Demystifying Offwind Cruising Sails

Karen Soule spoke with Jerry Latell of Evolution Sails

We need to de-mystify using off wind cruising sails, says Evolution Sailmakers founder Jerry Latell.  Sailors keep asking for sophisticated polar diagrams for these sails, but they really aren’t necessary nor the sails that complicated.  Racing sailors carry a quiver of spinnakers and code sails optimized for very specific wind speeds and angles.  Cruising spinnakers and code sails are typically designed to be used across as wide a range as possible.  So the thinking when using a cruising off wind sail is very different.  Our goal is to make things a bit easier to understand.

But first a little history. The first code sail, called a “code zero”, debuted during the 1997- 98 Whitbread Race and described an asymmetrical spinnaker that could sail upwind angles. Racing rules limited their design applications and even after a quarter century their design is tortured to meet the racing rules.  Cruising sailors live outside the racing rules so cruising code sails, unchained from these antiquated rules, are much better sails than their racing cousins.