Cruising chute aka divorce sail

tudorsailor

tudorsailor

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What a nightmare. I have a cruising chute that I launch from a Spinnaker bag, and has a snuffer. Having had the cruising chute up with ease previously, I wonder if that was just luck! This cruise saw the chute the twist like an hourglass, and I got a sheet under the hull.

Can I ask how people gybe the chute when short handed. Can Mr and Mrs do this alone? I can certainly get the chute up and flying - most of the time, but even with four people, gybing the chute seems a challenge. I guess snuffing the chute and gybing the sock around the forestay risks getting the long sausage wrapped around the forestay.

I was told that the cruising chute is know as the divorce sail. Now I know why!
Thanks

Tudorsailor
 
tudorsailor said:
What a nightmare. I have a cruising chute that I launch from a Spinnaker bag, and has a snuffer. Having had the cruising chute up with ease previously, I wonder if that was just luck! This cruise saw the chute the twist like an hourglass, and I got a sheet under the hull.

Can I ask how people gybe the chute when short handed. Can Mr and Mrs do this alone? I can certainly get the chute up and flying - most of the time, but even with four people, gybing the chute seems a challenge. I guess snuffing the chute and gybing the sock around the forestay risks getting the long sausage wrapped around the forestay.

I was told that the cruising chute is know as the divorce sail. Now I know why!
Thanks

Tudorsailor
Click to expand...

I had one of them.:p




Now I have got one of these ere Magic Cruising Chute furlers. Simples.....:cool:


PS. Take the sheets round the outside, and gybe it by allowing the sheet all the way out as it goes through the wind, then no need to snuff to gybe
 
If you set the chute tacked down to the stem fitting then gybing should be easy - even single handed.

Make sure the lazy sheet is led "outside everything" (in front of the forestay and the chute luff. As you gybe you slacken the sheet, let the clew out in front of the forestay then pul it round with the new sheet.
 
cruising chute & divorce

Not using a snuffer, I gybe the cruising chute by keeping tension on both sheets as the sail crosses the centreline of the boat; also I free off the tack about a foot to ensure the sail billows forward during change. I think the halyard could be eased to do this, but as the tension is at the lower levels I use the tack line. I have had the wraps before, and this way of doing it seems to work for me. It goes without saying that the gybe is done directly down wind,but course altered as sail crosses the c/l.
Just practice in light winds really.

ianat182
 
I only have one sheet on the cruising chute and sailing with the admiral will only set it if there is a long tack ahead (accompanied by comments like "do have to play with your toys - can't we just sail along normally:rolleyes:). With mates I tie on another sheet, lead it right round the outside, let the chute fly forward and pull in the other sheet. Seems to work without a problem (usually).

Mr Magic furler used to call it "the wife frightener":D.
 
To gybe the cruising chute I have my helm (which is not me if I am short-handed) go deep until the cruising chute collapses. The boat is held on that course while the sheet is tightened sufficiently to get the tack of the chute past the forestay. Only then is the gybe completed while the chute is swiftly sheeted in. This takes a competent helm, and several practice attempts.
 
Just to be different, I haul the main onto the centre line, ensure the apparent wind is 20+degrees off the stern before releasing the chute. When the clew of the chute is ahead of the forestay steer onto the new gybe with the sail acting like a flag. Once onto the new gybe continue until the wind is at +20 degrees off the stern before sheeting on. Trim the main last of all. I gybe a 85sq m assymmetric spinaker on a 12m cat under autohelm this way singlehanded.

Peter.
 
Adonnante said:
Just to be different, I haul the main onto the centre line, ensure the apparent wind is 20+degrees off the stern before releasing the chute. When the clew of the chute is ahead of the forestay steer onto the new gybe with the sail acting like a flag. Once onto the new gybe continue until the wind is at +20 degrees off the stern before sheeting on. Trim the main last of all. I gybe a 85sq m assymmetric spinaker on a 12m cat under autohelm this way singlehanded.

Peter.
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Ditto on a 29ft masthead rigged monohull. Sheeting the main on to the centreline lets the maximum amount of wind past to keep the chute full and could just save your marriage.
Rig both sheets around the outside of the sail. As you bear away to the dead run you have to ease out a great deal of the old sheet so that the sail flies clear in front of the forestay like a flag. Detail somebody to make sure the old sheet runs free and feed it out through the block if necessary. Once the sail is out in front round up fairly quickly on to the new gybe. A certain amount of skill is required in the helm as you need a good rate of turn just as your speed is dropping to its minimum.
 
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I trained SWMBO in racing dinghies .... we had a nice cruising chute on the last boat - didn't use it too often, but SWMBO didn't complain when we did .... and she was the one searching for cruising chutes this year!!
So there u go - train SWMBO in a dinghy and the big boat will be easy!! ;)
 
we always snuff our 120m2 chute when gybing. Have successfully gybed without snuffing but if it wraps it is murder to get off so it is not worth the chance of a wrap. Never had the sausage wrap, I don't see how it could? We throw it round the forestay before hoisting the snuffer.
 
It's really quite easy as long as you do a couple of things.

Firstly, don't worry about snuffing, gybing, re-launching. You can do that, but really, short-handed, you don't want to be spending time on the foredeck hauling away at the sock uphaul.

Secondly (and may he forgive me), you have to ignore what Cerddinen says below:
Cerddinen said:
To gybe the cruising chute I have my helm (which is not me if I am short-handed) go deep until the cruising chute collapses. The boat is held on that course while the sheet is tightened sufficiently to get the tack of the chute past the forestay. Only then is the gybe completed while the chute is swiftly sheeted in. This takes a competent helm, and several practice attempts.
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It would indeed take several practice attempts. Aside from the fact that when Cerddinen refers to the tack he means the clew, it sounds like he's trying to gybe the sail inside its leading edge: a sure recipe for an hourglass wrap. Pulling the clew of the sail inside the forestay while the wind is billowing its bulk out foreward is just asking for a wrap.

Tudorsailor has it:
ianat182 said:
Not using a snuffer, I gybe the cruising chute by keeping tension on both sheets as the sail crosses the centreline of the boat; also I free off the tack about a foot to ensure the sail billows forward during change... It goes without saying that the gybe is done directly down wind,but course altered as sail crosses the c/l.
Just practice in light winds really.
ianat182
Click to expand...

Works fine for me in a 39' with a family&friend crew where I'm the only person actually doing anything.

In heavy airs, make sure you have one or two good crew on hand; but the principle's the same: both sheets go OUTSIDE EVERYTHING so they will meet way out front; you turn DDW letting the old leeward sheet looser and taking in the slack on the shortly-to-be leeward sheet but still (and especially in heavier airs) letting the clew run out forward; then once the boat has passed through DDW you sheet in on the new side. At no point does the bulk of the sail get close to the forestay, and so long as you avoid Cerddinen's advice (really sorry mate), you avoid trying to squeeze the sail inside the forestay at all costs.
 
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