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I have an Aloha 27 and it came with a spinnaker and pole. I've never used the spinnaker since owning the boat (5 months ago) and I'm quite new to sailing.
Where does the pole go?
what line/s do I attach to the spinnaker?
If anyone has an Aloha, can you take pictures of how you rigged up your spinnaker please?
Thanks.
You should have a ring on the front of your mast, either fixed about 5 feet off the deck, or on a sliding track. One end of the pole attaches to that. Make sure that you hang the pole on its pin, don't hook the end over the ring.
Part way upthe mast will be the pole lift, it attaches to the top bridle or ring once the pole is attached to the mast. The downhaul, run through blocks on the deck, attach to the lower bridle. Since this is a high load function, it really should have a full bridle, not a pole mounted ring.
The line that is going to be the the "guy" passes through the other end of the pole, around the forestay and then clips to the "tack" of the spinnaker. Do not clip the pole to the spinnaker. The other line, the sheet simply goes the the other corner, now the clew.
Attach the halyard and you're good to go. You can hoist for just aft of the bow on the leeward side, or from the pulpit. Some boats are rigged to hoist from the companionway but genoas get in the way of this.
There is obviously lots more to all of this, suggest you find some racing how-to books, or perhaps the Harken catalogues for diagrams and set up details.
Practice in light air first. Bring someone along who knows how to fly a kite, will be worth more than his/her weight in beer.
launch and lower the spinnaker from the leeward side, on a broad reach, in the blanket of the mainsail.
Once you get the hang of it, you just might like it for cruising. On a light air run, it's hot, boring and slow with just the main and a limp jib in its shadow. A spinnaker, slightly overtrimmed, can make that leg of your trip fast enough to keep you away from using the engine, and make it more interesting. Just be sure to get it down before any bad weather reaches you.
nolatom, good points all - I would only caution against trying to fly the kite in TOO light air - that can be an exercise in frustration.
Bringing a coach along the first time or two is a great idea, also have your regular crew along at the same time so that everyones on the same page during gybes, sets and takedowns.
The Aloha 27 is a great boat to learn on as the fractional rig keeps the kite an easily manageable size.
Just three things to remember, above all:
Bring someone experienced on board and practice extensively all movements under different wind and possible point of sail conditions before you decide you no more need his services.
Define port and starboard clews beforehand; spinnaker pole is always extended to windward.
Retrieve the spinnaker behind (leeward) the main sail, pulling quickly and letting go down the cabin, where you can sort the bits and pieces afterwards.
PS: Symmetrical spinnakers need constant trimming and balancing, while asymmetricals and gennakers are much easier and safer!
Possibly true, but asymmetricals are far less versatile and cannot be used nearly as deep as a conventional symmetrical chute. True, they require less hardware and so are overall less expensive to set up for, but for all around performance and efficiency I'd go with the symmetrical.
Ideally, carry both types, use the appropriate sail for the conditions and/or the number/experience of crew on board.
Unless you are racing, there really isn't a big need for a full symmetrical spinnaker. Most cruising sailors use an asym or gennaker for simplicity's sake.
Unless you are racing, there really isn't a big need for a full symmetrical spinnaker. Most cruising sailors use an asym or gennaker for simplicity's sake.
Generally agree, except dead downwind in light air. If you have a long cruising leg like that, the old-school spinnaker will pull you straight downwind much better than the assyms, which are good on broad reaches but too much blanketed by the main (like any jib) on a run. And once you get it flying, it's actually simpler than trying to run wing & wing with a jib. You could zig-zag downwind with the gennaker, but now you have a lot more jibing and chart work to do if you're doing DR plotting and "naviguessing"
Besides, the questioner already has a symmetrical spinnaker, and wouldn't have a bowsprit for an assym.
Generally agree, except dead downwind in light air. If you have a long cruising leg like that, the old-school spinnaker will pull you straight downwind much better than the assyms, which are good on broad reaches but too much blanketed by the main (like any jib) on a run. And once you get it flying, it's actually simpler than trying to run wing & wing with a jib. You could zig-zag downwind with the gennaker, but now you have a lot more jibing and chart work to do if you're doing DR plotting and "naviguessing"
Besides, the questioner already has a symmetrical spinnaker, and wouldn't have a bowsprit for an assym.
True, but on my boat, which does have a bowsprit for my screacher sail, and is generally more efficient on a broad reach than a DDW run, the screacher works quite well. This is generally true of alot of multihulls...
