Our Sail Setup for a Pacific Crossing

Spinnaker? Jib? Mainsail? Parasail? What sails should you take across the Pacific Ocean?

Well, it’s 4,100nm and about 25 days. That’s a lot of sailing, a lot of sail changes, and a lot of different winds. So—what sails should you take?

Here’s our sail setup for our second Pacific crossing.

Mainsail

Our mainsail is a beast. It’s made from a tough mix of Dyneema and Dacron, which means it’s nearly unbreakable. It’s also our main power sail, especially when the wind is above 120 degrees apparent.

It's so powerful we actually tend to reef when the true wind is even touching 16kts—and still do the same speed.

It’s not a square-top mainsail; it’s a ‘normal’ pinhead style, and we love it. 

Genoa

Two oceans ago, we got a new headsail and haven’t looked back since. It’s made from the same Dacron and Dyneema mix as the mainsail, so it’s also as tough as nails. It lives on the furler up at the bow and is what I’d call our most-used sail.

When the wind is near the beam, we have both the mainsail and headsail out—and we fly.

For a Pacific crossing, the wind is almost always behind the beam. We’ll talk about sail choices for different conditions in a bit, but another time we use the genoa (and this is our easiest sail setup) is when the wind is behind us and over 17kts. At that point, we drop the main and run genoa-only.

We’ve had it like this for days without touching it—a real credit to the design and materials.

Full-Size Cruising Spinnaker

This is our light wind sail—and there’s a rule: if you have a light wind sail, you must name it.

So let me introduce you to Miss Violet, aka Purple.

Purple is purpose-designed for what we want: a sail to fly when the wind is light and we would otherwise be motoring. We use her in winds from 8kts to 16kts true and average more than half the wind speed in boat speed!

It’s a magic sail—and everyone’s favourite (I think).

Another crazy thing? We can have it up dead downwind… or at 80 degrees apparent. Yes, you read that right.

We have ZoomSails to thank for this magical purple sail. If you want to know more about how we tested it and compared it to our parasail at the time, check out our YouTube video here. And, if your interested in all the sails and designs they do, go check out their website here.

Small Cruising Spinnaker

Why would you have a small spinnaker?

Well, earlier you might’ve noticed I said we go genoa-only in anything over 18kts—and I just mentioned we pull Purple down at 16kts… so what about that gap in the middle?

Let me introduce you to our newest sail and secret weapon, which arrived 24 hours before we left Panama: meet Tina.

We’re still testing it, but it’s a really cool sail—kind of like a baby Purple, but blue and white. The idea is simple: when we’re running downwind and Purple is maxed out, but it’s not strong enough for the genoa, we put Tina up.

Another big thank you to ZoomSails for helping bring this idea to life. We can’t wait to fly Tina more and tell you all about the new personality onboard.

Basic Conditions / Sail Guide (for us)

This is just a super rough guide—sailing depends on so many variables!

Forward of the beam:

- 0–8kts = motoring

- 8–15kts = full mainsail + genoa

- 5–20kts = 1 reefed mainsail + full/1 reefed genoa

- 20–24kts = 2 reefed mainsail + 2–3 reefed genoa

- 24kts+ = 3 reefed mainsail + sliver of genoa

Aft of the beam:

- 0–8kts = motoring

- 8–15kts = full-size spinnaker (Purple)

- 15–20kts = small spinnaker (Tina)

- 20–24kts = 1 reefed genoa

- 24kts+ = 2–3 reefed genoa

Summary

This is our sail setup for a Pacific crossing—and it’s our second time doing this giant passage, so I’d like to think we’ve learned a little since last time.

We have four sails, and we love all of them.

There are more details and specs we could go into, but for now, I really hope this helps!

Whether you’re a sailor keen to learn more about sail setups, planning a Pacific crossing, or just intrigued from land—we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.