Jib or Genoa?

[dlandersson]

Nice questions to get a sailor thinking

How much money do you want to spend
Do you have your boat slipped all year or at least months at a time
Or rig each time you sail and leave on the trailer between times
Lots of factors to consider

[dustoff]

I changed over to a jib from the stock 150 Genoa for a couple of reasons.
The points upwind a bit better with the jib and I can control healing tenderness easier on points of sail from a close reach to a broad reach. It was tricky for me getting the Genoa shape right when not going downwind where it wasn't creating a squirrelly weather helm.
Having the headsail lines run through the cars on the forward track cleans up the cockpit a bit as well. The genoa cars are back at the cockpit gunnels and running the lines back to the winches can get in the way of passengers somewhat.
I realized that squeezing that additional performance of the genoa was a tradeoff in terms of sailing comfort for the wife and the amount of attention you have to give to trimming when underway. Even downwind, with the amount of sail of that 150 Genoa has on the , which doesn't have a backstay, I felt like the performance of the standing rigging was becoming a limiting factor for optimal trim in winds above 12 knots.
I realized that once you reach 6 knots of speed over the water, that's pretty much as fast as mine would normally go. I can usually get that speed in a reach in any wind above 12 knots, so the Genoa only really helped me out significantly on a broad reach or downwind in winds less than 10 knots but more than 5 knots.
If I really want to routinely catch those light down winds to max my VMG I figured it would make more sense to just get a spinnaker (which I haven't done yet). Either symmetrical, or asymmetric with a second furler, and just douse the mainsail so it doesn't cast a shadow on the headsail.

Dustoff

[Russ]

My 150 doesn’t point well at all.

However most of my sailing is either too little or too much wind

I can “reef” my Genny which works when winds are too much.

I also often fly just the headsail when I’m too lazy to hoist the main

[dlandersson]

Ok, on my X, using my 155 Genoa, I can point to about 30 degrees. The sweet spot is 45 - 60 degrees.

My 150 doesn’t point well at all.

However most of my sailing is either too little or too much wind

I can “reef” my Genny which works when winds are too much.

I also often fly just the headsail when I’m too lazy to hoist the main

[DaveR-NZ]

I've just pushed go on a 150 Genoa. My boat didn't come with a headsail so I have no measure of how it sails yet (bought about 2 months ago). I was deliberating for ages on which way to go, most of my sailing is in 18-25knt and either dead upwind or dead downwind so pointing is a real problem for me. Time will tell if it was the right decision or not.

On a more positive note, I found a brand new partially finished Doyle Jib hidden away. All it needs is the trailing edge sewn up. Even has luff tape.