Single-handing with spinnaker

[pugwash]

I am clueless when it comes to spinnakers but the 30-foot Holman I bought recently has one in the locker (with snuffer). It hasn't been used in years so the relevant blocks etc don't exist though there is a pole on deck and a spare mast-head halyard. As the boat is a ketch none of the sails are very big. Question is, can I set it up for use when single-handing? How would I do that?

 

[vyv_cox]

With a snuffer (although I have never used one) I would think it would be relatively easy. A small spinnaker on a 30 foot boat will probably not need a lazy sheet/guy system so first buy single sheets for each side, about 2 times boat length is about right. Set up sheet blocks on the aft quarters and for the time being use Barber haulers to convert sheets to guys, hauling the guy down to somewhere around maximum beam. You will also need a pole uphaul and downhaul, preferably both led back to the cockpit for singlehanding. Otherwise buy some running shoes!

Put the boat on Autohelm. On a broad reach set the pole up at about the correct height. The guy goes through the pole end, the sheet back to the blocks and each to a winch. Hoist the spinnaker in its snuffer behind the mainsail, i.e. on the wrong side as it will fly. Adjust sheet length to be about right. Now uphaul the snuffer and sheet in the guy. Now you're sailing! Adjust everything for best position and maybe mark sheets etc. with a marker pen for ease of setting up next time.

To drop the sail, release the guy, allowing the sail to fall behind the main. Downhaul the snuffer and lower the spinnaker to the deck. Then lower the pole and ensure no sheets in the water. At first I should gybe this way until you have more experience, then you will find it reasonably easy.

All this is much easier if you have read up the methods first, of course.

We normally sail two up and my wife replaces the autohelm and releases the spinnaker sheet on lowering, but otherwise I do it all. I have flown it occasionally singlehanded. I am sailing a 34 ft boat with a big masthead spinnaker and no snuffer. The spinnaker sheet release can be arranged singlehanded but is not a problem anyway with a snuffer.

 

[pugwash]

Vyv - thanks for your detailed and helpful reply. Sounds like it might be easier than I thought. But what's a Barber hauler? Is it a block on the jib-track? And where do you lead the pole downhaul? Through a block on the bow? Of course I'll do a lot of reading before I get going and take an expert on board for the first attempt. The most encouraging thing is to know that it can be done, even if you do need running shoes.

 

[Guest]

Uphaul and downhaul for spinnaker pole

Think of these as analogous to the kicker on the boom. Obviously the uphaul goes back to the mast; the downhaul should too, to allow the pole unimpeded fore and aft rotation around its axis (the mast) as you adjust the guy. Think also about the arrangement for jibing - if you do it by reversing the pole, the uphaul and downhaul need to be fastened to the centre of the pole.

morawel@hotmail.com

 

[vyv_cox]

Barber hauler can be a ring or a small block on the spinnaker sheet, with a line from it to a turning block at a fixed point on the boat and from there back to the cockpit. Put the fixed block about a metre aft of the mast as far outboard as possible. Aluminium toerails are ideal for this: I don't have them but use a snatch block taken to a U-bolt. This arrangement enables you to convert a sheet to a guy without going to the full sheet/lazy guy system that I use. You can get away with this on a smaller spinnaker but I find the doubled arrangement better for shorthanding a large spinnaker, especially when gybing.

I agree with Mark that bringing the pole downhaul back to the mast is to be preferred for the reason that its length remains constant no matter the pole angle. The problem with it is that downhaul loads are far greater than uphaul and bringing the downhaul back to the mast gives less control of them. This may well be the optimum method with a smaller kite but not for a bigger one. I take my downhaul to a point on the deck just below the centre of the pole. Doing it this way means I don't need to winch the downhaul but I do need to adjust it every time I change course. Sometimes when bearing away I forget to release the downhaul and a brief panic occurs when the guy gets tighter and tighter with no obvious reason! Big boat spinnaker pole downhauls usually go from the outboard pole end to somewhere near the bow, again to minimise loads.

Good luck with your attempts, the spinnaker is a challenge when shorthanded but very rewarding. For some reason I find that playing Bruce Hornsby's Harbour Lights CD through the cockpit speakers accompanies windy spinnaker flying very well!

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: Uphaul and downhaul for spinnaker pole

A couple more tips.

Check the masthead arrangement for the spare foresail halyard. A spinny halyard block should be able to swivel, because the angle to the head of the sail changes depending on how the sail is set. If it is fixed fore and aft like a genoa halyard, then the halyard will chafe on the mast exit slot. For a boat such as yours, an external halyard to an external block is perfectly acceptable - no need to get inside the mast.

Always make sure the spinny halyard is taken forwards around the forestay to the leeward side, otherwise the top of the kite will be twisted around the forestay - not good for the kite, and can make it dificult to drop.

Having got the halyard to leeward, bring it aboard under the genoa sheets, or the kite will set inside the genny. Adjust the guy so that the pole is more or less in line with the main boom, on the course you want to sail after the kite is up. Bear in mind that boat speed should increase with the kite so the apparent wind will be a little further forward than with white sails.

Unless in light airs, set (unsqueeze) the kite on a reach in the lee of the genoa, bear away onto the course you want, then roll or drop the genny, then trim the kite on the sheet. Launching behind the genny stops the kite filling instantly as it is unsqueezed, which can take you by surprise if you're shorthanded.

