Cruising-chute foul-ups & solutions

Krusty

Krusty

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I had a few of these with mine in my last twelve years cruising, two-up, without a snuffer.
To help me advise a younger and more intrepid single-hander who has acquired one, with a snuffer, for a conventional 30-foot mast-head sloop, I would like to hear of any problems encountered.
Oh, I know; with a snuffer there are never any problems!
It is the exceptions to that rule I am interested in, and I would be grateful for others' memorable learning experiences to pass on.
 
If you broach and particularly if the sail is wet, you can get a perfect wrap around the forestay. Sometimes the only solution is to sail or motor in circles (in the correct direction of course) until you unwind the problem.
 
Moody Sabre's suggestion is the best get out of jail method if caught out. The chute will then stream to leeward without wind pressure filling it, and eliminate the necessity to go forward where a thrashing windward lazy sheet might whip you. The retrieve is below the boom and into the hatch/bag.
No need to unfurl the genoa to do this, tidy away first ,then unfurl as required.


ianat182
 
I think what people are saying here - without actually being specific - is that if you leave it late to use the snuffer because you didnt notice the increase in wind speed the snuffer may fail to pull down. Then you need a fallback, which it seems you will have practised over the last 12 years. In my experience a quick release on the tack is a very useful device for cruising chute or spinnaker.
 
I have a long tack line which allows me to bring the whole chute under the boom and drop it into the companionway. Head, tack and clews are all snap shackles for a quick release. All done in the cockpit. I temporary hook the shackles on to the safe rail lines to tired up when I've got the boat set for the new course or wind conditions.
 
For an easy life:

Don't hoist or drop a balloony-type front sail without a white front sail up to.

Hoisting. A person at the luff of the white sail should take the luff of the balloony twixt fingers against the lee side of the white sail, resist the hoisting force slightly. This keeps the two luffs together. To the amazement of some, the balloony one will stay stuck to the back of the white one, even when fully up.

Person then opens the gap, and lo and behold, the big one pops open. All fully controlled. Drop white one.

Dropping. White sail up, sheet on big one back to companionway - under the boom (or 'tween boom and mainsail if loose footed), and add a lazy sheet it it's got a bit blowy. Release tack completely. Let halyard off, but ease only at the speed that the gatherer on the steps can match.

Wraps.

Will happen if nobody is trimming it. There is an easy fix. Put a person or rope gybe preventer on the mainsail. Sail 'by the lee'. Wrap will unwrap. If you got the wrap while sailing by the lee, the opposite is true.
 
Thanks for contributions.

In my original post I clearly should have put more emphasis on "Single-Hander"

Wraps will probably give the most difficulty, especially if the wind gets up.
Sailing by the lee, to put the mainsail's vortex on the opposite side is one I had not come across; My solution was to gybe the main to reverse the direction of the vortex and again bring it to the forestay to unwrap the chute; you have to be very smart to tweak the helm away at the right moment to stop it twirling, or you just have another wrap in the other direction!
One twitch after another does it, but if running in a seaway....!

To be relatively free of the problem, a good strategy is to run with the Main double-reefed, or even triple-: it reduces both the strength and height of its vortex. Or no Main at all if you have a snuffer and are not in a hurry?

But perhaps you might as well dispense with the Main and run under Genoa alone: you will not need it to round up to recover a Man-Overboard!

Any comments?
 
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boguing said:
For an easy life:

Don't hoist or drop a balloony-type front sail without a white front sail up to.

Hoisting. A person at the luff of the white sail should take the luff of the balloony twixt fingers against the lee side of the white sail, resist the hoisting force slightly. This keeps the two luffs together. To the amazement of some, the balloony one will stay stuck to the back of the white one, even when fully up.

Person then opens the gap, and lo and behold, the big one pops open. All fully controlled. Drop white one.

Dropping. White sail up, sheet on big one back to companionway - under the boom (or 'tween boom and mainsail if loose footed), and add a lazy sheet it it's got a bit blowy. Release tack completely. Let halyard off, but ease only at the speed that the gatherer on the steps can match.

