Running with cruising chute

[jimi]

Any tips. I tried this at the weekend using the whisker pole to pole it out & essentially goosewing, however even with quite a long pole (boasting again!) I could'nt get the clew out far enough. So I had a bright idea ... attach the pole to the toe rail .. great .. until I noticed the toe rail beginning to bend! Anybody got any ideas .. I don't have spinnaker gear, or I'd use that.

Jim

 

[jamesjermain]

Tack to pole

Try attaching the tack to the pole end and hauling it out to windward. This usually works. If the 'chute is already set with a pennant to the stemhead or similar, rig a guy to the tack and run it through the pole end. Take up the slack, free off the tack pennant and haul in on the guy. Provided you keep the pole end reasonably low while you are doing this, the 'chute remains under control throughout.

JJ

 

[steve_cronin]

It depends upon the dimensions of the chute but if it is symetrical, let off the tack after attaching a new sheet to it and pole it out from the tack to the mast taking the new sheet back to the stern cleat on the opposite side to the existing sheet. Because you have no guys or pole controls you won't have as much control as with a properly rigged kite so don't use this set up in much above a gentle breeze. It gives good downwind stability because the c of e of the sail is directly ahead of the forestay rather than to one side as with a conventionally chute tacked down to the stemhead. It should slat all over the place but on most boats it is quite stable in practice so long as you keep the "weather*" sheet firm.

* you will still need to be just a degree or two off dead downwind.

Steve Cronin

 

[bedouin]

By coincidence I was trying something similar with my new asymmetric spinnaker last weekend. As you found, when rigged like a cruising chute (i.e. tacked down to the stemhead fitting) it would not set well on a run, or anything near a run. Dropping the main helped a little, but it was still unsatisfactory.

The best results we had were achieved by attaching the tack of the chute to the pole and flying it as a regular spinnaker. This was mich better than poling out the clew as it gave better control of the shape and allowed a greater projected area. Note that this was with a "proper" spinnaker pole - I don't know if a whisker pole would be strong enough. The down side to this is that it is more complicated to fly the asymmetric this way than it would be to fly a symmetric kite. There were an awful lot of different pieces of string involved!

When on a broad reach / run without a pole we found that the sail set better if we slackened both the halyard and the tack line by a couple of feet to allow the sail to assume a fuller shape and fly further away from the main.

We also tried running with the chute "goosewinged" as one would with a genoa, without using the pole. When we could get the chute to set properly this was very effective, but it seemed to be unstable and frequently collapsed (especially in the light airs). Once collapsed it was difficult to get it to set again, so this was discounted - but it may prove an option if the wind is a bit stronger.

Another alternative often recommended is not to run, but to gybe downwind on a series of broad reaches. We also tried this but found that we had to come a long way off the run to get the chute to fill reliably, and found constantly gybing it hard work.

I have also considered, but not yet tried, running the sheet through a block on the end of the boom, maybe in conjunction with poling out the tack on the opposite side.

 

[charles_reed]

Rather like Mr Punch's advice in 1896, to those about to get married "Don't".

Having both an assymetric and a conventional spinnaker, I've found the assymetric useless on a run and the conventional almost as bad on a dead run.

The answer is, surely, to always tack downwind with the apparent slightly on the quarter.

The genniker, however, is a fantastic reaching sail.

 

[jimi]

Thanks chaps. I'll try poling out the tack with the guy going back to the cleat on the stern quarter. I'll also try to rig a downhaul on the pole.

Like Bedouin we also played around with the tack downhaul & halyard & found the chute quite sensitive to changes in that. When the apparent wind was forward of the beam we seemed to need to keep the luff fairly tight & only when it started to come back could we start to slacken it off. We tended to do this more on the tack than the halyard and really only started releasing the halyard when the wind came well forward. I know from the spinnaker on the GP that the head should be horizontal when its flying properly, Is the same the case with an asymetric?



Jim

 

[bedouin]

It is better if you take the guy further forwards - try fastening a block to the toe rail a couple of feet aft of the shrouds and leading the guy from there directly to the primary winch.

We normally use out spinnaker foreguy/downhaul as the tack line when flying the asymmetric. Last weekend we were swapping it from the tack to the pole to fly it from the pole - which was very complicated when gybing (you have to take the downhaul from the pole to the tack, then release the pole/guy, gybe the pole, gybe the spinnaker, attach the new guy and then move the downhaul back to the pole). Next time we will try leaving the downhaul attached to the tack and trying to control the pole from there - it should work and will save a bit of effort and/or having to use yet another piece of string.

 

[kingfisher]

1) Drop mainsail

2) Attach block to end of boom

3) Take sheet of chute through block at end of boom

4) Presto: use of boats' boom as pole.

You will probably have to lower the boom. I can let out my boom about 85° before it hits the spreaders.
Don't know what this does to the gooseneck, though.

Obi-Wan
http://sirocco31.tripod.com

 

[kingfisher]

Use boom as pole

1) Drop mainsail

2) Attach block to end of boom

3) Take sheet of chute through block at end of boom

4) Presto: use of boats' boom as pole.

You will probably have to lower the boom. I can let out my boom about 85° before it hits the spreaders.
Don't know what this does to the gooseneck, though.

Obi-Wan
http://sirocco31.tripod.com

 

[jimi]

Two poles to run?

Do you reckon if I pole out the chute with the boom & poled out the Genoa with the whisker pole that would work?

Jim

 

[vyv_cox]

Re: Two poles to run?

Yes, it works well as a downwind rig. The problem with this can be that if the wind gets up it can be difficult to get the cruising chute down (dry) without the main to shelter it. However, I see many Dutch yachts flying cruising chutes with no other sail and they universally use snuffers, evidently without problems.