Code zero sails to cover a wide range of AWA

Code zero sail on Dufour 382 GL

A quick history of code zero sails

Code zero (also written code 0) sails originate in a rating rule workaround where a clever designer was trying to design a tight reaching sail that could be rated as a spinnaker. This development opened up all sorts of thinking around flatter spinnakers and resulted in numerous new types of sails and denominations driven in part by actual sailor needs… and in part by imaginative marketing.

Code sails cover a very wide range of AWA, from “almost-a-closed-haul-genoa” to “almost-a-running-asymmetric” sail.  In this note we will try to clarify the needs of cruisers and casual racers when it comes to Code Zero sails, the 3 Code Zero sails developed by iSpinnakers, and explain what sail types, cloth, and furling options are available to meet those needs.

AWA Graph wind angles
Downwind sails and AWA

To make things easier, we have developed 2 concepts:

  1. our Cruising Code Zero (Code D type in Europe); this is the workhorse code zero for most situations
  2. a range of “Performance Code Zeros“, which are more targeted to specific sailing conditions