Spinnaker
I'd recommend you pick up a book on basic sailing techniques, but I'll try to give you a brief rundown. The spinnaker head (the top) is attached to the spinnaker halyard, which is run through a block so that the spinnaker will fly outside of the forestay. Because the sail is symmetrical the leach & luff (and the clew and tack) are interchangeable -- which side is which depends on which tack you're on. If you're on a starboard tack (wind coming from the right), the spinnaker pole is attached to ring on the mast and to the tack on the starboard side. The line from that tack back to trimmer is called the guy. The line from the port side tack (currently working as the clew) is call the sheet. One generally trims the guy so that the spinnaker pole is perpendicular to the wind. You then trim the sheet so that the sail is just barely luffing. Other controls that may or may not be present are the uphaul, downhall and topping lift. If the spinnaker pole ring at the mast is fixed on a car that is riding on a track, you will have an uphaul and downhaul to adjust the position of the car up or down. The topping lift is attached to the middle of the pole. These three controls are used to keep the tack of the sail at the desired height (usually at the same height as the clew). When you gybe, the pole is removed from one tack of the sail and moved to other tack (it was formerly the clew). The former sheet becomes the new guy and vice versa. Sometimes people run two lines to each tack. These would be called the lazy sheet and the lazy guy. The lazy sheet is on the same side as the currently active guy and the lazy guy is on the same side as the currently active sheet. When you gybe, all the names are reversed. By the way, all of the sheets and guys are run outside all of the shrouds and lifelines and everything else. They are typically run to turning blocks located as far towards the back of the boat as possible. You many also have a dousing sock that's used to contain the spinnaker and make it easier to put up and take down. I'd highly recommend that you crew with someone that has a spinnaker before trying to use one yourself. Flying a spinnaker and gybing the pole can be pretty tricky. However, it is also a hell of a lot of fun!!!
