The Bravo Sail combines all the best features - Boomless, Roller furling, Reefable, Fully Battened, Square Top Planform!
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Boomless
Sail Design Perhaps the most valuable feature of the Bravo sail is what it is missing - a boom. The benefits of the boomless feature are simple - less expensive, easier to rig and most importantly it is safer. This boomless feature is very rare for small sailboats and yet it completely eliminates a major concern of sailing. In the past a boomless sail would be considered a significant compromise to performance, but the unique batten design of the Bravo sail makes the compromise very small and only while sailing on certain points of sail - off the wind or downwind. It is virtually no compromise to sailing upwind. For those who want to maximize performance on all points of sail there is an optional boom that will snap on and off in just seconds. |
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Roller
Furling The Bravo sail can be rolled around the mast with a simple pull on a line. This makes sailing much more convenient and gives peace of mind. The Bravo mast is supported by two carefully engineered bearings that allows the mast to spin freely. |
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| Reefable The Bravo sail can be reefed down to any size that you like just by pulling a line. Sailboat designers must always make compromises when deciding on the size of the sail - you do not want the sail too big in heavy wind and you do not want the sail too small in light wind unless you have a good option for reefing. With that in mind we gave the Bravo a big sail - 86 square feet. |
| Fully
Battened The main benefit of a fully battened sail is the increased sail area, but also the sail shape is improved and the sail will have less tendency to flutter in the wind which means it will last longer. The unique design of the Bravo battens allows the sail to furl around the mast. |
Square
Top Sail Design
The Bravo is the very first boat to have all the benefits of a square
top sail and be able to furl easily around the mast. The square top sail
is a relatively recent design innovation that has been adopted by all
of the top level racing sail boats including the Americas Cup class boats
and the latest multi-hulls including the most successful Formula 18, the
Hobie Tiger.
The
square top sail is remarkable because it provides significant advantages
in nearly all sailing conditions with practically no compromises. The
most noticeable difference of the square top sail is the additional sail
area up high. In light winds the benefit is simple. More sail area means
more power, but contrary to what you might think the additional sail area
actually makes the boat more forgiving in strong or gusty wind. Old school
thinking would believe that the extra sail area up high would tend to
tip the boat over easier, but in reality the extra sail area causes the
sail to twist more and cause the top of the sail to flatten out. The net
result is the center of lift of the sail moves down and the over all drive
of the boat increases with less tendency to tip over. This is done automatically
which makes the boat easier to sail in gusty wind.
The more subtle benefits are;
The improved planform of the sail. The most efficient wing or sail is one with an elliptical planform. The square top sail more closely approximates an ellipse.
The square top sail has an even more dramatic benefit for boomless boats like the Bravo since a boomless sail has more tendency to get too full when the sheet is eased. The square top sail does a good job of keeping the top of the sail flat when the sail is eased even without a boom.
The
end result is a revolutionary sail design that is the best of all worlds
- best performance, easiest to sail, most convenient and improved safety.