How not to dry a spinnaker

jimi

jimi

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Spinnaker got wet so tought I'd be smart and dry it in the light breeze when I was on my pontoon berth. Wind was on the nose so thought I'd hoist it on the main halyard and control the clews with lines on the aft cleats , this was a mistake. The wind got up a couple of knots and made the beast almost untameable. End result is its now a lot wetter than when I started but furtunately no damge done to it when it almost wrapped on the pile behind me. So lesson learnt is that single handed spinnaker hoist and drop usingthe main halyard whilst stationary in a marina berth isnt the brightest idea I've had.
 
Jimi,

you are not the first by a very long chalk !

How about, in a light, probably early morning, time hoisting it with one sheet forward to the pulpit, and the other very slack so it has a chance to act like a flag - but if the wind pipes up, get it down pronto.

At end of season it would be worth hanging it on a line and washing it down with fresh water then thoroughly drying before stowing, but that goes for all our sails.
 
Head and one clew would have dried the spinnaker nicely and provided some decorative entertainment. Attaching the head and TWO clews was - well, hoisting a sail. I'm glad your mooring lines were well made!
 
Years ago I saw a German boat attempt the same thing, they were not so lucky as they had a wind turbine on a pole at the stern. There were a lot of nylon streamers flying from it within a very short time, when they got the mess down they disappeared below decks very quickly.
 
jimi said:
Spinnaker got wet so tought I'd be smart and dry it in the light breeze when I was on my pontoon berth. Wind was on the nose so thought I'd hoist it on the main halyard and control the clews with lines on the aft cleats , this was a mistake. The wind got up a couple of knots and made the beast almost untameable. End result is its now a lot wetter than when I started but furtunately no damge done to it when it almost wrapped on the pile behind me. So lesson learnt is that single handed spinnaker hoist and drop usingthe main halyard whilst stationary in a marina berth isnt the brightest idea I've had.
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Not always a lot better at home. I dried mine ( the crew insist on washing it every race. ;-) ) with the head tied to the gate post, one clew to the fence and the other to a garage light fitting. The wind got up, the sail filled and I found the garage light fitting in next doors garden. Oh what a laugh we had.
 
Hoisting by one clew with the head tied to the deck and the other clew left to flap is the normal way of drying a kite.
 
There are two good ways to dry a kite.
1) indoors
2) sail with it and don't drop it in the water this time.
 
LadyInBed said:
Would it be manageable hoisting a clew and tethering the other clew?
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It depends on the wind strength. If it's blowing a gale then the sail will fly horizontally from both clews and... no.

If it's not blowing a gale then the sail will fall in the water and... er, no.

Now if you flew it from the head and one clew, you'd be in with a chance. But have a thought to how you're going to collect the sail in before you have to collect the sail in...
 
Hoisting it and letting it flog is a godsend to your sailmaker. Just about the quickest way to trash a sail.

Many years ago, in Cowes I saw our near neighbour try and dry their kite. Within 10 seconds the sail had taken a turn round another boat's masthead and shredded itself as well as removing all the other boat's masthead electronics.

Once they got the resultant mess down we could see the crew arguing as to who was going to tell the owner what they'd done.

Just lay the sail on the deck and turn it over regularly.
 
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