ATN News | Race Sponsorship
ATN sponsors the Global Solo Challenge
ATN backs the solo round-the-world Global Solo Challenge, where skipper David Linger put the Gale Sail through conditions no test bench can fake. His review of the storm jib that hoists over a furled headsail is preserved below, word for word.
Why ATN backs a solo round-the-world race
The Global Solo Challenge is a single-handed round-the-world race organized by Marco Nannini: one skipper, one boat, and an ocean that does not care what a brochure says. ATN is a sponsor of the race because it is the honest version of a product test. Gear either works out there or it does not, and there is nobody aboard to help when it does not.
During the 2023-24 edition, GSC skipper David Linger, who has written a number of articles for the race, took a close look at the ATN Gale Sail and published the review below. The race's coverage of the sail also ran on Sail-World as “What are the advantages of the Gale Sail by ATN?”
Editor's note. We host this third-party review on our own site because a skipper preparing for a solo circumnavigation choosing your storm jib says more than any ad copy could. David Linger's text is reproduced verbatim and unedited. More independent quotes, with sources, live on our Press and Reviews page.
Gale Sail Review
Having written a number of articles for the Global Solo Challenge (GSC), I am fast becoming aware of the number of things that there are to learn to partake in this challenge.
I am also in complete awe of the innovations and inventions that are happening, with new solutions to long-standing problems coming in virtually every day. Some of these inventions seem simple, but then you look further and you realise that these innovations are the result of painstaking work and testing.
One firm, which is incidentally one of the sponsors of the GSC, are at the forefront of the provision of sails, solutions and auxiliary equipment is American-based ATN led up by retired offshore yacht racer, Etienne Giroire.
Apart from specialising in producing a high-end range of spinnaker chutes (of which over 30,000 have been sold), this firm has in its portfolio the innovative 'Gale Sail'.
This sail is designated a storm jib (and so as to satisfy the American authorities is available in Day-Glo orange). Now the real advantage to this sail is that it can be hoisted without having to remove the existing furling reefed foresail and does away with the need for a removable headstay.
This development eliminates the somewhat precarious and ultimately dangerous job of unfurling, dropping and stowing away the furled working sail to free up the roller furler and its halyard ready for the storm sail to be attached.
If you have ever tried to do this procedure in windy conditions in a heavy sea, you will understand what I mean by precarious conditions.
The Gale sail is literally wrapped around the tightly furled foresail and hanked into place, it is then hoisted using a spare jib or spinnaker halyard and given that it needs less halyard tension it can be pulled up without much pressure as the luff (pouch) is supported by the wide forward part of the roller furled sail.
This system provides the sail with great shape with fantastic aerodynamics, indeed it is even much better than a conventional storm jib hanked onto a removable headstay,
It is also better than a partially furled sail, which in the majority of cases have not been designed or built for that purpose and that many sails that are used in this fashion would fail any aerodynamic efficiency tests.
A point worth mentioning is that once the Gale Sail is flying, it prevents the accidental unfurling of the furled foresail as there is no load on its furling line anymore and the furled sail is enveloped within the luff pocket of the gale sail.
If you want to learn more and even see a Gale Sail being attached onto a yacht and hoisted in fairly rough conditions then follow this link and head over to https://atninc.com/Products/GaleSail
About the author
David Linger is a Global Solo Challenge skipper and a published contributor to the race's official blog. He took on the 2023-24 edition of the solo round-the-world race, the kind of campaign where a storm jib is chosen on merit, not on marketing. His review above is reproduced exactly as written.
More ATN gear on the race's own pages
The Gale Sail review is not the only place the Global Solo Challenge dug into ATN equipment. Two more features from the race's blog pair with the gear they cover:
- “Spinnaker sleeve, all you need to know” by race organizer Marco Nannini (April 25, 2021): the deep dive into the sleeve Etienne Giroire pioneered, and required reading before shorthanded downwind work. Read it on globalsolochallenge.com, then see the ATN Spinnaker Sleeve.
- “Which is the best way to go up the mast?” by GSC contributing writer Dave Proctor (September 26, 2022): a comparison of mast-climbing methods for the solo sailor. Read it on globalsolochallenge.com, then see the ATN Mastclimber.
- “What are the advantages of the Gale Sail by ATN?”: the race's Gale Sail feature as it ran on Sail-World. Read it on sail-world.com.
The sail in this review
ATN Gale Sail
The storm jib that hoists over your furled headsail: no removable headstay, no foredeck wrestling match, and it works when the weather does not.
See the Gale Sail, sizes and pricingPlanning your own heavy-weather inventory? Talk to Etienne about your storm-sail setup.