How big should a snuffer be?

[ytd]

you are both right. A snuffer on a 7m boat does sound like overkill even single handed. But there is no way I would try and fly our 120m2 cruising kite without the snuffer or a crew of 4. In lighter winds it is almost impossible to gybe without wrapping it around the furled genoa so we snuf it, throw the sausage around the forestay and then unsuf. Another benefit is that we can drop the sausage directly into the sail locker rather than haul a wet sail into the forecabin for later bagging. Our snuffer is about 40cms dia with a plastic hoop tapering to about 10cms at the top. There is a wire lead of about 20cms between the top of the sail and the halyard and this is where the snuffer sits when the kite is flying. Another observation on cruising kites is that there are much higher shock loading on the sheets than with a conventional kite. It seems the pole and braces supply a lot of shock absorbency with a conventional kite.

 

[fireball]

7m boat - do you want to be dancing around on the foredeck?

We've got a snuffer for our chute on a 9.1m boat (currently up for sale - the boat along with the chute!) and find it quite handy as we generally sail short handed - it just makes it so much easier to get up and down - and before I get shot down in flames - we both came up through dinghy racing with symetric bag hoisted spinnys as well as asymetric kites into chutes - so it isn't lack of experience there.

Our snuffer is from Dolphin sales - same as the chute - the head is about 6-8 inches from the shackle for the halyard.

 

[minkysailing]

You see... I appear to have touched a nerve and to answer your rather throw away comment..I am the tactician on the TP..but by the sounds of your sailing experience I doubt very much that you would appreciate what that involves...

Good luck to the chap wishing to purchase the snuffer and ignore all those busy bodies who have clearly far too much time on their hands..!!

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Or, as Oscar Wilde put it, "I am not young enough to know everything".

 

[flaming]

Well did you really need to be so sneary about all the "lesser" boats who can't fly kites, especially as you have no idea what boat I sail on. By the by, the biggest trawl I saw this season involved a TP.
If you'd taken the time to read what I wrote then you'd notice that I have a lot of experience of flying kites, in cruising, fully crewed and short handed settings. Some with snuffers and some without and it is from that experience that I hate snuffers, not a snobby hatred but an actual experienced based one! Fancy that.

Don't forget that this is a 7m boat. A snuffer just seems really unecessary.