The longer we have cruised the more we enjoy really sailing well.  As a result, we now carry more sails than most cruisers.  The table at the bottom of this page shows when we use each sail.  This is our 'coastal sailing' configuration. When we are on passage, and tired, and don't want a panic in unexpected wind shifts, we sail the boat a little more conservatively than this.

Reef lines in cockpit
Tack lines on port winch and clews on starboard

Our mainsail is 760 sq ft (without the overlapping roach) plus about a 12" overlap on the backstay.  It has 6 full battens, the bottom two of which are carbon and the rest 5/8" fiberglass rod. It has two deep reef points 9.75' up and 21.75' up from the boom.  In the latest mainsail there is also a very short 'light air' reef which just pulls the roach overlap out so the sail will tack or jibe through in no wind.

We have a standard Dacron ORC-sized trysail (240 sq ft), sheeted to snatch blocks on the quarters.  It has its own separate trysail track, which runs all the way down the deck. We have learned that if the trysail is stored below we will never get it out, load it on the track and set it when we should.  So we now always load it on the track and bag it before we leave on passage. That way it is ready and easy to hoist.

Tack reef lines
(the red line)

The "Code Zero" is a 1,000 sq. ft. relatively flat cut sail, designed for wind forward of the beam, made from 5oz laminated Dacron (Norlam), set on a Facnor 6000 continuous line furler.  The Code Zero is tacked in front of the headstay, to the end of the anchor roller (which was constructed strong enough to take headstay loads), and hoisted with a 2:1 spinnaker halyard.

The "A-Chute" is a 1,500 sq ft asymmetrical spinnaker, with a 'general purpose' shape, made from 1.5oz nylon, set with an ATN sock.

Trysail sheeted to the quarters

When we use "double headsails downwind" in the 13-22kts apparent wind ranges, one of the jibs is a sail that the sail makers have no name for.  I refer to it below as a 'Blast Reacher', but in other places call it a 'nylon Code Zero'. It is a 650 sq. ft. free flying sail set on the same Facnor furler as the above Code Zero. It is lighter cloth and cut deeper than a normal blast reacher but higher clewed, higher stretch and deeper than a Code Zero.

In the 23-30kts range we roll-up the Blast Reacher and replace it with our staysail genoa. We use three different hank-on staysails: a staysail genoa (called 'staysail' in the table), made from a Spectra laminate, that is the maximum possible size for the foretriangle with a low deck sweeping clew. A Dacron ORC-sized (180 sq ft) and shaped storm jib, with a high clew, set on a short pennant so that when we take green water over the decks it washes under the sail. Finally, we carry a tiny Dacron 'Hurricane jib' which we have never needed to use.

The world is a book, and those who do not travel, read only a page.

Attributed to Saint Augustine of Hippo (354 - 430)