I finally put my money where my mouth was yesterday, and ordered my first set of UK sails for the J/22.
We’ve been using Quantums for the last 2 years, and we’ve been consistently off the pace in light air. I think most of my light air speed problems are driver/tactics related. But it’s starting to get in my head a little bit. And I needed a change.
My understanding of the UK design is that the sales are cut with a little more twist, and not quite as full up top. The main has the clew moved a little higher than other designs, in order to give the sail a little more roach while still staying within the class girth restrictions. The idea being that we’ll get sail area up high, where it can help us in light air.
You may be thinking, “With all this light air optimization, you could suck in heavy air.” The thought did cross my mind. But heavy air sailing, for me anyway, has always been more about effort than anything else. So I’m hoping we can maintain our performance there.
One big potential problem is that none of the top boats in the area sail UK, so we’re gonna be writing our own tuning guide. Not really sure if we’re up to that, but we’ll tighten the leeward upper til it stops wiggling and go from there.
