Cruising chute & snuffer

F

fjweaver

Well-Known Member
Joined
16 May 2001
Messages
256
Location
Middlesex
Visit site
I bought a snuffer for my cruising chute last year but haven't used it yet and it's first proper outing will be in the RTIR in a couple of weeks, although we'll have a bit of a practice before.

My question is when using a snuffer do you leave the chute up ready for use when 'snuffed' , or lay it down one of the sides or stow it thru the front hatch ?

we only have a small self tacking jib so don't think it will interfere at the bow

thanks
Frank
 
You won't want to keep the chute hoist in the snuffer - it will crash around something horrible and ruin the airflow over your sails. The exception might be if you have a down-wind start and wanted it ready to hoist at the start.

After dropping it I would normally put it back in it's bag (on the foredeck) then either leave it there or take it below depending on when I was next going to use it.
 
In racing situations we have recently taken to dropping the bulk of it through the forehatch, leaving the tack, halyard and sheets attached (and clear of the hatch). This allows a rapid hoist immediately before or after a windward mark. NB with the tack and halyard in front of the forestay you would secure the head to the pulpit, with the bulk of the snuffed sail coming under the jib and back to the forehatch. If you have netting along the guard wires then securing the bulk of the sail along the sidedeck could work well.

You certainly don't want the snuffed sail up for long periods of time, we find that it is quite loose and can get around the end of a spreader if not adequately controlled by the person on the foredeck.

In general the trick with snuffers is to keep the sail full as you snuff it, and to pull the tack and clew and a reasonable amount of foot out by hand before un-snuffing, and keep tension on the sheet as it comes out.
 
fjweaver said:
thanks - yeah can see now that it'd be fairly loose and flapping around
Click to expand...

Keep it rigged up in a clip on bag near the bow, then just hoist it when you need it, that's what i do for ease of use but every boats different, if im putting it away for good i just drop it down the front hatch in its sock (unless its wet)

As mentioned it will just flap about and get tangled up.
 
I suggest you do get out and practise.
It can be very busy in the RTIR, being inexperiencedd with a chute and snuffer could cause you a lot of problems if you are e.g. forced to gybe to keep clear of a right of way boat.
I'm not sure a snuffer is a good idea at all in the circumstances, if you cannot confidently hoist, gybe and drop the chute, leave it in the forepeak.
Snuffers have their place, cruising short handed.
 
Thanks. Have done RTIR many times and with the chute - just not with the snuffer. Had a bit of a problem last year of Freshwater that I'm hoping the snuffer will help out
 
fjweaver said:
Thanks. Have done RTIR many times and with the chute - just not with the snuffer. Had a bit of a problem last year of Freshwater that I'm hoping the snuffer will help out
Click to expand...

What size boat and how many crew?
Personally if your crew is adequate, I'd suggest concentrating on hoisting, gybing, dropping.
Will you be using a roller jib?

I've had my share of 'interesting' situations in RTIR, and most of them a snuffer would be a hindrance and a significant risk of making things worse.
If things get out of shape, you want the chute down the main hatch ASAP.
Snuffers are great, but mainly for hoisting a bigger kite than you've got the crew for, and you don't want to be doing that while surrounded by 500 other boats racing.
Possibly the most common thing is finding you need to sail higher than you can carry the kite, either due to a windshift or the actions of other boats, and I've not found a snuffer to be much use then. The other thing is being forced to gybe, you need to be able to do that without recourse to the snuffer.
 
27' & 2 crew. Last year my youngest dropped out fairly late in the day so just me & eldest son - and although on the Friday we went beautifully with the chute - off Freshwater the sheets somehow got all wrapped in a bird's nest round the bottom of the chute, we don't know why as it was stowed and rigged properly (but I held my hands up!)

so the reason for getting the snuffer was for short handed sailing - with 2 crew we've got no problems - but I suppose now I've bought it I want to use it!

so we'll have a try out and if it doesn't help then we'll revert to the usual way

it'll probably be blowing 25kn now but thanks for the advice !
 
If two up, I would lead the tack line back to the cockpit (aft mooring cleat maybe?) so the helm can dump it while the crew pulls the kite in under the boom.
I would not choose to be 2 up though. 4 is good for a boat of this size IMHO.
 
We do leave the snuffer hoisted when cruising in light winds but wouldn’t do it beating. The best piece of advice I had from the sailmaker was to hoist and snuff it at least 10 times over a couple of suitable days, or it would be like 90% of sniffers which are mangled once and never used again.

It was a complete nightmare to hoist and unsnuff the first few times with ropes twisted everywhere. Once up always easy to snuff by one person even in a big gust (and it’s a masthead 42 footer).
Very un-racy but I now have just one sheet attached and lead it down the side it will be used. Gybing involves snuffing ( dead easy) attaching pre-led sheet to the clew, gybing the main then unsnuffing but I am doing this alone mostly.
 
^ We do similar for light airs cruising. Except our clew will be several feet up inside the snuffer when fully snuffed, so we just walk the sheet around the outside of everything.

The OP's big tangle of sheets sounds like the result of letting the kite flap?
 
Make sure your snuffer has an internal sleeve for the rope that runs inside the snuffer.

