Dangers of spinakers
- Thread starter sailnewbie
- Start date
At the end of the day you can (and should) do anything to stay clear if you are not ROW. Luffing the sail is a very specific thing here in this case, and probably not even the best thing to do. My original objection was to your posting it as a general solution to a question posed about how to deal with excess pressure in a kite.True, but there's not much else you can do if some racing newbie on stb-tack, or coming on to one, going up wind decides to cross your line.Or, some aggressive competitor might do it just to try to throw you off your game for spite.
Roll it up and avoid damaging the sail, if you have a top down furler, or put it in the sock, or luff it and wait for the snap of the seams coming apart. One should not be allowing the boat to get into a position of a ROW discussion when flying a kite.
;^)Just because the guy in the blue boat is pushing it doesn't make it ok.
I never push it... FYI not a single protest out of that jam in the pic. At WYC we do 3 races a week like this, 100+ boats. You get more RRS Part 2 'when boats meet' scenarios in a day than most have in a season. So you get good at the rules. And staying in front of the boat so you don't have to 'push it'!
Well, there's this: "BREEZE ON: Heavy Air Downwind Symmetric Spinnaker Sailing"
http://www.sail1design.com/breeze-heavy-air-downwind-symmetric-spinnaker-sailing/
Boat is rounding up:
If the boats roll to leeward, or a big blast starts to lay the boat over then the action to prevent this starts from the back of the boat:
1) Skipper pumps the helm to reattach flow on the rudder.
2) Trimmer eases the spinnaker sheet out – goes with a bigger curl in the luff to depower the sail.
3) Bow dumps the vang to depower the mainsail – keep calling the puffs!
4) Trimmer dumps the spinnaker sheet completely.
Note: Don’t dump the guy off, as the spinnaker will blow out to leeward and have 5 times the heeling moment in it!
5) To recover – pump the helm and bear the boat off to a manageable broad reach heading, retrim the spinnaker sheet and then retrim the vang – off you go again. If you are pinned over – consider blowing the spin halyard, this very often rights the boat on a bad knockdown.
Honestly, you have to go look this stuff up on the internet???? ;^)
That's the last step humanly possible done to save a wipeout. Dumping the sheet? That's not trimming. It's brutal on the sail. Do that on my boat as a matter of trim and I'll throw you off.
Funny but in the same piece it describes heavy air TRIMMING and it says what I said, overtrim. Which is exactly opposite of what you said
before you start to dig this hole of yours.
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It's hard to decide whether something is or is not a "general solution" to a question until one determines what is generally done. If we look around enough it might be discovered that the "general solution(s)" to being overpowered under spinnaker might include all three suggestions: bearing away, easing, and your practice (?) of over sheeting. Obviously, if the boat will not bear away a sheet somewhere probably must be eased or blown. So, yeah--perhaps it is the last thing to do b/f wiping out.
Well hang on. You're not seemingly aware of it, but there IS a general solution to overpowering when a kite is up.
BrianS called the first step when he posted:
Step 1: That's totally correct. Breeze builds, TURN DOWN. Every driver knows this.
Step 2: If pressure builds more OVERTRIM. Trim on, and with a poled kite move the pole forward and trim more to match that. Have vang ready.
Step 3: If you're going to wipe, then as a last resort, DUMP, not EASE the sheet. The sail will flog likes nobodies business. The boat stands up, the drive throws the helm to turn the boat DOWN (step 1 again) and then trim on.
LOL Indeed! ;^)I hope all of this is helping the OP with his question on the arcane nature of "the spinnaker
In the last 5 years in probably 300 races, I have not been protested. There have been a dozen or so cases were a boat broke a rule and did not do turns and I so protested. Won 100% of these. Know the rules, sail by the rules.
Caution: If you use a snuffer sock make SURE you keep the lines that raise/lower the "cone" of it tensioned so it can't flop around. Forestay roller furlers have hardware at the top that can potentially snag a loop, and if you can't lower the cone you also can't lower the sail (even manually). Been there, done that. The wind speed had come up and was getting too strong for the spin -- very scary until I was able to get it sorted out.
PS - Don't use a roller furler while you have the sock raised (that can increase chances of this) and never fly a spinnaker unless the main sail is also raised. It helps balance the rig and reduce rig stress, and you can also use it to "blanket" the spinnaker to reduce wind pressure on it when taking it down.
PS - Don't use a roller furler while you have the sock raised (that can increase chances of this) and never fly a spinnaker unless the main sail is also raised. It helps balance the rig and reduce rig stress, and you can also use it to "blanket" the spinnaker to reduce wind pressure on it when taking it down.
On a cruising boat, the biggest danger IMO is the hassle/distraction of dealing with a symmetrical kite, as opposed to relaxing.. which is the whole reason why I like cruising. With a crew of two we don't see the point. On my current small boat, with it's small amount of storage, I'm debating over getting a bigger headsail vs a asymmetrical spinnaker.
OTOH, Give me an International 505 ( or other go fast dingy/day cat) and I'll do everything in my power to make it go faster, at risk of mayhem due to my own stupidity.
Hey I know, slightly off topic, so back to our regularly scheduled program.
OTOH, Give me an International 505 ( or other go fast dingy/day cat) and I'll do everything in my power to make it go faster, at risk of mayhem due to my own stupidity.
Hey I know, slightly off topic, so back to our regularly scheduled program.
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My experience with spinnakers has always been while racing. I race SF Bay where is gets quite windy and the biggest issue I see is inexperienced crew. It's hard to keep the same crew week after week so I am often out on a boat with folks who don't know the boat well or just don't have much experience with a spinnaker. When the boat starts to get squirrely the crew does not know what to do. Jackdaw's example of sheeting in in a puff is just what I am talking about. How many people know to do that?