[NewportNewbie]

I have been wanting to get an Asymmetrical Spinnaker so I can go Pole-less. I have a standard Spinnaker that came with the boat that has never been used. I saw that the ATN Tacker attaches the clew to the furled headsail and lets you fly it like a Assy Spinnaker. Seems like a cool way to use the Symmetrical Spinnaker without the pole....

 

[jimrafford]

I have one. Waste of money. It now is used to hang my hammock. Just run a line from the tack of the chute thru the anchor roller back to a cleat.
Jim

 

[Minnesail]

I have been wanting to get an Asymmetrical Spinnaker so I can go Pole-less. I have a standard Spinnaker that came with the boat that has never been used. I saw that the ATN Tacker attaches the clew to the furled headsail and lets you fly it like a Assy Spinnaker. Seems like a cool way to use the Symmetrical Spinnaker without the pole....

I have extensive experience with an ATN Tacker, in that I once helped someone take one out of the package. We rigged it and flew the asymmetrical while tied up to a dock in a 1-2 knot breeze. We tacked it once, then took it down.

Worked great in those conditions.

 

[SloopJonB]

I have one. Waste of money. It now is used to hang my hammock. Just run a line from the tack of the chute thru the anchor roller back to a cleat.
Jim

Done a fair bit of that on a Hunter 38 - works quite well. When you know what height works for the tack, you can make up a strop instead of using a running line back to the cockpit. We got lucky and started with a strop I had on hand and it turned out to be the perfect length.

You don't want the tack to fly too high or the chute will roll back too far. That is supposedly the benefit of the Tacker - it holds the tack on the headstay.

You can accomplish the same thing with a piece of rigging wire and some parrel beads if you want to get the tack up high off the deck.

 

[Alive3and3Well]

ATN Snuffer with an Asymmetrical spinnaker was one of my best sailing investments. Greatly increased foresail sail area to enhance sailing in light wind. Of course, down wind sailing ability is enhanced, but I was impressed with the sails ability to close haul.

Snuffing and unsnuffing is a breeze.

 

[jackdale]

I have used ATN Tackers on several boats. They are somewhat misnamed - they should be called gybers.

I have used them from a close reach to a dead run. They provide some control over the tack of a gennaker. They allow for a tighter close reach and provide for more stability on a run. (I actually prefer to broad reach and gybe.) On a close reach harden uo the luff by bringing the tack down. On a broad reach ease the tacker and fly the gennaker just as you would a spinnaker by watching the shoulder.

I have use the fabric versions, but I find that they do not slide along the furled genoa as well.

When I started flying gennakers we had hank-on foresails sails. We used a hank on the tack to slide slide on the forestay.

DDW

Close reach (fabric tacker)

 

[MikeOReilly]

You can accomplish the same thing with a piece of rigging wire and some parrel beads if you want to get the tack up high off the deck.

This is exactly our setup. Lets me set the tack hight and adjust the luff tension on our genniker. I looked at the ATN tacker, but thought the bead arrangement would be better. Don't know b/c I've never used the tacker. The beads are certainly a lot cheaper

 

[Alex W]

I had trouble with beads catching on the jib sheets as you raise and lower the tack. I gave up on them and went back to just flying it off of the tack line. If I'm flying the asym deep I just put it on the pole like a symmetric spinnaker, that works a lot better than the beads or tacker and isn't much work.

 

[SailingJackson]

I have been wanting to get an Asymmetrical Spinnaker so I can go Pole-less. I have a standard Spinnaker that came with the boat that has never been used. I saw that the ATN Tacker attaches the clew to the furled headsail and lets you fly it like a Assy Spinnaker. Seems like a cool way to use the Symmetrical Spinnaker without the pole....

I'm on the side of the positive reviews here. I had one on my 25' boat and now use one on my 36' boat. It was nice sometimes on the 25', it's essential on the 36' boat. The bigger the boat is, the more important it is. My sail is 1000 sq ft and it really helps to manage it. A couple of points here:

1. Only really important down wind. It doesn't matter if you're higher than a broad reach. Beam reach and it's pointless. Helps when you want to let out the tack and let the sail run high.
2. Run a safety line. With all the confusion and commotion of taking down a sail when the wind gets too strong it's easy to have the thing go overboard.

GTJ

 

[Yorksailor]

In Jack's second picture, even though he is in very light winds, the roller furling foil is already bending. If the wind suddenly piped up to 20+ knots I think the foil would be damaged.

Because of this I have stopped using mine and gone back to a tack line off a block on the bow roller.

 

[obelisk]

I run my tack under the spare bow roller and back to the genoa halyard winch on the mast which makes it possible to really tighten up on the luff by pulling the tack down near very near the bow roller when reaching. This way, i can fly my gennaker with the apparent wind well forward of the beam with winds to about 15kt true. It's not something I set out to do but It eliminates the need to drop the chute and pull out the genny when trying to make those last couple miles after the wind has shifted a bit. That said, it is a relatively heavy duty asym at 1.5oz.

The luff will come pretty flat before it wants to curl and collapse in on itself

I have no experience with the ATN tacker, would someone please enlighten me to the benefits? It seems like another extra piece of equipment to deal with...

 

[svHyLyte]

We have used both Parrel beads and the ATN Tacker. Both work but the Tacker is somewhat better at passing over the furled headsail (a good coating of SailKote helps). On that subject, we do not allow the sheets from the jib to coil down and around the furled sail so that the tacker must slide over them but keep them tight between the sail and the sheet leads. The tightened jib sheets act as preventers to disallow the spinnakers to wrap inside the furled jib and the mast; and, as a positive "stop" to limit the Tacker's vertical range of motion, in our case about 12-14 feet above the stemhead.

With both the symmetric and asymmetric, the tack line passes through a snatch-block at the bow roller and can be adjusted up-or down quite easily using a cabin-top winch. The tacker is really unnecessary for the asymmetric but quite useful for the symmetric (in our case 1500+ sf) which we can carry from about 60º to 140º apparent with apparent winds up to about 12-15 knts. With both sails we use "inside gybes" with the lazy sheets passing forward of the headstay but aft of the tack/luff of the sail, which keeps things under control as one gybes and the lazy sheet out from under the boat.

FWIW...

 

[vtsailguy]

I have used ATN Tackers on several boats. They are somewhat misnamed - they should be called gybers.

I have used them from a close reach to a dead run. They provide some control over the tack of a gennaker. They allow for a tighter close reach and provide for more stability on a run. (I actually prefer to broad reach and gybe.) On a close reach harden uo the luff by bringing the tack down. On a broad reach ease the tacker and fly the gennaker just as you would a spinnaker by watching the shoulder.

I have had the same experience with a symmetrical spinnaker and an ATN Tacker on a 41' tartan. In <5 knots, I can fly it solo. In <10 knots two can I fly it easily. There is no way I could manage a traditional spinn to the same degree. It would stay in its bag.