Question:Hope to have new spin sheets and soft shackles ready to go soon. I know I need to keep both sheets on, but they are a mess going through the arch legs to have a clean run to the winch. There’s got to be a better way.
Need to have the crew keep the lines managed better during the races. And that crew was me last race.
Big discussion after this last race whether jibing back and forth is the right way or wing-on-wing when the leg is almost DDW. I believe the long boom on my boat shadows the fractional spin too much and you have to go so high to gain speed that so much extra distance is travelled and negates the speed gained. If we trim the main to not shadow the spin, we’re not using our largest sail. This race, we spent most of the last downwind leg with the a-sail wing-on-wing in the light air and passed a Catalina 355 jibing their a-sail.
Maybe I’ll just not race unless two legs are reaches.
Why don't you pre-run your sheets?
Based on wind and course, you know what side you are going to deploy on at the start, so with the kite down the hatch, bring the sheets up and run them around everything, bringing them into the boat at the blocks. Halyard and tackline too.
Even if you find you need to launch from the other side, a crewmember gathers the whole thing up and 'runs it around the forestay'. Then its ready to go on the other side.