Random Thoughts Regarding "Drifter" Jibs

Here's a photo of Snickerdoodle sailing along with her "drifter" jib.  The drifter is a jib sail that was designed with our very light summer breezes in mind...... ie. breezes less than six or so knots.  Snickerdoodle's drifter is a 155% genoa jib but made from 1.5 oz spinnaker cloth (ripstop nylon) instead of made out of dacron.  {Compare this to our 150% dacron genoa that is made from 3.5 oz dacron}  The drifter is less than half the weight of the 150% genny.  It fills in breezes evan as low as 1 knot and will drive the boat.  The hanks are nylon web straps that incorporate the use of snaps to hook the sail's luff to the forestay.  And, to keep the weight at a minimum, I use 4mm lightweight sheets instead of "normal" 3/8" dacron sheets.  The drifter jib has been my favorite summer time sail.  And, I'd sure recommend one of these sails to you if you are thinking about ways to increase your summertime fun.

An added benefit - because the sail is made from spinnaker cloth, you can have whatever colors you want.  You can even have your sailmaker cut in figures like our stars to really customize your sail.

One disadvantage of the 155% size though is tacking in light breezes.  There often is not enough wind to push the sail from one side of the boat to the other side.  So, someone has to go forward to "walk" the jib to the new side.  A couple of sailmaker friends suggest that instead of using a 155% size, that a 95% "blade" made of spinnaker cloth might be a better option.  The luff side of the blade is as long as on the 155%; but with the short foot (shorter than the distance from stem fitting back to the mast), tacking is no problem at all.  So the blade size will have a big advantage for upwind sailing.  Of course, the disadvantage of the 95% size is that it will become less and less effective the farther downwind you sail...... Hmmmmm - how come nothing is ever easy?????

For those sailors with a roller furling jib, you could easily have a drifter made (whichever size you like best) and hoist it "flying" (not hanked on to the forestay at all).  Use a deck padeye slightly aft of the roller furler or on a bridle that puts the drifter tack slightly above the furler drum.  Keep the roller furled jib furled and use a jib halyard or spinnaker halyard to hoist the drifter.  I think you'll be amazed at how much fun you'll have sailing on those light wind summer days instead of motoring about.

Say???????  This might be a perfect item for the Christmas list.........