Genoa

On nearly every modern cruiser the genoa lives on a roller furler: its luff tape feeds a grooved aluminum foil around the forestay, the halyard tensions the luff, and the furling line rolls the sail away. A sacrificial UV strip along the leech and foot protects the exposed roll. Hanked genoas survive on older and some offshore boats.

Headsail size is measured by LP — the luff perpendicular, the shortest distance from the clew to the luff — expressed as a percentage of J, the deck distance from the forestay to the mast. A 135% genoa has an LP 35% longer than J; the figure has nothing to do with foot length. Any headsail whose LP exceeds 100% of J overlaps the rig and is called a genoa — the exact jib/genoa boundary is convention, not rule, with some sources counting jibs anywhere up to 115%.

Trim like any headsail — sheets and car position, steering to the luff telltales — but respect the overlap: the clew sweeps across the mast and shrouds on every tack, so ease and grind smartly. A genoa is a light-to-moderate-air sail; as the breeze builds, furl a few turns (accepting a baggier shape) or change down to a smaller headsail. The typical race-inventory bands — #1 to about 12 knots, #2 for roughly 12–20 — are approximations that vary by boat.