Parasailor vs. Spinnaker - which is the BEST for Sailing the WORLD?
Parasailor vs. Spinnaker - which is the BEST for Sailing the WORLD?
Is a Parasailor really the ultimate downwind sail, or have we been missing out on something better? In this episode, we put our beloved Big Red (Parasailor) head-to-head with a brand-new Purple (Cruising Spinnaker) to see which one truly performs best for cruising.
With unpredictable conditions, shifting winds, and real-world sailing scenarios, this isn’t a lab test— it’s an genuine look at how these two sails handle life at sea.
We conducted three key tests:
⛵ Downwind Sailing Test: How well does each sail perform when sailing deep downwind? Which is faster, more stable, and easier to handle?
⚖️ Yaw Radius Test: How much can we steer off course before the sail collapses? Does one give us more flexibility?
🌬 Reaching Test: Which sail performs better when sailing at an angle to the wind? Is the Parasailor limited to straight-downwind sailing?
The conditions weren’t perfect—we started with gusty 20-knot winds and ended up barely keeping the sails flying in 6 knots of breeze—but that just made the experiment even more real.
By the end of the day, we had a clear winner—but it might not be the one you expect...
📌 Watch to find out which sail we’ll be using more in the future!
💬 What’s your go-to sail for light winds? Let us know in the comments!
A huge THANK YOU to Phil from Zoom Sails https://www.zoomsails.com/ for joining us for the testing and sharing your sailing wisdom and a shout out to Jai from YachtRig Phuket for checking over everything and coming for a sail.
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Sailing with six
Meet the Fothergills: An Australian family of six living a life of radical adventure aboard their Leopard 46 catamaran, Happy Days, across the Indian Ocean.
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