I seek advice as to the size of the luff
and the length of the foot of a storm sail
fro my C&C 27 Mark III
Thanks

John W. Bienko wrote:
I seek advice as to the size of the luff
and the length of the foot of a storm sail
fro my C&C 27 Mark III
Thanks


You should post this to the C&C group on Sailnet for better details,
though there is one 27 owner here.

Good luck!


RB
35s5 (formerly Alien C&C 32)
NY

John W. Bienko wrote:
I seek advice as to the size of the luff and the length
of the foot of a storm sail for my C&C 27 Mark III.

I'm not sure exactly what you want John. Are you talking
storm trisail, storm jib, or heavy weather jib?

Your boat has the folllowing dimensions:

I 37' J 11.75' P 31' E 10'

The ORC requires racers to carry three storm sails:
a storm trysail, storm jib and heavy weather jib. The
storm trysail and storm jib must be made out of
strong dacron. Do not use High Modulus materials!
Also, chose a bright color like orange, pink or yellow
for these sails, because you would be using them in
rescue conditions. You should have the sail numbers
on the sail in as large a letters as practical. This is
so rescue aircraft can ID your boat when the radio and
batteries have failed--which happens often in these
circumstances. When things start to go wrong, they
go wrong in multiple ways. The Coast Guard may
have mulitple rescues going on at the same time and
they will need to positively ID your vessel.

Storm Trysail: A short triangular sail that is attached
to back of the mast and is sheeted to the deck. The
area of the storm trysail cannot be more than
0.175(PxE). The ORC states, "It shall be sheeted
independently of the boom and shall have neither a
headboard nor battens and be of suitable strength for
the purpose." If you ever plan to set a storm trysail, it
is best to have a separate track on the mast for the sail.
(that is a really good idea). In a gale, the last thing you
want to do is remove the mainsail from the mast to bend
on the storm trysail while you are puking and nauseous.

17.5% of unreefed mainsail area.

..175 * (P * E)/2 = .175 * 31 * 10 /2 = .175 * 155 = ~ 27 sq ft

Not a big sail. You would want it to be as low as possible.
That means a short hoist and as much of the sail towards
the back of the boat as possible. I'd go 5-6 feet on the luff
and 8-9 feet on the foot. Important: Make the leech and foot
hollow. You don't want any roach here to flap around. It
doesn't have to be this big either--smaller might be better.
Ask your sailmaker what he recommends.

Storm Jib: Its area is limited to five percent of the height
of the foretriangle squared. The rule states that the luff of
the storm jib must be shorter than 65 percent of the height
of the foretriangle. The leech and foot a bit hollow or straight
cut because you will want these sails sheeted a flat as
possible. A bullet proof jib car and track system makes
sense, or better yet a heavily reinforced pad eye, located
specifically for this sail, would not be a bad idea.

..05 * I * I = ~ 68 sq ft area. Luff size would be 24 ft max.
That works out to be about 31% of the size of your foretriangle.

Heavy Weather Jib: Its area is limited to 13.5 percent of the
height of the foretriangle squared. The ORC rules state that
this sail cannot have reef points. If either the storm jib or
heavy weather jib are made to fit a luff-groove device, the sail
must have an alternative means of being attached to the stay.
The most common alternative method is to have grommets
along the luff so that you can tie the sail to the stay. It is
better to have these material prepared ahead of time obviously.
Ditto on the above comments about the sheeting point being
bullet proof reliable.

For you:

..135*(I *J)/2 =.135 *37*11.75 /2 = .135 * 217.375 = ~ 30 sq ft
This is less than 14% of your foretriangle area.

Not a big area, but consider it may have loads far exceeding
those placed by a bigger sail in lighter air. If you have any
concerns about your rig holding a flogging sail and pumping the
mast, then you should address those concerns first.

Frankly, I would not recommend being out in storm conditions
in a C&C 27. However, you are to be commended for preparing
for the worst.