Another sail query

[Twister_Ken]

Endeavouring to get up to speed with modern nomenclature (hence my query about the difference between a gennaker and a code zero - answer: there is none, or there is quite a lot, depending on your p-o-v), I have another.

What is a choker? It's an expression I heard used in the bar of a posh, foreign yacht club at the weekend. Someone was singing the praises of his choker which he could apparently carry much closer to the wind than other flying headsails. Is it what used to be called a screacher?

 

[fantasia7628]

What's a screacher?

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

I got the impression his choker was a very flat cut sail.... so poss yes...

 

[jimi]

I thought a choker was a line used for hardening the luff of a gennaker?

 

[Wandering Star]

I thought a choker was what I use to keep my wife out of the cockpit when I'm racing my boat - it increases my chances of winning dramatically.

Cheers, Brian.

 

[jhr]

Endeavouring to get up to speed with modern nomenclature (hence my query about the difference between a gennaker and a code zero - answer: there is none, or there is quite a lot, depending on your p-o-v), I have another.

What is a choker? It's an expression I heard used in the bar of a posh, foreign yacht club at the weekend. Someone was singing the praises of his choker which he could apparently carry much closer to the wind than other flying headsails. Is it what used to be called a screacher?

This brings back memories - I'm sure my old man said that they carried a choker on the original Lutine; I'll ask him. She was a yawl, so I wonder if it's a sail cut specifically for this rig?

 

[Twister_Ken]

Fantasia asked "what is a screacher?"

In my terms, but maybe nobody else's, it is a very flat star-cut reaching spinnaker, which can be carried with the wind a little forward of the beam. Last time I used one was probably mid-80's, but I wouldn't be surprised to find some sailmaker has reinvented it as the choker, and once one sailmaker has a weapon in the armoury, bottom-dollar bet the rest will develop their own variations.

OTOH, my foreign 'friend' might have been referring to a totally different sail.

 

[davidfox]

I thought a choker was a line used for hardening the luff of a gennaker?

Incorrect, - a choker is finding out the the bar is about to close just as you are starting to enjoy yourself.