Sails Inventory

A couple weeks ago I took all the sails except one off the boat and brought them home with me. I left the original [1978!] mainsail attached. I’ve been using that sail since shortly after I purchased the Hunter 25. I haven’t been using the newer mainsail since it had a fairly significant rip in the leech seam. For those of you who aren’t sailors, the leech is the aft [back] edge of a sail.

In addition to that original mainsail, there’s a MUCH newer [1994] mainsail, a 100% working jib and two Genoas or Genoa jibs, depending on how you would rather refer to them.

I needed to repair the ripped main and then clean it and the foresails. I figured I might as well measure the sails while I had them off the boat also. It’s much easier to measure them laid out in the backyard instead of trying to do so on the boat!

Unfortunately, in my excitement to repair the rip in the main, I failed to take before/during/after photos. I’ve since put it on the boat and used it a couple times and it’s been working perfectly. I’ll try to remember to post a photo of the repair when I get out to the boat again.

Measuring the sails was easy enough…just lay them out and measure. 🙂  I think there’s actually a numbering system for keeping track of which sail is which, so I don’t know if I followed the correct system, but I labeled mine #1, #2 and #3 going from the largest to the smallest.

Jib # 3, 100%

When looking at sailboatdata.com I see the “J” measurement which is the foot [bottom] of the jib. For my Hunter 25, that measurement is 10.5 feet. This #3 jib foot is exactly 10′ 6″, so that makes it a 100% jib. The foresails are measured in percentages based on how far the foot of the sail goes back to the mast. So when the sail’s foot extends past the mast, you get more than 100%.

When measuring my other two Genoas, the foot on # 2 was 12 feet and the foot on # 1 was 17.5 feet. Now I’m not really proficient in advanced mathematics, but my sons are! I needed to know what the percentages were, so I sent them a text and Scott was the first to respond. When I posed the question, it took him all of 4 minutes to give me the answer. That included him finding pen and paper to send me the formula! Here’s his response:

Scott’s quick math skills!

So, with those measurements, I discovered my Genoa # 2 is a 114% and Genoa # 1 is a 166%.

Genoa # 2, 114%

Genoa # 1, 166%

1994 Mainsail

With the successful repair on the mainsail, I no longer needed the old, original sail. My dock friend, Trey, has a Hunter 25 also and I knew he needed a mainsail since the main on his doesn’t even fit. He’s helped me out a lot over the last couple of years so it was the least I could do to pay it forward to him and just give him the sail. Thanks Trey!