We used our drifter sail yesterday on our 22 foot sloop,
which we hadn't tried for several years. The conditions
on Lake Michigan were light 6-8 knots and it pulled the
boat nicely on a beam reach. It does even better on a
run, when we used it previously with a whisker pole.
A drifter, for those who don't know, is kind of a
cruiser's spinnaker, but much less complicated and
usable for points of sail, other than a run. Like the
spinnaker, it is very light weight and useful in light
airs, which we don't get often on Lake Michigan.

Problem I noticed is that with the drifter run all the way
up the forestay, there was still slack in the luff of the
sail. This is a hanked on sail. The sail came with a
built in wire lead at the tack, about 18 inches long.

Should I simply shorten this wire lead to solve this problem?


Sherwin