Chicken Chute

[Boat n Bus]

I have what has been described to me as a 'chicken chute'. It is pretty much a pint size spinnaker. I run it up a line attached to the mast just above the spreaders. I have used a whisker pole with it once but I am hoping someone out there has more experience with something like this than I do. I am no stranger to kites (racing foredeck on E37) but I want to know more about my application, i.e., topping lift(?), sheets, guys etc. Thank you, Gerard

 

[higgs]

How big is your jib?

If you have a 150 I would think you would be better off poling it out going downwind because it probably has more sail area than the spinnaker you describe.

 

[Boat n Bus]

The jib

I've got two jibs and even the smaller 90% looks like it has more sail area than the chute. My mini-kite is a rad sail and I just wanna throw it up there. I want style points

 

[higgs]

Topping lift

It sounds like you are using your pole topping lift as a halyard. Be sure it is strong enough for that. I would think you will still need some type of topping lift for your pole as well as a downhaul for it. The downhaul can run to a block on the stemhead fitting. You will need a sheet and a guy probably back to your two aft corners and forwzrd again to your winches - good place to use snatch blocks.i would think that would get you flying. Hopefully your whisker pole will be heavy enough since the spinnaker is so small. If it is one of those nice telescoping poles, they are not cheap.

 

[Boat n Bus]

Limited halyards

Thanks Higgs for hitting me back. I have no choice really but to run the kite off of the topping lift. I only have a main and a jib halyard running to the top of the mast and when I tried to hoist the kite on the jib halyard, the foot was way to high off the deck for a pole to even attach to a clew. I wish I had a pic, but the sail seems like it is either better suited to fly inside the the headstay or on a smaller boat.