by K.C. Walker » Mon Sep 24, 2012 5:33 pm
Alan,
When I ordered the UPS from Doyle I told them that I was going to be using it on a roller furler. Instead of using wire they use high-tech rope in the luff. It's actually a pretty cool setup. They put two ropes in the luff spread about 2 inches apart and when the sail is under halyard tension it wraps up very quickly and neatly. When the sail is not under tension it is supple and will roll right up into a sail bag. And yes, I did buy my furler separately.
I'm not sure what to say about the size of the sail because I haven't sailed the smaller version. I'm really happy with the size that I have. It powers up the boat nicely in light wind and when I start being overpowered carrying the UPS I just furl it up and continue sailing with the standard set up. The transition between the two seems to be okay. New England and especially Long Island Sound are famous for light winds during the summer when I find it most pleasant to sail, so I got a tremendous amount of use out of the sail this year. I've had a couple of tremendous sails in September with the winds about 15 kn gusting to 20 or a little more and I did not even think about rigging the UPS.
My style of sailing is to enjoy going as fast as I can. I have the boat set up with hiking straps and the coaming is cut down so that I can hike out easily, and that's where I like to be. The big UPS brings that on at a much more moderate wind speed. In the latest set of photos that I posted you can see that it's light air but I'm already sitting out. Though the boat is not yet planing, it's already up to hull speed.
It definitely was a bit of a project to get the the bowsprit set up. After a good number of hours using that set up I don't think I'll make any changes. I'm using 40 mm auto ratchets for my turning blocks and I'm considering going up to the next larger size. I definitely needed to use sailing gloves with the UPS and I don't normally use sailing gloves with the standard set up even in 15 to 20 kn.
The sail was less than half of the cost of the entire set up. The blocks, the sheets, the halyard, the furler, and the bowsprit more than doubled the cost. However, I'm still happy with the setup and feel that the bang for the buck was good.
Last edited by
K.C. Walker on Tue Nov 27, 2012 3:37 pm, edited 2 times in total.
KC Walker, DS 1 #7002