A very silly question...

[Giblets]

How can one tell the difference between a cruising chute & a spinnaker by just pulling it out of it's bag?

My little boat came with, what I thought was, a cruising chute but after pulling it out of the bag I'm not so sure. Two of the corners appear to be identical and the third has a larger angle (if that makes sense). Also the material is very lightweight.

TIA

Pete

 

[Little Rascal]

A spinnaker is symmetrical - both luffs will be the same length.

 

[flaming]

How can one tell the difference between a cruising chute & a spinnaker by just pulling it out of it's bag?

My little boat came with, what I thought was, a cruising chute but after pulling it out of the bag I'm not so sure. Two of the corners appear to be identical and the third has a larger angle (if that makes sense). Also the material is very lightweight.

TIA

Pete

Many sailmakers helpfully write the name of the corner on the cloth next to it. So if you have 1 head and 2 clews you have a symmetrical spinnaker, but if you have a head, a clew and a tack, then you have a cruising chute.

 

[sarabande]

could be a floater ? (Not the drainage type )

 

[Wansworth]

"Thats the cruisin chute" the previous ownsr said as he poked a stick at a sail bag.I nodded knowlegably,It will probably say inthe sail bag until I have read the instructions!

 

[William_H]

Spinacker

As said the shape is a good indication especially if you can get it strretched out horizontally and find it has a lot of camber (belly).
Perhaps more significantly the boat will have a spin pole and other gear for a spinacker and no pole or at least not a long pole for the crusiing chute (code 0 jib) Assymetric spin or whatever you like to call it.
Give it a try when you figure it out. good luck olewill

 

[tross]

Try and find the head and then look at the tapes that go down to the clews/tacks. If one has a rope / wire sown it to it then its a cruising chute - if they are the same then it's spinnaker.

 

[aquaplane]

If one has a rope / wire sown it to it then its a cruising chute - if they are the same then it's spinnaker.

Not necessarily, my big sail has tapes on all three sides.
The corners are labelled Head, Tack & Clew which helps.

 

[ianat182]

Normally a symmetrical spinnaker will have taped edges from the head and are usually green on the starboard edge and red on the port edge, white at the foot.
A cruising chute will not have coloured edge tapes but as already said the head clew and tack have their corners so marked, and a 'D' ring as the clew fitting.

In the bag is often a short wire strop, 18" to 3' long, which is attached to the tack corner and the other end to a bow fitting; this can be replaced by a snapshackle and line fed through the bow roller, or a separate pulley block at the bow, and led back to the cockpit to a jambing cleat. This 'tack-line ' is then adjustable for improved trimming and performance, by pulling in tighter the closer to the 50-60degree wind angle, and eased out the further down wind to a maximum of 4 foot or so.

Not all cruising chutes are balloon shaped, there are some cut in a 3 pointed 'star' style and are generally flatter in appearance and allow closer winded use and stability in shape.
Going closer to the wind will increase pressure and heeling, even without the furled jib, but if racing this will be taken into account (assymetric spinnakers are better at this than chutes).

Which ever you end up with practice all aspects, particularly retrieval, this is the nightmare scene for many crews, but need not be if practiced in light airs F2-3max.

Good Luck !

ianat182

 

[Yacht Yogi]

Hoist it and have a look

Why not just hoist your mystery sail? Wait for a very light wind in the right direction and just hoist it while the boat is still moored. Tie one corner to the bow roller, tie a jib sheet to another and the third to the halyard. What shape does it look like when it's up?

 

[Giblets]

Thanks for all your help so far, guys.

I spread the sail out on the lawn earlier and took some snaps of it:-

I leaning more towards a cruising chute based on the info given here and the shape of it. I would expect a spinnaker to be more rounded on both sides. There are no markings at any corner and all edges are taped - no wire or rope sewn into it at all. The right hand side (in the pics) is definitely straighter than the left (but still curved) so would this be the luff? (FWIW the bag it came in has a plastic ring about 2/3rds of the way up from the base which holds it open and a drawstring closing at the top.)