The ones that rely on a few rings to act as guides are an invention of the devil and should be avoided at all costs as they encourage unnatural congress between the sail and the rope in the depths of the snuffer.

Like post 11 if I have to gybe, I snuff, sort the string out and unsnuff. Attempting to gybe a cruising chute can lead to it being wrapped around the forestay. Ask me how I know this.
 
TLouth7 said:
In general the trick with snuffers is to keep the sail full as you snuff it, and to pull the tack and clew and a reasonable amount of foot out by hand before un-snuffing, and keep tension on the sheet as it comes out.
Click to expand...

And whatever you do, make sure the tack is made fast if you're running it through a jammer, before you unsock the sail. Allowing the tack to fly forwards uncontrolled is the best way to lose control with a socked chute. Don't ask how I know.

You really should practise a few times, hoist, gybe, put away, before the race. RTI congestion is not the place to be learning how it behaves. It's the one sail that can really overpower your boat, and it's the one sail that can take minutes and hundreds of metres of seaway to get back under control. Also practise how, if you've rigged the sail to fly on one side, you'll re-rig it during the race to hoist on the other side. Halyard around the front of the forestay, and always outside chute & genoa sheets!

Clip the handle one side of your sail bag to the guard rails so that once you've packed the socked sail back into it like a long snake, it's not going anywhere.

You don't want to be using the forehatch with a sock. Half the convenience of the sock is that the sheets can stay on deck, can be left roughly tensioned, no-one needs to go below and your forehatch doesn't have to be open to the seas.

Once the sail's back on deck, pull both sheets roughly taut and tie a stopper knot on their bights just aft of the side deck block, so the sheets can't go overboard. There's a little-understood law of physics that attracts spinnaker sheets and propellors, and crowded races aren't the best places to do the resulting surgery. And before starting the engine after the race, double check anyway.
 
TQA said:
Like post 11 if I have to gybe, I snuff, sort the string out and unsnuff. Attempting to gybe a cruising chute can lead to it being wrapped around the forestay. Ask me how I know this.
Click to expand...

Does it help if you gybe OUTSIDE (forward of) the forestay? If you let the old leeward sheet slacken as you head towards DDW, and then take in on the new leeward sheet as you come up from downwind, the chute should stay well in front of the forestay through the whole manoeuvre.

If you snuff it and re-hoist on the other side, you have to play with both sheets and also detach the halyard, take it round the front of the forestay and re-attach it. I find that far more work and risk of a foul up, but boats and skippers are different.
 
TQA said:
Make sure your snuffer has an internal sleeve for the rope that runs inside the snuffer.
Click to expand...

That's a thing? Ours has the rope entirely free inside the sock. Can be a problem but works with care. The important thing is to keep the rope on the correct side of the sail so you don't get a twist.

BelleSerene said:
You don't want to be using the forehatch with a sock. Half the convenience of the sock is that the sheets can stay on deck, can be left roughly tensioned, no-one needs to go below and your forehatch doesn't have to be open to the seas.
Click to expand...

But you do have to do something with the bulk of the snuffed chute, and for some dumping it down the forehatch may be easiest (for example if two-up with the halyard at the mast this would allow one person to control the halyard and the sail simultaneously, and dropping the hatch onto the ends is quicker than lashing to the rail with sail-ties). You can leave the tack, sheets and halyard rigged with this method. There is a risk of shipping water as obviously you can't fully close the hatch, but in those conditions you probably wouldn't leave the sail in a bag/on the rail either.

BelleSerene said:
Does it help if you gybe OUTSIDE (forward of) the forestay? If you let the old leeward sheet slacken as you head towards DDW, and then take in on the new leeward sheet as you come up from downwind, the chute should stay well in front of the forestay through the whole manoeuvre.
Click to expand...

Absolutely, you have to gybe in front of the forestay if your halyard and tack leads are in front. This is not foolproof though, especially as when the chute collapses it will fall towards the forestay under gravity. The key thing is to get the clew through fast, and (unless there is a risk of broaching) try to luff a bit on the new tack to get the sail filled rapidly. Basically don't faff about with a non-filled sail.
 
Just the halyard and sheets go back to the cockpit - tack is fixed. but with 3 of us it's not a problem if we don't use the snuffer (but as I've bought it......)

Some great help - thanks all. Beginning to think I should have saved my money!
 
TQA said:
Like post 11 if I have to gybe, I snuff, sort the string out and unsnuff. Attempting to gybe a cruising chute can lead to it being wrapped around the forestay. Ask me how I know this.
Click to expand...

I can just imagine some forumites in the rtir being on port tack as 10 boats come up yelling STARBOARD.
yeah ok mate , can i just go forward an snuff my sail first. It makes a much neater gybe and i don't want it round my forestay do I ��������������
well the OP was asking about the rtir
 
Last edited:
TLouth7 said:
The key thing is to get the clew through fast, and (unless there is a risk of broaching) try to luff a bit on the new tack to get the sail filled rapidly. Basically don't faff about with a non-filled sail.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. I wonder - by 'get the clew through fast', are you meaning you gybe the chute between its leading edge and the forestay? I was meaning gybe it round the front of everything, so avoiding more of that wrap problem? We may be saying the same thing.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top