Hi All,
I am crew on a boat that has been racing JAM for the past 5-ish years, going from a completely inexperienced team finishing mostly last, to regularly winning the Spring/Summer/Fall series' over the last 2+ years. The skipper, and at least one of the other crew members (there are five of us on the boat total) are eager to "graduate" to the Spinnaker fleet, but NONE of us has Spinnaker experience.
Are we crazy? At this point, I have already voiced my concerns, particularly when we see the experienced Spinnaker boats hourglass their spinnakers or broach during a race, so I am pretty much resigned to going along with whatever the rest of the team wants to do. But I'm just wondering if we're truly being foolish, or if I'm being overly concerned.
The problem is we have NOT practiced with the spinnaker, and we likely won't. We had planned to, but it seems the crew cannot/will not dedicate any time outside of the regular Wednesday Night Beer Can race to practice, and the plan is to simply get out there and "practice" during the race. the most we've done is watch Youtube videos on spinnaker sailing.
The boat is a Ranger 26-2. And we would ONLY attempt sailing with the spinnaker in light/mild wind conditions until we developed a sense of proficiency. The plan currently is to start racing in the Spinnaker Fleet in the Summer Series, which is about five weeks from now.
Thanks all!
I am crew on a boat that has been racing JAM for the past 5-ish years, going from a completely inexperienced team finishing mostly last, to regularly winning the Spring/Summer/Fall series' over the last 2+ years. The skipper, and at least one of the other crew members (there are five of us on the boat total) are eager to "graduate" to the Spinnaker fleet, but NONE of us has Spinnaker experience.
Are we crazy? At this point, I have already voiced my concerns, particularly when we see the experienced Spinnaker boats hourglass their spinnakers or broach during a race, so I am pretty much resigned to going along with whatever the rest of the team wants to do. But I'm just wondering if we're truly being foolish, or if I'm being overly concerned.
The problem is we have NOT practiced with the spinnaker, and we likely won't. We had planned to, but it seems the crew cannot/will not dedicate any time outside of the regular Wednesday Night Beer Can race to practice, and the plan is to simply get out there and "practice" during the race. the most we've done is watch Youtube videos on spinnaker sailing.
The boat is a Ranger 26-2. And we would ONLY attempt sailing with the spinnaker in light/mild wind conditions until we developed a sense of proficiency. The plan currently is to start racing in the Spinnaker Fleet in the Summer Series, which is about five weeks from now.
Thanks all!