESIGN _____________________________ A BLADE SAIL FOR BILL SWEENEY (2020) - Bill Sweeney decided to replace his aging 110% working jib with a North Sails blade instead of a factory dimension jib. By sheer coincidence he talked to Kerry Poe of the North Sails, Portland loft who suggested a blade sail he designed many years ago for an SJ23. This is quite likely the same design Hal Mueller bought from North Sails, Portland in 1998. Not only will this jib work better with the main, it can roll up correctly on the foil since it is a full hoist. See Tech Tip F10 & Tech Tip F10b. All furled jibs should be full hoist.
The left drawing (not to scale) shows a 110% working jib modified for a
furler on Panache.
The right drawing (not to scale) shows a North Sails 110% blade that
Kerry Poe of the North Sails, Portland loft designed for Hal's SJ23 E/W a furler.
UPDATE, A BLADE SAIL FOR PANACHE (2024) - I took inspiration from the Kerry Poe's blade design above, to add a full hoist furling jib to Panache's inventory. This will be the third North blade in the SJ23 fleet. Given the ambiguous dimensions I received of the two previous blades, I determined the size for Panache by hoisting a low stretch line from the swivel, pulling it back to where I wanted the clew to be and extended the line to the tack on the furler drum. Then I stretched the line out on the ground and measured it with a 100' steel tape. For comparison I drew it to scale on the diagram below and sent it off to North Sails Vancouver for a quote. The reason I did all this is because Alex at the Vancouver loft could not find a record of Kerry Poe's design. In any case he had no problem with my procedure. Other guys at the loft selected the 5.7 oz. Dacron due to the high aspect ratio of the blade. Sailing experience has proven this to be a wise choice. - I ordered this jib without UV strips as Panache's jib sleeve provides this protection.
Below is a photo of my new blade during our third sail. North introduced some new to me features with this blade:
After three outings I'm pleased to report that this sail performs every bit as good as Hal reports. Less heel than the 150% genoa with almost the same speed. It pulls the boat to hull speed quite easily. During our third sail we spent much of our time at 5 knots that grew to 6 knots sustained and occasionally peaking to 8 knots. What a ride. This was during a quartering breeze that shifted as we sailed home, working its way forward to a favourable beam reach. Panache feels so stable with this blade and I'm impressed with the performance. In addition, the all important issue to furling/storage. This jib rolls up much easier than my 150% genoa but what is even better is how smooth the roll is and how well it tucks in at the top. Both of these factors should translate to a long life. NOTE - When considering a replacement jib such as one of these blades, pay particular attention to the angle of the sheet. The sheet either bisects the angle between the leech and the foot or it could line up from the clew to the mid point of the luff. In reality, it will likely go somewhere between. The position of the block above is just about 1.5' forward of the cockpit coaming. This turned out to be in the forward end of the track extension. If the deck tracks on your boat are not full length, this sail is a good reason to extend them aft to the cockpit coaming. See Tech Tip F06. | |
Inter Sail Supply - Who knew there would be such a difference in three measuring systems for cloth weight. | |
| LOFT
CONTACTS (US$ are 1998). San Juan sail specifications are available from Tech Tip H02, Hull & Rigging Specifications.
