From: whoward@lamont.ldgo.columbia.edu (Will Howard)
Subject: Re: Tuff Luff and other headstay foils
Organization: Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory
Date: Tue, 10 Nov 1992 13:52:15 GMT

In article <1992Nov7.073507.871@klaava.Helsinki.FI> tarkkone@klaava.Helsinki.FI
(Lauri Tarkkonen) writes:
>In <1992Nov6.215732.4720@leland.Stanford.EDU> stefan@leland.Stanford.EDU
(Stefan Michalowski) writes:
>
>>[David Zielke asks about the relative merits of hanks and headfoils]
>
>If you want my opinion it is in short: Try to awoid the foil by any means.
>
>>Cost is certainly one factor in choosing between hank and foil. Another
>>is the way you like to sail. In my view, there are two advantages to
>>the foil:
>
>As said it will give you unnecessary expenses.
>
>>  - Something or other about aerodynamics of clean entries. I can't
>>    believe that this is a big effect, unless you are racing very,
>>    very competitively.
>
>I claim that mote races are lost than won by headfoils. If you bother to
>gro through some more accurate description of the 'ton cup' (means quarter
>to two ton), you will find out that almost every race there are boats that
>have a problem when the foil fails. They hit it with spinnaker boob

   I've seen some odd-shaped chutes, but none with boobs.

, dent
>it, bend it or the sail just comes out of the foil in the middle and they
>cannot perform that extra smooth sailchange promised them in the selling
>brochures. The gain made by the aerodynamic factor is peanuts compared to
>this.
>
>>  - If you have two grooves, you can shift headsails on the fly.
>>    This is absolutely essential for racing. Changing jibs early and
>>    often is one of the keys to racing success.
>
>If you are a cruising man, your headsail change will not be so time
>pressed that you can not take the hanks one by one. I just met a sailors 
>who lost his brand new number one genoa, when he wanted to change it to
>smaller when the wind came up. He pulled the #1 down and because it was
>not hanked on it went to teh water and he had not enough strenghs to 
>pull it back. Of course you say that he is incompetent and fumblend,
>but if he would have hanks, he would still have the genua. :-).
>
>>The big disadvantage is that you have to go forward to hoist down and
>>lower the sail. This can be wet and dangerous at exactly the time when 
>>you need to shorten sail. With hanks, you just rig a downhaul from 
>>the cockpit. Personally, I wish I had hanks on my boat, but that takes 
>>us back to cost...
>
>These days, I was still doing some racing, I had a interesting race with
>a boat some 3 feet longer than mine. I had a huge lead, but run into a
>calm and he passed me, I was truing to catch him for the rest of the 
>race, until we came to the last mark before the short last leg, that was
>a beat.  We both had spinnakers up, with the jibs down, he had a comfor-
>table lead. We both got our spinnakers down in proper fashion, we hoisted
>our jib quickly, it was on hanks, but his jib came suddenly out of the luff
>some three meters above the deck. It jammed, he got four people on the fore-
>deck trying to get the jib up or down, but it was jammed, we passed him
>with a big smile of our faces. :-). The head foil had again lost a race
>for somebody.
>
>>Stefan
>
>So this is wyi I feel that the headsail is a unseamanlike gadget and should
>be avoided. If you ask what i thing about some furling gears, I just tell
>you that at the momet I am using foresails with full lenght battens, and
>I am very pleased with their performance. (But this is another story..)

Head-foils, "tuff-luffs" etc. do cause problems. It gave us fits on the boat I
was crewing on during the Manhassett Bay(Long Island Sound)  Series this year.
They are a necessity for racing I think for 3 reasons: 1) headsail changes, 2)
better aerodynamic properties on leading edge of sail (no scallops as in
hanked-on jib 3) better shape control with jib halyard/jib cunningham. The
trade off as you point is having to send someone forw ward to get it up and
down.

My two cents.

Will Howard
Newsgroups: rec.boats