Similarly, hoist or unroll the genny first before squeezing and dropping the kite, so the kite collapses and you don't have to squeeze the wind out of it. Or you can square away onto a run, ease the guy so the pole goes forward and let the kite collapse behind the main.

Hope it helps.

PS I'm a Kim Holman fan, and would love to know a little more about your boat.

 

[PhilipStapleton]

A word of caution, I'm afraid. I have both a spinnaker and a genniker and I've used both single handed as well as two-up. The genniker is far, far easier. The problem is everything gets very heavy and unmanageable when the wind gets above 15 knots or so, and getting either sail down is the trouble, even with a snuffer. Last weekend, for example, I set the genniker in 6-8 knots of wind and 20 minutes later I was struggling to get it down in 17! My Autohelm doesn't like downwind steering, which adds to the problem of recovery, and with the spinnaker there's the pole and guy as well as the halyard, sail and sheet to control. You seem to need four hands a times!

It's certainly possible, but like everything else it requires practice in controlled conditions with plenty of sea-room.

 

[Twister_Ken]

PPS - never put stopper knots on the sheet and guy

if the worse comes to the worse, you can let both go, and all you've got is a very big burgee streaming from the masthead.

 

[PeteMcK]

And be obsessive that they\'re always flaked to run

And don't count on being able to collapse it behind the main if the wind REALLY gets up. You won't be able to.

 

[Guest]

Anothe attraction of sailing - plenty to learn

....as I have from this thread.

Trimming or jibing the spinnaker is a procedure which differs greatly according to the size of the boat. As a foredeck hand on a 28 footer, it is a piece of cake to unclip the pole at the mast, clip onto the weather end of the foot (i.e. acting clew) during the jibe, unclip the other end and clip it back onto the mast. Bigger boats, bigger poles and bigger spinnakers require different techniques. I have seen large boats with two spinnaker poles attached to the mast, presumably allowing a two-pole transition. Is there an intermediate position where a single pole is left attached to the mast and jibed by detaching from the spinnaker, raised to get inside the forestay and then dropped on the other tack?
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by mark_walker on Fri Sep 7 22:04:50 2001 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Twister_Ken]

Re: Anothe attraction of sailing - plenty to learn

>Is there an intermediate position where a single pole is left attached to the mast and jibed by detaching from the spinnaker, raised to get inside the forestay and then dropped on the other tack?<

Yup, the so-called dip pole gybe. The foredeck hand gathers a big bight of the lazy guy (from the old clew), somebody else (usually) trips the jaws allowing the old guy to pop out and the new one to be put in while the pole swings across. Somebody else is hauling the heel of the pole up the track, while back in the cockpit the sheet handlers are dumping the old sheet and guy, hauling back the new guy, trimming the new sheet and calling the pole height as it comes back down the mast. Oh, and you need one or two people running the pole uphaul and downhaul as well, as well as gybing the mainsail. As the original question was about single handing all this may be irrelevant!

 

[charles_reed]

My spinnaker is the second most heavily used headsail in the boat wardrobe and nearly all my sailing is single handed.
Before I retired I was doing about 3500 miles a season - it's now little different, I can just take my time over it so very low engine hours are the result.
I also have a genniker, which is only used for light weather reaching and in no way compares with the spinnaker for usefulness. It also goes through booms for a pastime - so the next one will have to be carbon fibre.

It's a lot easier to handle the spi on a fractional rig than on a masthead - but I would definitely go for having a guy/sheet system on any spi over about 500 ft/sq. I'd also say that having the guy block anywhere but in front of the mast is wasting it.

I don't use a snuffer - there are enough lines when flying the spinnaker without adding to one's bewilderment.

Lift is easy, providing you get it up before it fills.

Takedown must be done when the spi is blanketed by the main, for this reason you need to leave searoom to run downwind when you do take down - nearly all my takedowns are under-boom straight into the bag ready to be flown again.
My drill is to go offwind (10 degrees or less) let go windward sheet/guy and pole uphaul and then pull in on the lee sheet.
If you run your pole onto your sheet you can then just let it run and gather in the foot and pull down the halyard.
I actually have the pole into a ring and have to disconnect this before getting the two corners together to pull down.
The most I've ever had the spinnaker up in was 28 knots and the takedown was easy - far more difficult was carrying it round Cape St Vincent and getting into the downdraft and rough water which neither the Navik or the Autohelm could handle and having to helm until I got into less broken water.

The force on the uphaul is considerable - I've got a little 3:1 tackle to ease the load and the block has a very generous backing plate and is placed about 45% of the length of the boom.

I haven't bothered with a "small" heavyweight spinnaker, if the wind is too much for the 3/4 oz one she'll sail as fast with roller genoa and main as with any spi.
The longest and most satisfying run I've made on the spinnaker was from St Agnes to le Four Banc with this boat, though on my last 22' (which only had single lines) I've done a run from Hopes Nose to St Albans Head when returning from Noss Mayo. Both were light weather runs and left a lot of bigger boats rolling about behind.

So, it's easy to fly a spinnaker single handed, it's a very valuable part of any serious sailboat's wardrobe and I've been using one single-handed for about 14 years - I'd strongly recommend you have a go.