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How do YOU fly your spi?

2K views 13 replies 10 participants last post by  Blue Eagle 
#1 ·
OK, for a while now I have been wanting to ask you guys this question, just so I can see how the different people do their thing, and how different each one is. Spinnaker flying is almost like a preference thing, I think.

How do YOU fly your Spinaker??, what winds, how do you pole it (type of pole, attachment at mast, up haul location), what spis you have, how you gybe, do you use it when cruising, do you use barber hauls etc.

Please include as much as you can, ok? do you have a sock or a bag, do you start with the pole in place and lead the sheets and hauls, do you hois and pole after...how do you hoist it..etc.

Please only serious answers (just this once, ok??).

Thanks
 
#2 ·
I'll tell you how the boat I used to race on does it. These guys were idiots but they were fun idiots.

It's an old Jboat, so to make them feel like they had a new jboat with one of those extendable carbon fiber sprits they lashed an old spinaker pole to bow sticking out about 4 feet. at least they have the good sense to put a downstay on it, but still manage to break it just about every time out. Then they rig an asymetrical, they put the sheet outside the front stay, but _inside_ the spinnaker itself, so basically inside jibe. I have no idea why they don't outside jibe, it's soooo much easier (as long as you dont' sail over the lazy sheet. heh), but hey, I just do what they say and have fun making jokes to myself about their incompetence. The bag is pulled out of the locker when ready to go and velcrod to the bow pulpit if I remember properly, when it's time it's hoisted from the mast as fast as possible. Dowsing is the 'new guy does it' method of chasing it all over and stuffing it down the hatch while everyone else shouts encouragement and ridicule and blames him for losing the race. (did I mention these guys are idiots)

Usually the 'bow sprit' breaks though, then anything can happen, usually something bad. No-one has died yet though to my knowledge.
 
#3 · (Edited)
Okay - serious huh ? Well - I don't race much anymore, so if I use the spinnaker, it is usually in lighter winds, when we are feeling energetic enough, and I have a crew memebr on board who is fairly competent. Had a barebones arrangement on the last boat - tri-radial chute, halyard, snuffer, sheet, guy and combination whisker/spinnaker pole (telescopic). Topping lift for the pole, on a bridle - not an eye on the pole itself.

Like to jibe in an end-for end pass-thru fashion (I think most people do this).

When we hoist, we attach the pole to the lift and the adjustable mast eye, leaving the end of the pole on the deck. Then we hoist the chute quickly about 3/4 of the way, attach the pole and then finish hoisting and trimming. For jibing we just detach the pole from the mast - attach it to the sheet and hook the other end on to the mast (hopefully as the boat is turning, but we have been known to screw this up occasionally :) ).



This new boat we just got has a few more control options on it, but truth be told - I doubt that we'll ever use them, unless we decide to get serious about a club race or something.

I find that I am using the chute less and less, as I get older and lazier. I also don't like to use them on a reach unless there is an experienced crew aboard, and I am finding I don't much like having people with me on the boat any more...
 
#5 ·
I'll let you know. I have a cruising asymmetrical I only used twice on the old boat and I want to try it on the new boat (similar mast height but five feet more in the J measurement, so it may not work properly. On the other hand, I now have a big bowsprit on which I can snap on a nice block for a proper tack downhaul. If I can use it, I will, as it cost me $3,000 and I don't want the old boat's babysitter to have it (he can use my real spinnaker!)
 
#6 ·
I have only symetrical chutes, I have an old 3/4 oz that I use for cruising and a new 1/2 oz that I use for racing. At this point I only race my boat in single-handed and double-handed races.

Whether single-hand or with crew, I will throw up the chute if I have more than a couple miles to go downind pretty much in anything less than 16 knots true. I use a conventional aluminum pole that I end for end and frankly find a single-hand jibe with a symetrical chute less risky than jibing an assymetrical alone.

I don't believe in using spinnaker socks. It is a reliablity thing since I am generally shorthanded and can't afford to risk having to deal with a jambed sock or a wrap. I raise from the leeward rail behind the jib and do a 'flag' drop behind the mainsail and down into the main companionway.

I use single guys and sheets. I use snatch blocks on the rail for the 'twings' which I can run back to winches, however I rarely rig the twings when cruising or daysailing. Instead I simply place the guy in the snatch block.

To jibe I turn roughly 170 deg off the true wind on my current tack and set the autopilot. I square the pole and ease the sheet. The proper settings for the sheet and guy are marked on both sheets and the sheet and guy are set to those positions. I ease the topping lift a couple inches and then I walk forward down the leeward side of the boat putting the sheet into the twing snatch block as I pass it. Once forward I jibe the pole leaving the chute free flying. Depending on the windspeed, in light air I will grab the boom and push it over as I walk aft. In heavier air I will hit the autopilot 20 degrees to leeward and as the boat swings, jibe the mainsail. I then remove the sheet from the twing snatch block and then I come to course and adjust the guy, then sheet to the new course. Lastly I re-tention the pole lift and foreguy. Its not exactly a racing jibe but it is much faster than it sounds here.

