Main Sails

One feature that almost all multihull mains have in common is a very large roach, i.e. the sail remains broad quite high up the sail, rather than a crisp triangle. Because of this they are almost invariably fully battened and therefore require good quality batten car systems on the mast to cope with the compression loads.

Because of the big roach furling mains are not really an option but nearly all multihulls use a system of lazyjacks and often a stackpack to furl the sails. Reefing is generally conventional slab reefing. Owners can opt for either two or three reefs, depending on whether the boat is mainly used for day sailing or cruising. Cross-cut Dacron sails are the most common on cruising and charter cats and usually the leech is double ply to account for the higher loads of the large roach. For a performance upgrade some boats opt for radial sails and of course Fusion M is an option though it is almost exclusively used on racing multihulls. In the case of the giant, 105’, Daedalus, a radial Cuben main was the choice for round the world racing as it is extremely durable, and resists stretch and so maintains its aerofoil shape extremely well.