Why twin headsails are best downwind
ANDY PAG is a former journalist. He and his partner live aboard their Lagoon 410, which they have now sailed to the Caribbean
Crossing the Atlantic from Cape Verde to Barbados took us just 13 days in our 1998 Lagoon 410, Cushla Na Mara. In preparation for this trip, I spent time experimenting with the best downwind set-up for tradewind sailing, but it can be adapted and is equally useful for coastal passages of any length.
It became clear soon after we bought Cushla that she was not very fast downwind. The genoa, only 38m2, was not powerful enough to drag the eight tonnes of Cushla’s twin 41ft hulls through the water at much more than 5 knots even as the wind picked up to over 15 knots. And with days of down-winding on our Atlantic crossing looming I turned my attention to the various options.
The obvious answer, a