Jeff
 
#7 ·
Pole is attached to mast at the start of the race, launch bag on bow(unless it's really rough) with guy and sheet attached,guy through jaws assuming starboard tack down hill. As we approach w/w mark we take in a few turns on the furler to avoid wrapping the spin halyard when we hoist.Then we raise the pole into position. At one boat length we come in hot and start to hoist while cheating the luff of the chute out to the pole at the same time. i usually let the head fly about 18" from the mast to make sure the jib doesn't get fouled when we finish furling.The guy is always through a snatch block on the rail and If I'm dead downwind in a blow I'll run the sheet through a snatch block to help minimize sail oscillations.
Our j is 9'6" so we end for end. Both lines through snatch blocks.We head close to d/dw detach the pole from mast ,Clip onto sheet, I call for slack on the sheet(at this point main is jibed) push pole out to new Guy side, release the old Guy bring Pole to mast clip in and yell "Made". At this point we usually remove the sheet from the snatch block.
 
#8 ·
On my last boat (my new boat doesn't have a spinnaker yet) I used an asymmetric with a dousing sock. No pole or other stuff. I would fly the chute when the apparent wind was 10 kts or less, the AWA was 65 degrees or higher, and I would be heading in that direction for at least 2 hours.

For daysailing I used it on the way back (we usually beat upwind to start then sail downwind home) and for cruises (not many and not too long) whenever we had suitable weather.

Last year, on the return from Northport (NY) to Mt. Sinai we flew it for 5 hours (mostly the entire way).

Barry
 
#9 ·
On my boat, I have a screacher that is set on a roller furling unit on the 4' bowsprit. Very easy to deploy and use... :D A lot of fun in lighter winds...
 
#11 ·
Jeff_H said:
Alex,

Just out of curiousity, What was your point in asking this question?

Jeff
Hi Jeff, just curious really, trying to see how and what you guys use there, to comapre with us here, but ..its not working the way I wanted. Thanks for the answers so far. Here we use the spinnaker a lot, specially if you are sailing from Cascais to Lisbon in the afternoon...or the other way around in the morning.

I was expecting people to say, I have such and such spinnaker, on a boat like such, because I sail like such, I hoist it with a sock or no sock, I attach the pole before then the guy or I attach the guy then the mast, I have a mast track or not..I use it when I cruise, I don't use it when I cruise..I tack with two poles or with double sheet method..then based on the answers I would devolp my questions ...oh well...:( :( :(

Thanks for your answer, anyway;)
 
#13 ·
ok G here's the rest of the story. Single lines, no sock, we do stop it in very heavy air, I dont cruise I only race, 1" track with ring on mast, T/L,Halyard through clutches,hoist behind main, douse behind main, end for end jibe.
all lines led aft through turning blocks, guy through snatch block, sheet through snatchblock when dead down wind in a blow.
 
#14 · (Edited)
Flying a symmetrical on a Ted Brewer "Douglas 32" a-like

Hi Giulietta,

Not that it's that relevant due to major differences in our boat builds and equipment, but for what it's worth here's my way of doing it... bear in mind that my halyards terminate at the mast, I don't have any rope clutches, and I don't have an autopilot and you'll see why I like to have three people on board to throw the garish sail up...

I have a symmetrical spinnaker which I launch from a bag on the foredeck to leeward of the No.1 genoa. I use single lines either side and snap the guy into the jaws of the pole (which by now is clamped onto the sliding ring on the mast track, and resting on the pulpit to weather of the forestays) before topping the pole, launching the spinnaker and then adjusting first guy then sheet, followed by the pole downhaul.

I gybe it end-for-end collecting the old sheet in the jaws before releasing the guy, reattaching the pole on the mast (back-to-front, if you will) and re-setting both new guy and new sheet on the new tack.

To drop, I hoist the genoa inside the spinnaker, head up, ease the guy and lower the pole onto the pulpit, then have a crewmember recover the sail from behind the leech of the genoa and beneath the boom of the main, stuffing it down the main hatch as I lower away on the halyard.

The guy and sheet run right the way aft, through turning blocks attached to the toerail, and round two single-speed non-self-tailing winches before being cleated off on either side of the cockpit.

In Hong Kong's fluky winds you really want one guy to launch, one guy to trim and one guy to steer, as you trim by sitting on the pushpit rail with the sheet in one hand and the guy in the other!

Fair winds and plenty of 'em!

Blue Eagle

 
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