I bought Seal 22 No.297 Zalophus last year, and am now renewing the sail wardrobe to suit cruising plus the odd bit of club racing. Our new main from Kemps is excellent - I requested one mod. from the normal spec in the shape of a full length top batten. Works well - controls shape of upper part of sail - I was a bit surprised that apparently no-one had asked Kemps for one before.

Anyway, this winter we will turn to the genoa. We currently have a cruising genoa and working jib, both of which hank onto forestay, plus a serviceable Seareef roller furling gear which has not been used since the original roller geona was destroyed in the 1988 storm. I'd like to bring the furling gear back into use with new sail, but would also like to improve windward performance. So here are some questions:

1. I know some owners have experimented with bringing the inner shroud chain plate inboard. Does this work? Where is the best place for the new chain plate, and how to best make it strong?

2. Has anyone tried a slightly smaller sail? (I have seen reference to one experiment in the handbook). Do we really need all that overlap, or is it just a throwback to the days of IOR?

Paul Lovejoy

A friend of mine has a UFO31 which also came with a roller reefing foresail. Like all roller reefing systems was fine until you tried to reef it. A couple of turns to cope with the top end of 4 is fine but half a dozen to get it to a size that would be appropriate for a 5 going on 6 and you have a sail like a rucksack when you really want something nice and flat.

He also had a perfectly good set of smaller sails with piston hanks so what he did was to take off the hanks and fit 2" lengths cut from the luff of an old sail at suitable intervals up the luff. These stick out an inch or so from the luff and can be threaded into the luff foil groove of the roller system rather like mainsail slides.

So if the forecast says 5/6 and its already blowing 5 you set the No3 and you can roll a bit of that up when the 6 comes. So you have the facility to take a bit of sail off when you need to without having to start with a full genoa. It also reduces the temptation to leave the boat with the jib on, ready to self-destruct in the next real blow.

Geoff Harwood

Both Roger Bond (22/119 , 'Fraid Knot) and Mike Blakestone (22/105 Linota) have moved thier shrouds inboard to improve the windward performance.Rogers "E Mail" address is roger.bond AT aeat.co.uk while other contact details for both can be found in the Seal Handbook. Both would, I am sure, be happy to supply details of the modifications.

Keith McCarthy