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Oxley Levante Wing Sail - Thoughts from our Atlantic Crossing

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Introduction


We are about 370 NM from Fernando de Noronha, Brazil on our Atlantic crossing from Cape Town to Grenada and with a few miles under our belts (3400, give or take), we have formulated a good understanding of, and some opinions on, the Oxley Levante Wing sail. As a reminder, the Levante is the lighter of the two wing sails that Oxley make, with the Bora being the one designed for stronger winds.


Oxley Levante being flown somewhere between Cape Town and St Helena



Use on a Vision 444
(or other boat without provisions to cam lock two lines by each aft winch)

First, it takes some getting used to and to make it work at its best/easiest on the Vision 444, you will need a few additional blocks and lines. I have these blocks ordered and ready for pick up in Grenada and will post a video to YouTube(youtube.onanewtack.com) detailing the setup once we have it in place. On the plus side, these added pieces will also be very handy for flying the asymm off of a bow, or to transition from the bow to the longeron and vice-versa. We will point out what we learned about sailing it in the video as well.

Overall Impressions

On to the sail itself. So if you want to jump to our decision, the simple answer is that it has been very worthwhile to have in the sail inventory, especially for this crossing. As a reminder, we have a Code 55, Code 65, Asymm and the Levante sails for reaching/downwind.

More details!

Once setup, the sail flies itself and requires little input and can tolerate changes in wind direction very well without adjustment. If the wind shifts from 165 on starboard to 165 on port, it is simply a matter of fully easing what was the tensioned leeward sheet and taking in on the new leeward sheet. Ideally, you would also ease the leeward control line and take in the windward control line. More on that in the video but doesn't seem all that necessary on a cat. The gybe with this sail is seamless and is effected by simple line adjustments. Conversely on the Asymm, gybing requires turning on an engine, letting loose a sheet, dousing, possibly moving the tack to another bow or the longeron, and then re-deploying and resetting the sheets. For us, we will probably not sail the Levante above 150 or maybe140 degrees, but Oxley says it will work reasonably well all the way up to about 90 degrees in the right conditions.



Taken from https://oxley-sails.com/en/levante/ - Mar 12, 2023


Pluses and minuses to the Levante

The Oxley can also very, very comfortably sail dead downwind, and there are many times we just set the auto-helm to sail to wind at 180 degrees, which also put us in line with the wind swell which made for the most comfortable sailing. It also allowed Mira to shine at surfing down waves at 12 or even 13 knots. She also does not stop abruptly at the bottom of the wave, so there is not a shock load on the sail.
The only downsides to the Levante, is that it needs to be taken down when the wind gets to about 15-16 knots TRUE (this is per their Facebook user group and differs from the diagram above) and that it's not quite as large as the asymm. (The Bora can go to the low 20s, but does not do as well in the sub-10 knot winds.)
The next question is do we think the Levante is a replacement for the Asymm? For us, no, we have used both equally, however, if you are coastal sailing in an area where you know the wind is normally below 15 knts and shifty, then it may make sense to only have the Oxley. (Or the Bora if under 20 knots and shifty.)

Comments on Rigging

It appears that most users on the Facebook Oxley Owners Group that sail their Oxley on a catamaran, do so with a two guy / two sheet setup; one on each tack. The guys go to a block at the bow and the sheets goes to an aft block and then an aft winch. The idea is that the guy keeps the sail from floating upward (and also in turn causes a lifting motion to the bow) and the sheets allow the sail to be rotated from side to side. In general, the guys do all the work when dead downwind and the sheets are both loose. When sailing on a broad reach, ONE sheet is tensioned to allow the sail to be pulled to leeward. (Not both or the windward sheet with chafe on the lifelines and/or shrouds).


If you look on the Oxley-Sails.com website, you will see the following rigging setup depicted:

Taken from https://oxley-sails.com/en/levante/ - Mar 12, 2023


I think this is just a simplified, 2-line setup that does not allow for easy gybing, but very much welcome any comments or explanations from Oxley or anyone else!



Thoughts, questions? Please let us know!


Mike and Sue
On A New Tack
SV Mira - 2023 Vision 444 ES
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Comments

  1. AnonymousMarch 14, 2023 at 6:06 PM

    Thanks for that super useful…. Will look forward to video…. When do you use the Asym instead?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mike PailMarch 26, 2023 at 10:25 AM

    Thanks for the comment and great question. The Oxley is best from 165 to 165 true wind angles. The Asym is best from 150 to 170 degrees true wind angles. The maximum apparent wind they are good for is similar, but the Oxley does better to stay inflated at very low wind speeds. For a crossing it doesn't matter that much, since we would just turn on a diesel to keep moving, but for general cruising, when we have the time, we have just keep it up in 5 knots of wind and be content. So to answer your question, it depends on the wind angle, wind speed and sea state to some degree. Let me know if that's not clear.

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