Wraps.

Will happen if nobody is trimming it. There is an easy fix. Put a person or rope gybe preventer on the mainsail. Sail 'by the lee'. Wrap will unwrap. If you got the wrap while sailing by the lee, the opposite is true.
Click to expand...

We can't deploy or furl our chute with the roller furling genoa set, as the spinnaker halyard used for the former stops the latter from rolling/unrolling properly. When suddenly overpressed yesterday (for the third time) we just had to release the sheet on the cruising chute, then when the gust had passed quickly head for the foredeck to pull down the snuffer.
 
Not mentioned so far:

The snuffer lines need mastering - they're quite capable of wrapping themselves around the sock in various ways if you're inattentive, with the result that either you can't hoist the snuffer coz it's jamming itself, or you can't pull down the sock coz the string has got twisted.

Also, if you launch on one gybe and drop on the other, check that the snuffer lines haven't gone once around the forestay.

Rule of thumb - if you have to put lots of beef into either hoisting the snuffer or hauling it down, something has gone wrong somewhere. Stop, have a good look and sort it out, otherwise you'll likely end up jamming something where it didn't ought to be jammed.
 
I use my chute lots, some may have even seen the pictures.....:D

But sometimes i find that the sail gets twisted inside the sock, and sometimes the sock then wont go up.

I find if i pull some of the sail out of the snuffer it goes up better, but i still sometimes get issues. Once the wind has it, its away, but it can get frusterating at times.

Obviousley i have a swivel fitted, but that seems to be useless!

I usually collapse the leading edge slighlty and the the snuffer is easily pulled down when i need to bring the chute away.

I also use a tacker, expensive but superb. has a quick release system on the tack too
 
Wot Ken ses.
Key ( to me) seems to be when hoisting the sock to verify there are no twists and that the up/down hauls run free. After a bit you get to know just how free they should feel..
I have: two u bolts along the centreline about 600mm apart and set between the mast foot and fore hatch. Each has a snapshackle with its opening jaws upward ready to receive part of the up haul/ down haul line thus preventing twist or wrap- the spare slack is hitched loosely over a mast cleat. The friction of the two snaps hackles is useful to stop the snuffer wanting to open until you are ready
In addition the tack line feeds thru a block at the stem head and thence to a 4 part tackle/jammer/snap shackle rigged permanently sling one toerail.
And in addition I have light line laced in a vee along both sides between the upper lifelines and toerail as far aft as the mast to stop the chute in its snuffer from blowing over the side before or after raising.

And long sheets fed to self tailers and then if you fancy, forward to hand at the mast

Still learning but with that lot, I use the cruising chute a lot- a lot more than i had envisaged- and it is genuinely a useful sail to have up. But, and at 36ft and quite a tall rig, the set up IMO warrants and demands a bit of respect if it were to be allowed
to get out of control.

I have gybed it but tbh it is easier to sock it and reset, to me.


In the event if a jam I would unfurl a bit if genoa and take the halyard tail back to a cockpit halyard winch and drop from ther the whole gubbins under the main and down the companionway a la spinnaker.

And I do have fold out mast steps if one loses something up top.

Hope that helps any fellow singlehanded contemplating ditto.

Oh, and a powerful enough autopilot and windvane will complete the ' dogs doodahs' set-up:)
 
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That sounds good. I have one line 'in' and one out. The inside line does not run in a pocket whereas on my ( not flown in anger single handedly) spinnaker snuffer it does.
 
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Snuffling Tip

Mentioned before but I will stress, roll the genoa BEFORE hoisting the kite in its snuffer or as sure as eggs the snuffer lines will roll up in the genoa. Been there, done that. If windy and the snuffer won't pull down you can unroll the genoa before snuffing back into the sock although the main should give a lee to the cruising chute if you bear away.
It is actually easier to clear away one sail before you have the genoa powered up.
 
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