[Rhodes22-list] UPS

[Mark Kaynor]

Bruce,

Mary Lou says it very well. I'd just like to add a few things.

Our main developed a small rip last summer. While we were repairing it, we
participated in our regularly scheduled regatta just for the heck of it. We
ended up coming in 6th overall in corrected time, 8th across the line out of
about 14 boats - and that with no main! We weren't able to point very well
(understatement), and just about came to a standstill every time we tacked
the 175% jenny. But, man oh man, was that first downwind leg fun with the
UPS to port and the genoa poled out to starboard with the boat hook!

It was a two lap race with a downwind start. We had a fairly poor start,
about in the middle of the pack, but were the second boat to the first
mark - after a J22 that got across the start first. We passed about 6 boats
on that one leg. The first turn was to port, so all we had to do was furl
the UPS and sheet in the genoa to a close reach. We did acceptably on that
leg, as well.  Once were trimmed and on course, it was simple to drop the
UPS to the deck so we could tack when we turned to windward at the next
mark. The windward leg pretty much killed us, though <g>.

We love the sail. It's not a replacement for the 175 - they're actually
quite complimentary. The UPS has more area higher in the sail, so, in
lighter wind you're getting more of that high, clean air into the sail.
We've actually used it to windward in light air to get past another boat
that was stealing our wind.

And like I said earlier, if there's enough wind to keep the genoa inflated,
the two deployed wing-on-wing on a run can compete with any full spinnaker
we've come up against - and they're way easier to manage. And when the
wind's up around 10-12 knots - woohoo!

When we know we're going to use it, we set it up at the dock and bring the
top half of the sail down into the cabin. When it's time to deploy it, one
of us goes to the mast to make sure it clears the spreaders. On those
occasions when we've set it up under sail we've found it to be easy and,
after the first time or two while we were figuring it out, it's always gone
smoothly.

There are two things we are changing from the stock delivery from Doyle.

The first isn't a big deal, and isn't really necessary. We're going to use
slightly smaller, lighter sheets next season. The supplied sheets are a bit
of overkill - they're okay, but we found that in lighter wind, they tended
to pull the sail down a bit. Lighter sheets will enable the sail to maintain
a better shape in lighter wind.

The second is our biggest annoyance with the sail. I think the furler is
slightly undersized for the sail. We're first going to first try reducing
the size of the furling line. Like Mary Lou and Fred, we have had problems
furling the sail. If you take enough turns to furl the sail tightly, the
spool fills with line before the sail is fully unrolled. On the other hand,
if you remove a few turns so the sail can deploy fully w/o filling the
spool, there aren't enough turns on the spool to fully furl it before
reaching the end of the line. Our solution is to buy a smaller line that
will allow us to keep several more turns on the spool. It's pretty easy to
furl and we never sail it partially out, so line strength and comfort in the
hand aren't as important as they are for the genoa.

Mark Kaynor

-----Original Message-----
From: rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org
[mailto:rhodes22-list-bounces at rhodes22.org]On Behalf Of Mary Lou Troy
Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2004 8:39 AM
To: The Rhodes 22 mail list
Subject: Re: [Rhodes22-list] UPS


Bruce,
We got our UPS last spring and have been very pleased with it. Our genoa is
a 175 on the GBI furler. We used the UPS somewhere around 10 times last
season - mostly on light air days when the 175 was just too heavy for the
conditions. It is a delightful sail. We could point well above a beam reach
with it. We went through chop that would have bounced all of the air out of
the genoa and kept moving. We also used it on a downwind sail when we could
have used the genoa and found we could balance more easily closer to dead
downwind with the UPS.

The furler is a bit tricky - at least it was for me to get it to furl
evenly - there were times we had to try twice because I put too much sheet
tension on it and didn't have enough furling line (or it filled that tiny
spool) or there was too much wind in the sail and the bottom furled but not
the top. Furling improved with practice. Paul Beaudin at Doyle was looking
for a continuous line furler for it which would be an improvement but he
couldn't find one small enough.

Setting it up is a lot of extra steps but worth it when conditions are
right. We don't think ahead as much as we should so we rarely did it at the
dock and the extra steps had me walking all over the boat: get the sail in
its bag from the cabin, take it forward, attach the tack to the padeye and
the swivel to the halyard (after making sure the halyard is run clear), run
the furling line back through the eyes to a cabintop cleat, run the sheets
back through the genoa cars and figure 8, make sure everything is in the
right place, hoist it quickly because it is a light sail and the wind
catches it easily. There were a couple of times after I'd had trouble
furling on the previous sail that it didn't want to unfurl all the way at
the head but that improved with practice furling.

Once deployed it was great. Extremely forgiving and responsive to fingertip
control. We loved flying that sail. We could still move in 4 knots and
moderate chop. In flat water, I expect you could move just on a breath of
air. Downwind in heavier air it was very well behaved.

It does not replace a 175 in 7 to 10 knots upwind. We tried it and like the
175 better for that sort of work. I was surprised - there were 5 or 6 times
last season when the fully deployed 175 was the perfect sail for the
conditions.

Hope this answers your questions but ask away if there have more.

Mary Lou



At 02:48 PM 1/19/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>My recollection is that around this time last year there was a lot of
>discussion about a UPS for the Rhodes and that several members, in fact,
>ordered one for their boats.  I would be interested in some feedback  on
>their experience during the season particularly for those who had been
>using a 175,  Thanks.
>
>Bruce Greenwald
>S/V Ruach II
>
>__________________________________________________
>Use Rhodes22-list at rhodes22.org, Help? www.rhodes22.org/list


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