Setting up a Spinakker

[jusw]

I've never used a spinakker before, but I'm looking forward to trying.

The boat is 27 ft Fractional rigged.

I have a suitable spi pole and have obtained a sail (hopefully about the right size!)

what I haven't got are the guy / sheets and turning blocks.

Could any of you experts give advice on the position of turning blocks, the length of guy / sheets and their diameter and type of line and any advice about setting the system up and deploying it safely.

At this stage I'm not looking for perfection, more the experience of using one and if successful maybe I'll invest in a new sail and "spot on" equipment.

Any help will be appreciated

JuSw

 

[William_H]

Spinacker

You need 2 sheets for the spin. These need to be more than twice the length of the boat. They go through blocks near to the stern quarter and on the gunwhale. You can use jib sheet winches and cleats. I use just bowline at the sail.
The sheets need to pass through additional pulley blocks (or rings) attached to tweaker lines. These lines run through pulleys on the gunwhale about midway betweeen the bow and mast. These tweaker lines need to go to cleats of some sort. Mine are on aft side of cabin.
You need a pole and of course a topping lift to hold the pole up with appropriate cleats etc to hold the topping lift.
This simple set up may be adequate for your purposes. There are many variations.
The spin is easiest put into a bag with a formed opening (rigging wire around the opening is one way) but with a cover velcro to hold spin in. Tie this if possible forward of the forestay or on fore deck as far forward as possible. Sheets run outside of all stays etc. If the spin bag is not in the middle ahead of forestay then one sheet must run forward around the front of the forestay. Spin must be able to fly in front of every thing.
halyard runs from above and forward of forestay to the spin.
To fly it. Turn boat nearly downwind but with wind across the stern quarter. Fit the sheet on windward sifde into the beak on the end of the pole then push the pole until it can be attached to the snotter. (ring on front of mast). Now pull the tweaker on windward side so that sheet (now called the brace) runs from the stern pulley along the deck to the pulley on the end of the tweaker now at deck level then up to the spin.
Pull the halyard of the spin while simultaneously pulling the brace about 3 metres till the spin corner (tack)
gets to the pole end and the pole is about 45 degrees from abeam. Cleat off the brace. When the halyard gets to the top cleat that off. You can pull the sheet in until the spin fills. Much excitement....
Only do this in light steady winds initially.
To retrieve the spin you can have a man pull the spin down and push into bag. Release the brace and carefully lower the halyard. Or you can grasp the sheet from a point adjacent to the main entry hatch (use a boat hook) and have a man pull the spin down into the cabin by releasing the brace and the halyard.
Give it a try. There are many variations but this is simplest. olewill

 

[Kerenza]

Current pbo has nice article for cruising spinnakers. All depends how many crew you have, which techniques you use.
On the racing boat I sail on, with a crew of 8, 2 dedicated to foredeck, a pit man and two trimmers we still get it wrong sometimes!
But when it flies true and the speed picks up - wow!

On our cruising boat we (my son and I) fly a massive cruising chute, made easy with a snuffer, and all done at a leisurely pace, which I think is the most important technique.

 

[testmonkey]

why not have a look here for instructions and dimensions http://www.harken.com/rigtips/spinnaker.php

 

[BAtoo]

What WilliamH said.

Plus dont hoist or drop it without the genoa up/out to reduce the risk of a wrap around the forestay.
Run the edges of the spinnaker to ensure there is no twist.
Mark the head so it doesnt go up sideways.

Guess how I know all of this.......

 

[alahol2]

On previous boats (I've now only got a cruising chute) I had a pole downhaul from the centre of the pole to the base of the mast to control upward forces on the pole. I could then not bother with the 'tweaker' lines, taking both 'sheets' to the quarters. This meant that once the pole was set horizontal there was no need to adjust the downhaul when hauling the pole aft. I used this system single handed so, obviously, only in relatively light airs.

 

[mcframe]

I've never used a spinakker before, but I'm looking forward to trying.

The boat is 27 ft Fractional rigged.

I have a suitable spi pole and have obtained a sail (hopefully about the right size!)

what I haven't got are the guy / sheets and turning blocks.

Could any of you experts give advice on the position of turning blocks, the length of guy / sheets and their diameter and type of line and any advice about setting the system up and deploying it safely.

At this stage I'm not looking for perfection, more the experience of using one and if successful maybe I'll invest in a new sail and "spot on" equipment.

Any help will be appreciated

Ah! A Hunter 27 - I'm your man - cruising chute & Parasail ;-)

I use 3* 18m of 6mm Trimline on swivel snaps shackles (from Jimmy Green) for sheets & tack/pole downhaul. These are quite thin, but OK with gloves, and less likely to collapse in light winds.

Two stopper knots hold stopper balls a couple of inches from the snap shackles.

Sheet turning blocks are Barton #1 shackled to the pushpit bases, right on the quarters - sheets led forward to winches.

The tack/pole downhaul is on a snap-shackled block, so can lead from the bow-roller when used as a tack(chute), or is clipped to the pulpit base when used as downhaul(parasail) - no convenient central point own foredeck, so I clip it to the opposite side to the pole to prevent fowling the lifelines; requires repositioning when gybing.

The tail of the tack/downhaul runs through a couple of stanchion mounted blocks to the cockpit (opposite side to genoa furler) where I've got a little spinlock PXR cleat.

When rigging the pole, I run the pole uphaul from the mast, through the 2nd reef mast-base block & deck organiser to the top of the coachroof - in place of the 2nd reef.

I don't end-for-end the pole, so don't use bridles; both uphaul and downhaul clip to shackles on the outboard end of pole - where tripping line runs to inboard end of pole.

As I only run single sheets, I've a couple of 2m lines with some polished-stainless wire-gate carabiners that I tie to the midships cleat to use a tweakers for the guys.

Parasail is in a snuffer, so I tend to rig the lines for that, then return to cockpit and hoist while SWMBI does the un-snuffing.

The cruising chute can be hoisted single-handed from its bag on the rail, and even recovered (in lee of Genoa) with a bit of standing-on-the-halyard ;-)

Any further questions, or DemoInChiInReturnForBeer, let me know - your downwind sailing will never be the same again.