_______________ OTHER LOFTS WELL WORTH CONSIDERING, (2021). ________________
| |
| USED SAILS
The folks in the J24 or any other fleet that has strong, active competition, tend to buy new sails when they think they are past their peak performance. Buying a used sail from them is cost effective even if it involves a bit of re-cutting. You can spend hundreds of dollars less. HINT: If you buy a genoa that needs some re-cutting, have them position the clew about 2' off the deck for a (140-150)% jib. What you get is a sail that twists less on a reach or when slightly eased. It also tacks more easily. Your sail maker can explain this. Glen Moore. Good Jib, Cheap - The fore triangle of a SJ23 and a J24 are the same size. A 150% Mylar genoa from a J24, shown at right, fits an SJ23 perfectly even to the point of using the existing block and deck track. Both sails use piston hanks on the forestay. We
picked up this lightly used, 150%, Pentex/Mylar, genoa from a J24 for not much money. We didn’t even move the spreader-tip wear patch as shown in the photo. Also notice that the sail is a low-footed “deck scraper” that you might want for racing. Mike Raleigh. | |
| SEW YOUR OWN SAILS - This is not as daunting a task as one might believe. However you must possess some sewing skills and have a heavy duty sewing machine equipped with a walking foot to handle the multiple layers of Dacron at the pointy corners of the sail. It should also go without saying that you need a large room with free floor space to spread out the cloth. The sewing machine should be positioned inside a large table so the rolls of cloth can be well supported and freely managed around the machine. It can be a real bear to handle this bundle of
Dacron around a sewing machine. See Tech Tip F40, Sew Your
Own SJ23 Sails. | |
TIGHT PISTON HANK CLAWS (2014) - To measure Panache's 150% genoa for conversion to roller furling I stretched the luff between two posts in a church basement and quickly discovered why I couldn't remove the wrinkles. A wide open basement with a clean floor is almost as good as a sail loft as its much easier to see a problem with the sail stretched on the floor compared to being hoisted on a mast. Turns out the metal eyes, through which the piston hanks go, were crimped tight behind the bolt rope (limiting movement) and the piston hank claws were crimped tight around the bolt rope (preventing movement). These two factors prevented the Dacron cloth from spreading evenly along the bolt rope, resulting in the wrinkles you see below. For all the years I owned this sail I could never smooth out nor flatten its shape with halyard tension. Even a 4:1 purchase between the posts in the basement was not enough to remove the wrinkles. Its fullness is the reason I pulled it down as the wind piped up. The full shape was great in light air though. After I released the claw on each piston hank the sail cloth spread out smooth and the tension easily flattened the draft. It may sound incredible but this problem affected this sail for at least 30+ years. So much for the cloth being stretched like all the local sail repair people said! After this discovery I realized my 110% working jib from a different manufacturer had the same problem, so it received the same fix. If you have piston hanks on your jib, make sure they are free to rotate around the bolt rope. This ensures superior sail shape to match the wind speed with minimum halyard tension. A smooth wrinkle free Dacron sail will pull much better, similar to a smooth de-iced aircraft wing. Your jib halyard should never be so tight as to replace the forestay tension.
2019 - In Spring 2019 Panache's 110% & 150% jibs were modified to roller furling by the North Sails loft in Richmond, BC. They also repaired the leech of my genoa and added a foot tension line. I'm pleased with the results since they are now totally glass smooth (wrinkle free) and either one pulls Panache like a team of horses. OK, like a 426 hemi. I know, I'm dating myself. 2022 (After Furling, Below) - After years of trying to get together, my photographer friend returned for our "dance on the water" to capture this post furling photo for a comparison. It shows the improvement from a wrinkled sail with hanks above to a smooth sail with furling below. Its difficult to believe this is the same sail. There is barely 50 pounds pull on the jib halyard and the backstay tensioner is tight. I'm sailing at just over 6 knots and the wind was absolutely perfect that day with flat water. By the way, the genoa is just as smooth at 2 knots, but sailing at 6+ knots is way more fun. (Thanks Dave J).
NOTE -
If you ship your jib out to be modified by a sail loft, do yourself and the people there a favour by attaching a name tag to your sail AND sail bag
before you stuff it in the shipping box. This way the loft can identify your sail when each item is
separated. This simple task
reduces the risk of loss and you stand a good chance of getting your own sail back!
Also, attach a letter of instructions to your sail with supporting photos. Its a
simple way to eliminate guess work and receive the modification you ask for, in a
prompt manner. Just
saying! Bob Schimmel. | |
This time I caught up to my friends while they were cruising the length of the lake. I really wanted a closer look at their sails and the new dinghy they were towing. Turns out that Tim built this nesting dinghy. He later confirmed that it fits perfectly on the foredeck of his SJ23. Its always nice when a plan comes together. Click here for a closer view and details of the dinghy. | |
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An Etchells 22 jib is a
wonderful replacement for the stock short-luff jib of a SJ23. Other
classes are potential donors as well, so any discoveries are good for
everyone. 
