tacker or related gear

[jipper74]

Hi All,
On my Pearson 30 I have spinnaker with pole, but generally sail shorthanded. Does anyone have comments about their experiences with using a Tacker or the Spinnaker Guy, similar devices that allow one to fly a spinnaker without a pole?

Thanks,
Jason

[RichH]

On my P30 with a symmetrical, I tried several times to tie ("ATN-Tacker" fashion) one of the clews to the forestay and found that the only stability I could get from the Spinnaker was between a beam reach and a mid broad reach. Perhaps the spinnaker was built too full in the head; but, the Symetrical was very unstable when near blanketed by the main.

I eventually settled on simply attaching the clew directly to the pole and both sheets to the other clew ...and kept the pole on one side, usually shallow broad reaching on the other gybe .... or if conditions were light, simply flew the spinnaker with the mainsail on the wrong side (wing and wing fashion).

In light winds flew the spinnaker " dinghy fashion" (no foreguys, lazyguys, etc.)
For dousing in light goling I sometimes would simply unfurl the genoa, tack to a heave-to attitude while pulling the spinn across the fron of the boat and then would "peel" the spinnaker off the genoa/spreaders/mainsail.

An asymmetrical does have benefits especially when single handing.

[jipper74]

RichH,
Thanks for you insight. It sounds as though the Tacker worked, but not as well as hoped for. I guess its real utility is with asymmetrical spinnakers.
Jason