How many times do you change headsails during buoy races?

Bloody Horvath wrote:
Are you talking upwind-downwind? Around the marks? Or around the
islands?

Answer: None. depends on the wind. Really depends on the weather.


Sorry, must be different terminology. "Buoy races" = around marks,
generally races of not more than ten miles or 3 hours. Generally the
races include reaches, not just W-L. I'm not planning on doing any
distances races, ie longer point-to-point races that may run offshore
and/or overnight.



Spare spinnaker halyard(s) would be nice but I don't think it's going
to happen with this mast. Frac rig, internal halyards... it's not a
closely controlled one-design like a J-24, but there are limits to how
many holes I can cut in the mast.

I agree. But I've found that the more halyards you have, the better.
Hell, I'd have three main halyards if I could.


You could have three main halyards if you wanted them bad enough.

On those rare occasions when a crew loses a halyard, I let them know
just how bad a F-U it is.... boats & lives have been lost that way.
Haven't done it myself for many years but it's always possible to make
a mistake.

It's also possible to go up the mast after a halyard, even on a small
boat. I went up the Lightning mast... while sailing to windward...

DSK