My spinnaker has a snuffer which as has been indicated is its own challenge. It means that you have to go forward when hoisting and dropping the sail. In preparation for hoisting, the sheet is run outside of everything to a block at the stern and a tack line is run through a block at the bow and back to the cockpit. The sail in its snuffer is hoisted and then the sock is raised and the snuffer line is cleated at the mast. The tack line and sheet are trimmed and the fun continues. Certainly there are advantages to launching the sail from a bag, as I have done on my other boats, but I still enjoy my snuffer!
Consider to change the length of the snuffer control line, add a double block to the rail, and run the control line back to the cockpit. Do all the 'raising/dowsing' from the cockpit once the spinn + snuffer is 'up'. Then you can go forward when the spinn in inside the snuffer, etc.
I agree with others with the 'unneeded complexity' that a snuffer adds to (asymmetric or symmetric) spinnaker handling on small to moderate sized boats. Best is to raise the spinnaker without a snuffer from a 'turtle' etc. attached to the (portside ) rail and with all the sheets, etc already 'premarked' and set to cleats. As long as you put the spinn into the turtle, etc. with the leech and luff tapes parallel and the sail not twisted, 99% of the time the sail will set without 'bother' .... and no 'complexity' to trip over. The FASTER you get the spinn up or down, leaves less time to 'wrap' it around the forestay !!!!!!!!!.
Dousing without a snuffer/sock means that you have to leave the cockpit and go forward to stuff the sail into the 'turtle' as it comes down (usually pulling it into the bag as fast as the sail is 'dropping'), .... made 'safer' if you have your halyard 'premarked' and with a large 'terminal knot' so that the halyard doesnt 'get away' or disappear into the mast, or the sail in the water and now under the bow!!!!.
A GOOD method of dousing when single handed on a smaller boat is to TACK through the eye of the wind into a HOVE-TO (on starboard) position, lay the spinn onto the main, the wind pressure will keep the spinn 'stuck' to the windward side of the mainsail, release the halyard to its (cleated) end .... and simply PEEL (pull down) the spinnaker off the windward side of the mainsail and rigging. Obviously, you cant have
any 'sharp' edges, etc. on the rigging, etc. For an asymmetrical, you TACK through the eye of the wind, release the tack line ( to a 'premark' on the tack line) that allows the spinnaker luff/tack to be somewhere midway between the forestay and the mast, and when going forward simply pull the excess flapping sail back and onto the windward side of mainsail..... etc., etc.
Wraps - Not a problem, as eventually the most proficient spinn handlers WILL wrap the spinn around the forestay. The wind wrapped the spinn around the forestay - USE THE WIND to unwrap it.
A. NEVER EVER pull on the leech or luff if you have a 'wrap' as it will only 'tighten' the knot.
B. Instead, quickly put a preventer on the aft end of the boom, set the preventer so that the prevented boom/main is held forward ... as far as it will go forward.
Slowly GYBE the boat back and forth as you watch which way the 'bubble' rotates as you continually and slowly gybe to unwrap. If the bubble is wrapping more, GYBE the mainsail/boom over and reset the preventer on the other side, and then continue to slowly gybe back and forth to UNWRAP the WRAP, using the prevented mainsail to 'steer the wind' to unwind the bubble as you slowly gybe back and forth with a prevented mainsail. If you single hand a spinnaker a lot, I would suggest that the preventer be permanently affixed to the boom ... saves time and lessens the 'panic' and 'angst'.
hope this helps.
