Nowadays lots of discussions are underway about the F18 decksweapers. Some of the sailors hate it, some of them do not believe in it, some of them are excited to have one.
I was working on this sail just right after the last Australian nationals but put aside as we went for a normal mainsail with the 1D sailing team. After the Worlds, as many requests came, I have finalized the first version and launched the first serial production sails.
The first sail got 4th on the Spanish Nationals on a Shockwave.
Photo: M. Mateos
I have made analyses on this type of sail as well, on one side to find the differences between a DS and a non-DS sail, how it works with a porous trampoline.
It showed the difference as well.
After these results and the continuous requests made me work forward on this sail. I varied a little bit with the leech shapes and the position of the center of effort. Meanwhile, I got involved in some flying catamaran projects, where I had the possibility to look these sails, shapes more closely in different conditions. And using those environments for the F18 as well.
The conclusion is yes, the deckswepaer is faster in medium and breezy conditions, depending on the sail shape, it can be a good-speed sail in lighter winds as well. Of course, it depends on the crew, it won’t make them from last to first but gives a good opportunity to speed up.
Let’s see our mainsail. After the analysis, I had a quite good view which flying shape I prefer to use for this sail. What I have started to modify the ratio between the lower foot and the leech shape. Obviously, as we have a given class rule with a given sail area, if I add plus somewhere, I have to balance it on somewhere else.
Finally, for the 2017 DS main, I chose the middle, so a middle size lower foot, with a nice mid solution for the leech curve.
I have put the maximum curve slightly lower than the middle.
I chose the shape with a very sensitive leech, which means it needs to be sheeting a lot, but it gives you great power when needed and can twist well in breezy conditions.
For sure, I will work on it in the next periods. Now, we will see the results from the Southern hemisphere during this winter
