Quantim Sails and the Pacer 27 Class

Understanding a sports boat is the first leap one has to make when making the transition from a conventional keel boat to a sports boat. Once that line has been successfully crossed you will unlikely ever sail a ‘normal’ keelboat again. The reason is that the sports boats are epitomised by one word: FUN!

Don’t expect to win windward/leeward races easily in an IRC fleet unless there are planing conditions. Conversely, if you are competing in a mixed fleet where there is some form of reaching component, you can expect to win fairly easily.

The Pacer 27S is a fairly light boat at 1130 kgs and carries a big spinnaker of 65 sq.m. which gives it stellar downwind performance, but what about it’s upwind performance? It carries an IRC rating of 1.032 and a PHRF rating of 1.080 which puts it into the average rating category of a 40 footer. This means hard work on the start line and up the first beat.

Regent Express with their Quantum genoa during pre-start on day 2 of the Pacer Nationals 2009

One of the best things about the Pacer is how easy it is to sail the boat. It is always feather light on the helm and the reason for that is a set of very slim and fine foils which operate efficiently at high speeds. It also means it is easy to stall the boat at very low speeds, such as pre start manouvering. The boat must be kept moving. It also boasts a huge open cockpit with lots of room for the crew to move around. It is quite possible to hold the big masthead assyemtric at wind speeds up to 30 knots at deeper angles, but watch the bow digging in to the next wave and move all the crew as far back as possible. You will be in for the ride of your life. Twenty plus knots of boat speed is quite possible.

Our team moved from a J27 to a Pacer 27 about 8 months ago. The transition was slow and awkward. Our racing results on the Pacer were nowhere near what we were accustomed to achieving on the J27, but we soon learned what makes the Pacer go fast. One of the issues we had with our original suit of sails is that we felt the No.1 Genoa was cut too full. We approached Quantum Sails with a sail development proposal whereby we acquired a new Fusion as well as a Pentex class genoa. The very first race that we used the Fusion Genoa, we scored a 1st place in the IRC fleet at RCYC and since then a string of podium finishes. We used the new Quantum Pentex Genoa in the Pacer nationals finishing on a tie breaker for 1st place. The new sails set beautifully and there can be no doubt that we have superior upwind performance to the old sails and undoubtedly better point.

Leading the fleet around the offset mark. Race 1 Day 2 OPacer 27s Nationals 2009

That led us to having a critical look at our spinnaker wardrobe. The existing A2 spinnaker is very full in the head area and tends towant to pull the boat over at angles above 100 degrees. We went back to Quantum and ordered a R1 assymetric spinnaker which was cut flatter in the head area and once again, Quantum delivered the right sail for us. Our downwind VMG sailing has improved a lot as was shown at the recent nationals when our R1 spinnaker displayed excellent downwind speed even at hot angles. The boat has less heeling moment now and more forward drive. We are especially happy with this sail.