Our F16 sail optimization started around late May, early June 2015 for the Europeans. I have started to write another post about this project it turned out to have different posts to the different sail types.
Let’s start it with the jib. The reason I have chosen this sail to start with is very simple. The last version got finished just right before Xmas and headed straightly to France and participating on the Martinique Cata Raid. It was a quite quick project for this sail, the time was far too short for the right and full analysis, we had to built the jib in an absolutely short time.
By the way, the guys, Emmanuel Le Chapier and Théo Constance won the F16 class and got 4th overall, fighting against the F18s.
The task was given, to make the jib more efficient in lighter winds but in choppy conditions. Our older jib is a really all round one, especially the membrane is a very stiff, powerful sail.
As I modified the shape, the draft position a little bit, and I added a slightly more camber. I made some major changes on the head and on the leech too. I have chosen a slightly softer battens. Material vise, my choice got to be the PE05 1.5mil from Dimension Polyant, as it is a light but still stiff material, in this case no need to bother with the lifetime in this case. As a paneled sail, of course radial construction.
Manu and Théo tested the 2K16 jib with the 2016 membrane mainsail in Martinique. (I will talk about the main in a different post.)
After going through the pictures and the first notes of the guys, it worked pretty well, and they used it in blowy conditions too, so no worries when the wind picks up during a regatta.
Of course, I will upgrade this post as we saw the videos and went through all the details and points with the guys.
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