Can't remember this product

[Ted]

A couple of friends and I were discussing spinnaker packing techniques and none of us could remember the name or manufacturer of this product. It is used to pack a spinnaker using rubber bands which are placed over a tapered cylinder with a wide opening on one end and a smaller opening on the other. It's basically a glorified bucket with the bottom cut out. To use it, you pull the spinnaker through this cylinder and roll off rubber bands at 2-3 foot intervals. This prevents the spinnaker from opening before it is fully hoisted. Does anyone remember this product name or manufacturer?

 

[Weasel]

Hey Ted:

It was called a "Spinnaker Gun" and was plastic. Essentially it was a big funnel. The rubber bands went around the narrow end. You threaded the spinnaker through the wide mouth, put a rubber band on it as it came thru the small end. Dimensions are approximate but the discharge opening was approx 10". They were made out of plastic.

Hope this helps.

Weasel

 

[Joe]

I made one of those out of a short piece of 8" PVC pipe... I smoothed off the edges and strapped it to the compression post in the cabin. I tried the rubber bands... but found strips of yarn to be just as effective. The "gun" set the sail up so the yarn could be easily tied every few feet as it was pulled through.

I also found that packing the sail this way was unnecessary on my 27 footer. I think on a larger boat, 35 feet or more, it would be beneficial for racing sets in windy conditions. It's a common set up on racing boats where you want the sail up but not deployed until the sheet and guy are trimmed.

http://www.sailingmagazine.net/how-to/technique/796-spinnaker-packing-

 

[heart of gold]

Make sure you use the lightest weight of elastic bands when using this thing. A boat I raced on used this setup and sometimes in lighter breezes the chute wouldn't deploy all the way to the top clean right away. Maybe few or none for the top third of the sail would work better.

 

[Liam]

ecco friendly product

Nothing like throwing a hand full of rubber bands into the ocean every time you set the spinny!

 

[Todd Smith]

I have only raced on one boat that does this. All the others ( up to 42 feet ) just hoist the spinnaker unbanded. We douse and hoist from the foward hatch, so nobody has to re-pack the spinnaker anyway.

Use natural rubber bands