Blue Water Runner downwind sail

The cost ex VAT was about E8,200 including the endless furler and freight.

We recently finished our Atlantic crossing and used the BWR for a fair portion of the crossing from Las Palmas to Cape Verde Islands and then from CV to Barbados. We had winds mainly from about 155 degrees TWA which is at the outer end of the BWR downwind ability. There was normally a swell from a different angle to the winds and sometimes a big swell from the north with an over laid localised swell and significant winds drive chop as well. We used the boom to boom out the upwinds side of the sail as per the suggestions from Elvstrom. We did not have a pole of any description. We the very confused seastate the BWR was constantly moving back and forth  across the boat which caused the BWR sheets to rub on the shrouds and the lifelines near the gennecker winches where the sheets came under the lifelines. We ended up adding additional Dyneema outer on the sheets at the places where the sheets rubbed which worked well. We also loosened the aft end of the lifelines and put garden hose over the wire to reduce the damage to the sheets. 

We had good speed with from BWR and we had it up in 14-20kn. We only had it up on one night because the winds always increased during the night. So we sailed overnight with 2 reefs in the main and the headsail half furled. During the 8th night from CV to Barbados we had up to 28kn and during one of these gusts the BWR started to unfurl from the top and within a short while the section unfurled tore. Because of the strong winds and rough conditions I thought it was too dangerous to go on the foredeck to put the BWR down so we left it up with the section unfurled flapping madly. We furled the BWR as much as possible to reduce the flap. We pulled the sail down the next morning when the winds moderated a bit. 

We are yet to get a price to fix the BWR but are expecting a large cost. We have not had a detailed look at the sail as yet but I expect the cause of the damage was the BWR rubbing on the UV strip on the furled head when the BWR was furler. The Hanse supplied XTS clutch for the gennecker halyard is no where near strong enough to hold the halyard tight and it was constantly loosening. This enabled the BWR to rub on the furled headsail and I think create a wear point in the leech of the sail which ultimately tore.  Going forward, if the BWR is economical to repair we will move the tack pint as far forward as we can, fit a much stronger clutch for the BWR halyard and not leave teh sail up  when not in use. This is a bit of a problem because the sail is heavy. The specs say 60kg (for the 220m2 size)but I think it is heavier. So getting teh sail in place and getting it down whilst at sea in rolly conditions when sailing two up is challenging. On the crossing we had 3 on board and with the two males on the foredeck and my wife on the halyard, the boat under motor and running directly down swell onautopliot we managed to drop it quickly onto the deck.  

Some friends who were crossing at the same time had a new Parasailer and experienced the same swaying, back and forth problem with it which we had with the BWR so in the conditions we had I think this problem would not be reduced unless you used a pole for one side of the sail and the boom for the other side to help stabilize the sail.  

We had two other boat friends who used double headsails and in the conditions we this option seemed to be by far the best. These were conventional overlapping headsails on the one foil. With this setup you can run downwind or close. You still need a pole and boom to hold them out and stabilize them but they can also be used furled which other downwind options can not. The problem with trying the twin headsail option on a Hanse is that the normal self tacker size sail is probably too small and does not normally allow you to let the sail out enough for downwind. 

So given the conditions the performance of the BWR was good but I think we should have had a pole and should have identified the rubbing problem before it caused the failure. We intend to fit a pole for downwind  sailing (still need to cross the Pacific) and maybe look at having a second downwind sail which would cover a wind angle of say 130-160 degrees and up to 20kn. This could be a Furlstrom but I would be careful not to get a sail which is heavy because handling the sail at sea is a serious consideration. If you are sailing island to island or to an from your normal marina than the weight of the sail is less important because once you are in protected waters taking the sail down is fairly easy.  

It has been a few years from this post but I’m considering buying a blue water runner from Elvstrom for my 588 for my forthcoming trip.

Do you have any further updates on the sail, how has it performed, issues etc

Thanks

Pete

We have given up using this sail in the full out (both sides) downwind configuration. During crossings like the Atlantic we had winds from about 150 degrees and swell from just aft of abeam which meant the sail was constantly moving back and forth across the bow. We have recently completed a crossing from from Panama to French Poly (4,000nm) and used this sail in the single side (genoa) configuration. But again if you have winds and swell from different angles the sail still sways back and forth - unloading and loading up again etc. We used the boom laid outboard as far as it could go and ran the sheet to the end of the boom to "pole" out the sail and this is reasonably successful. The main problem I find is that the clew of the sail is so high off the deck that you can not reach it do attach sheets or change sheet and to attach a whisker pole. Without a pole or poles (or a pole and boom used as a pole) the sail can be uncontrollable in the wrong wind and swell conditions. Our sail is 220m2 which I find is way too big. The sail is heavy - about 70kg and very bulky because the the sail area and the material thickness. You need to be careful when furling it in (in either the downwind or genoa configurations) because it can furl unevenly and create a unfurled sail portion in the top half of the sail. If you are furling because of stronger winds you don't want to unfurl and start furling again. 

After discussions with a sailmaker in NZ - Zoom Sails, we have decided we will get a code Zero type sail made of about 120M2 (or smaller) with a clew height that we can work with but still made of a "white" sail material. It would be lighter and easier to handle than the BWR and we could use our whisker pole without needing to use the boom. This sail will not allow us to go direct downwind (180 degrees ) more like a max of 140 degrees but angles we needed for the Atlantic and Pacific crossings completed were around the 140-150 degrees.  We also tried "wing on wing" with the headsail poled out "up wind" and the boom out to the leeward side. This worked reasonable well. We ran the mainsail with two reefs in this configuration. The good thing with this option is you can furl the poled out headsail easily to reduce sail area. We have friends who used this configuration for their Atlantic and Pacific crossings. Other friends with monos who used twin headsails with either twin poles or one pole and the boom. And this apparently worked very well. Also very easy to furl to reduce sail area and you can run dead downwind (180 degrees) if you want. For a least half of our Panama to French poly crossing we used our standard headsail poled out and this in the conditions (and current assisted) still gave us 7+kn of boat speed which is plenty when you are doing a 25 day crossing.  

Would we buy a BWR now that we have used one -NO.