cruising shute set up for sadler 29

[Scomber]

When we bought our boat it came witha cruising shute. Any suggestions regarding best method to use it? Is it best used with a pole ? If so what size/diameter of pole & who are suitable suppliers? Or is it best just to use the sail without a pole? Thanks for your ideas.

 

[PeteCooper]

A cruising chute is usually deployed without a pole.

 

[MoodySabre]

I bought a Moody 31 this year with a cruising chute - a new experience for me. The tack is run from a strop which I run from a forward cleat and up under the bow roller. This puts the foot of the sail just above the pushpit. The sheet then runs back outside of everything, through the spinnaker block and back to a cleat or the winch (depending which side the main is on). It works best when on a reach or a dead run when goose-winging. It is too big to pole out and that wouldn't work anyway given that it has a flying luff.

 

[tonyleigh]

There is a recent thread on the Mike Lucas Sadler site worth a view - relates to the 26 but same otherwise. http://www.mikelucasyachting.co.uk/frameset.htm
If wind is so abaft you need a whisker pole you will usually be better off with your genoa - assuming a 145% or thereabouts. However, be prepared to sheet the main in more than you would expect in order to keep the chute full and drawing. Alternatively run goosewinged with main by the lea giving the chute the best angle to the wind. Jibe to drop the chute when blanketed by the main.

 

[wooslehunter]

You really need to experiment. I used one for the first time a few years ago. Like you, the boat came with it.

I set up as Moodysailor said to start with and it worked fine although with quite a small useful wind angle range. If I go too far down wind, the main shaddows the chute and it collapses. A dead run is fine as you can goose- wing. Therefore I tried using the pole. I have two sheets although some people only have one. Gybing is interesting in this case.

I sail mostly single handed and don't have a snuffer so m,ostly I use it in fairly light winds. There doesn't seem to be any advantage one the wind gets up anyway.

Generally I'll launch it as Moodysailor suggests. Then I'll rig the pole if I need to and add a guy to the clew. This is still held by the strop. I can then let the strop go and pull the pole round. I'm sure it looks horrible to anyone else but does seem to set OK. I'd only do this if I can't get the thing to stay filled normally.

The other thing I've been playing with is wheather to rig it inside or outside the forestay. Inside and you have to gybe it like a normal fore sail. Outside and you can let it fly out the fron and then pull back in on the new side. Iside is a pain to rig with the genny still pulling. I have to remember exactly how the lines will run once the genny is furled. Outside is easy since the chute rigs outside everything.

The only problem I had with really trying iot rigged outside is that this season I didnd't have a halyard rigged outside the forestay. Next I will so we'll see how it works.

Also rigged inside meens you have to gybe the chute before the main. Rigging outside meens you gybe after the main. The wind has to be comming from the right side of the boat to blow the chute around the forestay.

The simple answer is just to play with it when there's a light wind.

 

[Spuddy]

Re: snuffer

It's possible to hoist and lower while the main is blanketing the chute or use genoa and then roll it away after hoisting. However a snuffer should make playing with it much easier; this is a collar of plastic with a cloth tube, set up so that the chute is enclosed in a sausage skin. Pull the collar (and tube) up the sail by means of suitable string to fly it and then pull it down again to muffle it which spoils all the fun of bags of sail going over the side and lots of shouting.
It all helps to pass the time if getting a bit bored.

 

[flaming]

[ QUOTE ]
The tack is run from a strop which I run from a forward cleat and up under the bow roller.

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd double check your bow roller is up to that, some of them are not designed for upward loads! And loads on a tack line can get very high, especially when reaching.

 

[DJE]

Better link here.
I use a cruising chute a great deal on our Sadler 29. I started with a snuffer but gave up as it needs someone on the foredeck to control the snuffer lines and there was a tendency for the snuffed sail to wrap itself round the forestay before it was unfurled.
We now launch the sail directly from a bag clipped on to the guardrails and jackstay mid way between the shrouds and the pulpit. The tack of the sail has about 2 metres of rope spliced on to it. Pull the tack of the sail out of the bag and pass the rope round the bow roller and tie it to one of the bow mooring cleats. Attach the sheets to the clew and the halyard to the head of the sail. If you are intending to gybe the chute pass the windward sheet in front of everything including the chute halyard. If you don’t intend to gybe it then one sheet is fine, you can always fit the second one later. The sheets go outside everything to turning blocks fixed to the D-rings just in front of the pushpit and from there to the primary winches.
We hoist the chute behind the genoa if racing otherwise we furl the genoa first and sail on a very broad reach to hoist the chute behind the main. If furling the genoa first, clip the chute halyard on to the guardrails and keep it tight to stop it getting wrapped up in the genoa as it furls. (Dropping the genoa on deck avoids that problem but is more foredeck work.) Hoist the chute to the masthead as fast as possible then furl the genoa or head up on to a finer reach to fill the chute. Don’t sheet in until it is hoisted all the way up as this makes it hard work on the halyard.
You can’t sail directly downwind with a cruising chute. We’ve tried using the pole but decided that it is easier to put a few gybes in and effectively tack downwind. We carry ours at apparent wind angles from 80 degrees to 150 degrees off the bow and we normally gybe through about 60 degrees but these angles all depend on the cut of the sail.
The trick to gibing the chute is to pull the main in to the centreline before the gybe. This keeps the chute full longer as you bear away and avoids the mainsheet crashing across the cockpit. With the main in tight, bear away slowly to dead downwind and let the old sheet go before the sail collapses. Make sure there is lots of sheet available to run out so that the chute flies like a flag in front of the boat. Then turn quickly on to the new course while hauling in on the new sheet and easing the mainsheet.
To drop the chute it is easiest to bear away on to a very broad reach to blanket it behind the main. Then release the sheet while someone goes forward and releases the tack line. The deck hand walks back along the deck with the tack of the sail and pulls it down under the boom and in to the main hatch. Ease the halyard slowly as the sail is gathered in to stop it going in the sea. Make sure the stove is cold before dropping the chute! If we are racing and/or have to drop the chute on a close reach we unfurl the genoa first to blanket the chute.
Someone then must go below and re-pack the sail ready for the next hoist.
The chute makes downwind sailing much quicker and more interesting. We use ours up to about the middle of a force 5 if fully crewed and in those conditions it gets a bit hairy at times. We have had 7.8 knots on the log a couple of times but always bottled out before reaching 8 knots. With 2 of us on board we still use the chute a lot but only up to a force 4.
Hope this helps. There is a pictorial guide on Kemps web page. They rig the lazy sheet between the forestay and the chute and bring the tack line back to the cockpit. I keep saying I am going to try that method but I haven't got round to it.

 

[KREW2]

This season I started to run the lazy sheet between the forestay and luff of the chute. In order to gybe I point up a little, let a few feet off the tack, release the working sheet and haul on the lazy sheet as the clew comes through the gap I start to bear off. I don't think I would want to do it without the tack coming back to the cockpit, to retension the tack you need to be able to winch it down.