The Ocean Race is in town

[Prairie Schooner]

We took a day off boat work to go to the Ocean Race village in Fort Adams, Newport. This is the only North American stop for the race so it was a special treat. Amazing machines. It must be really thrilling to do over 30 kts in a sailboat.













At one point they took the boats out for 'time trials'. Winds were 15kts, gusts to 20. Even with a reef, they were screaming along. It was pretty cool.

 

[Christian Williams]

So they all have some form of stack pack on the boom.

And they sail with it installed.

I can only guess it has race value for reefing, there is certainly no shortage of crew to handle sails.

 

[Prairie Schooner]

So they all have some form of stack pack on the boom.

And they sail with it installed.

I can only guess it has race value for reefing, there is certainly no shortage of crew to handle sails.

I noticed that too. With all the engineers they've had in development, clearly the benefits outweigh any negatives.
I doubt there's a pack in our near future, but can one be created for an existing sail or does it need to be designed in while building a new sail?

 

[Loren Beach]

I noticed that too. With all the engineers they've had in development, clearly the benefits outweigh any negatives.
I doubt there's a pack in our near future, but can one be created for an existing sail or does it need to be designed in while building a new sail?

Ours was built by UKSails, and the sail is completely independent of it, design wise.
I can remove the main separately since the end (and only slug) is bronze and is shackled to the outhaul wire; the clew is shacled to that slug also.
The "pack" does have its own slugs to secure it to the boom track.

 

[bsangs]

I noticed that too. With all the engineers they've had in development, clearly the benefits outweigh any negatives.
I doubt there's a pack in our near future, but can one be created for an existing sail or does it need to be designed in while building a new sail?

Ours is completely independent of the sail, Jeff. Bag has slugs that slide into the boom, each side of the bag has a full length batten and three connection points for the lazy jacks. We install the bag, then put on the sail.