CS15 or CS17

[marvinwus]

I am interested in a fast day sailor for single handed sailing. Ease of setup is very important. How difficult is it to raise the masts of the CS17? Are the sails attached when you lift the masts? I haven't seen much comment on the CS15, are there any out there yet besides the prototype? How fast is the CS15 in comparison to the CS17. I am currently sailing a Shell Boats Swifty 14 that I built from a kit. Nothing could be simpler to setup, but I would like more speed.

Marvin

Newberg, OR

[Brent]

I built a CS20 for this very reason. The boat is very easy to set up. The masts go up as bare poles, and are easy to place. The sails slide onto the sail tracks, and the boat is ready to go. Takes maybe 15 minutes. Big improvement over my prior boat. Others keep their sleeve luff sails on the masts, but my personal preference was sail tracks.

And yes the boat is fast... very fast.

[Designer]

Compared to the Swifty 14 any of the Core Sound boats will be fast. I have sailed both boats together and thought that the CS15 was fast until I had it alongside the CS17 and found that the CS17 was clearly faster. There is a noticeable difference in speed between the CS20 and CS17 but unless you want to carry a lot of people or gear the CS17 is a good all around size.

There are a few CS15 builders out there but the prototype is the only one finished that I am aware of. The CS15 would be a little handier for launching and handling solo.

[marvinwus]

The CS20 is way too much boat for my needs. Almost all of my sailing will be single handed. Occasionally I will have a passenger or two. I am leaning towards the CS17, since speed is important to me. I am being passed by too many boats. Most of the pictures I see of the CS17 show sails with sleeves, but the discussions mention sail tracks on the mast. How hard is it to raise the masts when sails are attached via sleeves? What about reefing these sails? How would the sails be attached on the CS15? The original question was whether the CS15 or CS17 would fit me best.

Marvin

Shell Boats Swifty 14

Newberg, OR

[JeffM]

Stepping the masts with luff sleeve sails on is probably tricky -- it was on my cs20. But even on the 20 a mast-stepper (a fairly simple mod) makes it a snap. Now I can step and unstep at anchor to put up a tent, or even underway under power to go under a bridge.

[Gordy Hill]

Sleeve luff!

On the 17 the sleeve is very uncomplicated and gives an absolutely beautiful, clean airfoil. It seems to make a bit of a difference going to windward. I'm inclined to think that the halyard laying on the most important part of the airfoil has to interfere with the air flow.

If you're just going day sailing and not, say, facing 300 miles to Key Largo, you can always get home just spilling some wind in the gusts. I sailed the Great Race twice in rather heavy conditions each time. I never reefed and never felt I was really overdoing it.

I think Jeff has come up with the same conclusions I arrived at about reefing. I'd go with his approach. I don't think it'd be any more involved than reefing points.

I've sailed with the main furled around the mast and the mizzen in the reefing step and was quite happy with the way she sailed. I didn't really experience much degredation in pointing. I had a different setup for the main sheet and was able to set it up further aft and could sheet it in quite close. It terminated at one point at the base of the mizzen. Maybe that made a difference.

With the sleve luff the sail is wrapped around the mast and neatly out of the way. This makes for a very neat package at anchor. It's also easy then to unstep the masts, insert the crutches in the mast steps and stow the masts for travel. I originally broke down the masts, but found very few nice clean places where I could rig and unrig withoug getting the sails dirty. I had a long zippered sock-like sail bag that held both sails and masts for storage and traveling.

With a CS 20 I'd probably consider sail tracks. It's just enough bigger to make things awkward, but with a CS17 I'd only consider sleve luffs.

[Gordy Hill]

Copy away Ray!

[marvinwus]

I have ordered the plans for the CS17.

Marvin

Newberg, OR