There again perhaps it is a genneka and all I need to do is to rig a withdrawable bowsprit! Better check the Leisure Owners site to see if anyone else has done this.

 

[alahol2]

I would call that a cruising chute. The longer of the two 'sides' being the luff.

 

[Rum_Pirate]

Made by Crusader

Spinnaker
http://www.crusadersails.com/colours_spin.htm

Cruising
http://www.crusadersails.com/colours_cchutes.htm

Asymmetrics
http://www.crusadersails.com/colours_asym.htm

 

[Little Rascal]

Looks like a chute to me...
It is quite flat cut and not symetrical, as you said.

Jon

 

[Red Admiral]

Having neither of these sails but having received some spinnaker frights in the past I seem to believe, rightly or wrongly, that the essential difference is that a spinnaker always flies the same way (same side of sail to the front, port edge always to port, starboard edge always to straboard) but the cruising chute doesn't ie it tacks like a genoa. The cruising chute has a permanent luff and leech; the spinnaker doesn't.

This means only the spinnaker has lower corners marked red or green (and all the spinnakers I've flown had these markings) but a cruising chute cannot be marked in this way. Am I right? If so the sail in the photograph must be a cruising jobby and, if the sail is correctly packed with the three corners on top, can be immediately identified as such.

 

[flaming]

Having neither of these sails but having received some spinnaker frights in the past I seem to believe, rightly or wrongly, that the essential difference is that a spinnaker always flies the same way (same side of sail to the front, port edge always to port, starboard edge always to straboard) but the cruising chute doesn't ie it tacks like a genoa. The cruising chute has a permanent luff and leech; the spinnaker doesn't.

This means only the spinnaker has lower corners marked red or green (and all the spinnakers I've flown had these markings) but a cruising chute cannot be marked in this way. Am I right? If so the sail in the photograph must be a cruising jobby and, if the sail is correctly packed with the three corners on top, can be immediately identified as such.

Pretty much. Most spinnakers have coloured tapes - so one side is green, one red and the bottom white - in addition to the colouring of the corners. And as bowpeople are often working in very wet conditions, and are often asked by those at the back of the bus to clip in spinnakers in double quick time, most sailmakers also write the words head and clew on to help them.

(Yes, my bowgirl might read this...)

However, more recently many sailmakers have also taken to couloring the tapes on Asymmetric kites - big boys cruising chutes if you like - to help the bow team when packing it. You just have to learn what the convention that your sailmaker has chosen is!

Normally - the best way of identifying what a sail is whilst it's in the bag is to read what the sailmaker wrote on the bag....

 

[ianat182]

To prevent a mistake mark the long edge corner TACK ,the othe corner CLEW, and the remaining one HEAD in waterproof marker on the INSIDE of the sail. Pack the sail so that each corner name is on the INSIDE of the turtle ,or sail launching bag, with the head being the last part of the packing.
Remember to secure the bag to the deck, a cleat will do for this and ensure it will feed through the pulpit and clear anchor if mounted there.
When you have rigged it ready for the hoist make sure that all sheets are rigged outside the furled jib and the lifelines, before you hoist.
To avoid having to go forward onto the foredeck attach a thin 4-5mm line to the plunger of the tack snapshackle;leaving the line loose and back to the cockpit. When it is time to lower and retrieve the chute pull this line to free the tack,the tack and the rest of the sail will weathercock with no pressure in it (just a lot of slapping noise) when it can be lowered on its halyard and drawn into the cockpit beneath the boom, thence down the hatch for repacking.
Remember to make sure that the lazy windward sheet can run freely during the retrieve.
The slapping sheets can sting if you get caughtby them.

If the sail is the correct size for your boat the bowsprit should not be needed and there is little enough room on the Leisure foredeck to be a safe place to have to rig and de-rig one. Keep it simple!

ianat182