I was just mentioning that most non-racers, especially ones who are sailing with a minimal crew, often find the asyms much more conducive to being used often. The efficiency of a symmetrical spinnaker is not worth much if you're finding it too much work to make it worthwhile to hoist and fly.
" The efficiency of a symmetrical spinnaker is not worth much if you're finding it too much work to make it worthwhile to hoist and fly. "
SD - what about the feeling of satisfaction that comes from a good downwind leg sailing deep, accomplishing a couple of gybes without disaster? We find it very rewarding at the end of a good spinnaker run, even, and maybe especially, when cruising.
Where we sail the wind tends to follow geographical terrain, so we often end up either beating or running. A long day downwind reaching can be shortened up considerably sailing deeper. Here we "need" the symm sail.
" The efficiency of a symmetrical spinnaker is not worth much if you're finding it too much work to make it worthwhile to hoist and fly. "
SD - what about the feeling of satisfaction that comes from a good downwind leg sailing deep, accomplishing a couple of gybes without disaster? We find it very rewarding at the end of a good spinnaker run, even, and maybe especially, when cruising.
Where we sail the wind tends to follow geographical terrain, so we often end up either beating or running. A long day downwind reaching can be shortened up considerably sailing deeper. Here we "need" the symm sail.
I'm not saying that there isn't some serious satisfaction to be gained by flying a chute and doing a good job of it... but I'm often single handing, and many others on this site are probably doing the same...and flying a symmetrical spinnaker while single handing is really not all that worthwhile most of the time.
It is a wonderful sailing and visual experience, but it is a royal pita when singlehanding. If I'm going to do it, its more for the "wow factor" of the passengers. (of course, that makes me a "non-sailor" according to the resident barrister)
LOL... it does have a lot of WOW factor and can be visually stunning...but broaching under a spinnaker can also be a bit more excitement than the passengers want.
Broach...
What it is:
When one loses the ability to turn the boat using the rudder and it rounds up so that it is broadside to the wind and heeled over, usually at an extreme angle, one has broached.
Broaching is a sudden change in heading angle of a sailboat, caused by a number of wind/sail interactions. Broaching often leads to capsize, and so it is very undesirable.
Thanks for the explination, I have one more, What is tripping (something along those lines). I read about it when people are talking about big waves and long keels.
Tripping is what happens when a boat gets broadsides to a wave and instead of sliding with the waves motion, the keel gets "caught" and trips the boat, causing it to capsize. It happens with some catamarans as well.
Broach...
What it is:
When one loses the ability to turn the boat using the rudder and it rounds up so that it is broadside to the wind and heeled over, usually at an extreme angle, one has broached.
Note that this description is of a "round up" broach, in which the bow heads up into the wind. There is also a "round down" broach, in which the boat jibes and the wind is on the opposite side of the boat with the sails still trimmed to the other side. In big wind, this stops and typically lays the boat down. Normally, a "round down" is worse than a "round up."
Typical advice, I believe, is to release the sheets to recover, but if you have a preventer on it could be harder.
As for learning to fly a spinnaker, isn't it also common to simply keep the main covered and the genoa below deck, and only focus on the spinnaker to begin with?
Yes Jim, a Chinese is definately worse than a wipe out. It also depends on the type boat ya have. One of the old IOR boats with pinched ends can get real dicey, real fast with a chute up in a breeze. Matter of fact, under spinnaker those boats never really settle down and ya spend a lot of time chasing the chute. Who else out there remembers Bloopers and such on those old Warhorses?
As for learning to fly a spinnaker, isn't it also common to simply keep the main covered and the genoa below deck, and only focus on the spinnaker to begin with?
I would NEVER recommend flying a chute without a mainsail up. It can be surprisingly difficult to douse without being able to hide the sail in the lee of the main, especially if the breeze unexpectedly builds on you.
When recovering from a broach, it is common to release a sheet or a guy, but never release both if you can help it. Release the sheet if you plan to carry on,(retrim when the boat comes back) or release the guy as a prelude to dropping the spinnaker if you've had enough. If you let go of both, then the chute is streaming from the masthead and both lines will be unreachable. In a real breeze (likely already the case if you are broaching) it is a bear to get the sail back on board. and it is slow going to weather with all that nylon flapping in the breeze - not to mention the potential damage to the sail.
Broaching to leeward and planting the pole is no fun... try to avoid running DDW in the heavier breezes, especially of your boat is an older IOR "death roll" machine.
But it's still lots of fun and satisfaction when things go right.
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