Gybing is not so hard. Although we only fly in manageable wind.
If I'm working the foredeck for a gybe, and the wind is not so strong, I'll stand with my back to the mast facing forward, and as the helmsman gets close to a dead downwind course,
I'll unclip the pole first from the mast and then from the guy, leaving whoever is trimming to clip fly the spinnaker poleless. Next I pull the cable to open the spin pole jaws and hook the sheet and then clip the other end of the
pole to the mast ring. At this point , the main is ready to pull over, I tell the helmsman "made" and she pulls the main over as she turns the boat.
The guy is just the sheet that is in the jaws of the spinnaker. The sheet is the line that is trimmed, so as you gybe, the sheet and guy change names. We have different colored sheets (red and green), which causes less
confusion. Rather than say, ease the guy, we will say ease the green or ease the red (depending on which one is the current guy).
Other tips: if you get hit by a big shift, and really heel over, steer downwind. If you are getting overpowered, ease the sheet rather than the guy.
We get some really shifty big gusts in our little boat, and when we get into trouble, we blow the halyard rather than the sheets. The halyard is long enough so that the spinnaker can lay out flat and still not run out of the clutch if
we let it go. You've probably seen videos on youtube of boats whose spinnaker is way up in the sky like a kite because the sheets were dumped and the halyard is still tight.
It seems to make more sense to drop the halyard and haul in the sheets, so that spinnaker it attached lower on the boat (rather than the top of the mast) to avoid a broach.
Usually if we drop the halyard, we are too big of sissies to haul it back up and continue on in gusty conditions, but in theory, you could haul it back up and continue on.
I got this idea of dumping the halyard from watching youtube. Although the Melges use asymmetrical spinnaker, they are fun to watch and learn from, as they wipe out a lot.
Here's a video of Melges sailing in stronger winds:
Note that around 6:12 the boat that drops the halyard rehoists and keeps going. Earlier in the vid, you can see boats in trouble with the spinnaker flying wildly from the top of the mast. -Tim
________________________________
From: Craig vegatern@...
To:
AlbinVega@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Thursday, November 8, 2012 7:58 PM
Subject: [AlbinVega] Re: Spinnaker setup?
It has been a couple of years since I flew the symmetrical. After I began using the asem I found that one so much easier that I brought the symmetrical home. I've always felt a little guilty that I gave up and had never gotten comfortable with it, so this thread is good in that it will get me to take the sail back to the boat.
The down haul is necessary in that it keeps the pole, and sail, down. I ran it to a padeye mounted on the cabin top just forward of the fore hatch. If I recall it is a couple of single blocks. The tail comes back to the cockpit and is well secured to cleat, not a cam cleat. As mentioned the sheet and guy go to the stern quarters at the pulpit. There should be a tab low on the front leg of the pulpit. The genoa track won't bring the sheet far enough back. I always hoisted with a smaller jib, rather than from behind the genoa, because I wanted the jib to fall on deck without my needing to attend to it, and I pulled the jib down, after the spin hoist, with a downhaul on the jib.
There was a sock on the boat when I bought her and I tried to figure out how I could use it but 2 additional lines were just too much, and I gave up.
It is worth marking the halyard where she will be cleated with the sail up. From the cockpit it is difficult to know if she's home and its easier to trim if there is not 2 feet of halyard yet to pull up. . . . and perhaps installing a stopper at the halyard shackle, so that it won't be possible to jam the splice in the block at the top of the mast (though perhaps that's a scenario that only haunts me).
I hoisted from the port bow, pole to starboard, the guy to stern quarter and back to the starboard sheet winch. The sheet came back to the port quarter and then to a winch on the cabin top, because the port sheet winch had the jib. It should not be difficult to cleat off the jib and bring the spin sheet to the winch though.
I never learned to gibe her so I would make my run and then bring the sail down to the cockpit. Ease the guy to the forestay ( I made up a short line that would clip from the pole to the chain plates which kept the pole from actually reaching the forestay) blanket the spin, grasp the leech, release the guy then the halyard and pull her down. If the halyard had been dropped down the companionway to keep the deck clear it would have been a good idea to put a beach towel under the sink pedals to avoid it hanging up, and a big surprise at an awkward moment.
This has been good, It helps me think it through again. My issue I think was that I like to at least feel that I have some control over my little world, and flying the symmetrical I felt I was right on the edge. It was exciting though.
(Over trimming a little helped the control issue some.)
Craig Tern V1519
