Victor, The asymmetrical spinnaker that was on the boat when I
bought her measures; luff 30', leech 28'6", foot 16'. I don't think
the luff could be any longer but the other two could perhaps be
adjusted up or down, depending on what you find. I am only now trying
to figure out how to use this sail, so don't put much faith in what I
write and am only describing this so that if there is a flaw in my
thinking someone might catch it. . . .
I have hoisted her, tied stern to, on the mooring perhaps a dozen
times and under sail twice. Under sail, solo, I had a bit of trouble
hoisting from the foredeck, because the boat would wander and begin to
jibe, (even with the tiller pilot) but from the cockpit there was no
problem. (I pulled on the leech a bit while I hoisted and she went up
without twists.) However dropping the sail was a bit clumsy as the
halyard was cleated off in the cockpit and I wanted to be under the
sail to bring it down. I may get a sock later but want to avoid the
cost just now but still use the sail. Thinking about it later I could
have...
1. Brought the lazy sheet back around to the working side and, using
the cabin top winch as a snubbing post, slowly let out the halyard as
I brought the leech and head into the cockpit or
2. Brought the lazy sheet around and then gone forward and released
the tack's snap shackle. The sail should fly out to leeward
permitting me to bring it to the cockpit. Is there a reason releasing
the tack would be a bad idea? Slacking off the sheets or tack does
nothing to ease the sail, in fact it just becomes more unstable. The
tack is on a 3 part tackle with the working part back to the cockpit.
I have yet to try a jibe but I guess there are two options short
of dropping the sail, jibing and re-hoisting on the new heading.
1) Bring the lazy sheet around in front of the sail and forestay.
Attach the tack aft of the sheet, fasten the head of the sail to the
spinnaker halyard (whose masthead block is a bit forward the forestay
attachment). While jibing, the clew would then fly out in front of
the boat along with the full lengths of both sheets. It should be easy
then to lose one of the sheets, as one takes up and the other goes
slack, and sail over it.
2) Attach the tack, run the lazy sheet in front of the fore stay but
above the tackline and aft of the sail, and attach the head to the
halyard. While jibing the clew would be pulled between the sail and
the forestay keeping the sheets under control perhaps but probably
making it much easier to wrap the forestay. I suspect that it is
mostly a matter of timing since releasing the tack, to give more room
for the pass, would make the sail oscillate and should increase the
chance of a wrap.
I am anxious to try her again, just need to pick the weather. She
certainly isn't nearly as big as she was the first time I hoisted her.
Craig Tern #1519
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