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The answer to "How do you make a boat go when there is "no wind?", is a drifter. The one sail that can round out the Flicka's performance is the drifter. The sail area/displacement ratio (SA/Displacement) of a Flicka is about 14, based on a displacement of 5,500 lb and a sail com-bination of main and 110% genoa. This assumes the boat is empty - no stores, fuel, water, etc.
In general, a boat is considered to have light-air performance when the SA/Displacement equals 15 or greater. As an example, a J-30 has a sail area/displacement ratio of 20. Now add about 500 lb. of stores, fuel and water and the Flicka's SA/Displacement decreases to about 13. In light-air under working sails, the boat slows down. Adding a drifter will really help performance. In most cases, when a Flicka is equipped with a large well cut 130% drifter and the boat is sailed well, few crusing boats can match a Flicka's performance when the wind speed is 10 kts. or less.
How do you size a drifter? In all cases, please consult your sailmaker. In an article Bruce Bingham wrote for The SMALL BOAT Journal, VOL. 2, NO. 2, 1980, the designer recommended a 130% reacher (drifter). The area of this sail is 194 sq. ft. which gives a total sail area with the mainsail (114 sq. ft.) of 308 sq. ft.
The calculated sail area/displacement ratio for the above sail combination is 15. This suggests the boat will have light-air performance, which indeed, is the case. Following is a table which shows sail area/displacement ratio as a function of boat displacement.
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