ballooner?

[newuser]

The boat I bought has a new sails and one that has never left the bag is labeled as a "ballooner". How is the proper way to rig this sail? The PO said he had never used it at all even though he paid for it, and so he was not any help. What is the difference between this sail and a "drifter" or a spinaker"

Thanks

[Jeff_H]

A ''ballooner'' is a very old name for a spinacker. While I stopped encountering the term in common usage sometime in the 1960''s, sailors who grew up with the term tended to use the term ''Balloner'' for full cut running spinackers. That said I have no idea what is in the sail bag that you have.

Drifters were very light nylon genoas that were often set flying or with a minimal number of hanks. They were used for reaching in extremely light conditions and were flat cut since the apparent wind tends to move forward and they were very stretchy.

Jeff

[kimberlite]

my brand new 2002 boat came with two balooners.
In France they refer to a light gennaker type headsail or a mizzen spinnaker as a balooner.
eric