can i use spinnker at a geneo

[smallboatlover]

i have a spinnaker i was wondering in very light winds could i use my spinnker as a jib or genoa? what would happed if i did? could i even do it?

[Faster]

If it's an asymmetrical spinnaker you can 'close reach' with it in light air... but you won't be able to get close hauled like you would with a jib or genoa. A symmetrical spinnaker can get to a beam reach, not much above that...

Fly the sail with about 6" to a foot of halyard between sail and block.. if the angle of the halyard starts to point abeam or aft it's probably not working as well for you as a jib might .

[smallboatlover]

should i use the spinnaker haylard or the jib haylard? i will clip one side to the bow of the deck like i would with the jib raise the spinnker like i would the jib and just sail like that right?

[Faster]

Originally Posted by smallboatlover

should i use the spinnaker haylard or the jib haylard? i will clip one side to the bow of the deck like i would with the jib raise the spinnker like i would the jib and just sail like that right?

sbl..

It depends... If you take the sail and fold it vertically down the center to the lower corners (clews) line up with each other?? If so it's a symmetrical spinn and should be flown from the end of a spinnaker pole.

If you so fold the sail and the corners don't match, then you have an asymmetrical which is meant to attach to a tack line off the deck, often with a collar or a ring around the headstay/furled headsail. Newer sport boats use an extendable sprit for the same purpose.

So if it's symmetrical there should be a pole, as well as rigging to support the pole and to prevent the pole from lifting too high (up haul and down haul)

Either way you should use the spinnaker halyard because it will exit above the forestay and will avoid chafing the halyard, and avoid the unfair lead that a jib halyard is not typically designed to take.

Have a look at this page for some ideas:

Sail-World.com : Mistral Championship Regatta 2011, held 16th & 17th April 2011

and here's a google image search that might help:

spinnaker rigging - Google Search

[nolatom]

You can't really use a symmetrical (pole) spinny as a genoa, at least not if you expect to make good anything above a beam reach, and then only if it's not blowing hard, which would heel you too much.

With an assym (bow or bowsprit) spinny, a really flat one (code zero or one) can be sort of a genny, might get you up to almost a close reach. But a baggy one like a Code 3,4, 5, is just going to be too "full" and curvy to be a jib. Jibs are flatter, hence have a much narrower angle of attack at the luff, so can point higher without backwinding and collapsing.

also, reaching with spinnakers entails a lot of side force, and not that much forward lift, unlike a jib. And you can get lee helm as a result. Also they can backwind your mainsail, whereas a jib (reaching or above) will complement your main by directing and accellerating the windflow over the outside of the main, generating more lift/speed. Spinnys want to take you where the wind is blowing towards (which on a reach is leeward). Jibs want to give you lift that helps you go into the wind.

And you can't tack a spin, it'll invariably end up caught behind the headstay on the new "tack".

[tommays]

we still have and old star cut reacher that works well on the pole from the before code days