Spinnaker/ cruising chute

[TSB240]

. Meanwhile I stuff the quiet sail, completely blanketed by the mainsail, back into the turtle. .

No mention of genoa........

The last thing I am going to do is unfurl my genoa to take my spinnaker down especially if its blowing hard and and I am short handed. I wouldnt want to be on deck pulling the sail under the genoa either.

As mentioned earlier why bother unless you are racing.

I suppose it might be an advantage in an older mast head rigged boat as their mains were relatively small. But with modern designs and especially fractionally rigged boats the main will give more protection and much less hassle.

I dont have seperate winches for spinnaker so the genoa wouldnt be properly tamed until the spinnaker is down either.

 

[jimi]

Anybody got a spinnaker they don't want that I can play with? Boat's a Moody S38

 

[VicS]

Best sail(s) in the locker or more trouble than they're worth?

I suspect this may split along Cruiser vs Racer or Solo vs Crewed lines.

What are the big benefits for you & what do you do to reduce the hassles?

FWIW I got a cruising chute with the boat (in 1988) & have used it less than a handful of times. Always too much wind or so little it will hardly stay filled or I'm in a narrow winding channel & gibing it is just too much hassle with a light crew.

The person I crewed for bought a spinnaker for his Berwick many years ago.

You need crew sufficiently interested and you need to invest in the gear to handle it properly.

We only ever flew it a handful of times. Once across the Seine bay and once on a trip from the Solent towards Cornwall, when we were blessed with an easterly, are the times I particularly remember.

I think a cruising chute would have been a more sensible choice. We would probably have made more use of that than we did of the spinnaker.

 

[vyv_cox]

As mentioned earlier why bother unless you are racing.

It depends how far you are going and on the wind strength. In fresher winds we have enjoyed some memorable long downwind legs, flying the kite for 8 - 10 hours. Port Ellen to Bangor, NI for example, done 20 years ago but still remembered, we averaged 10 knots over the ground. A couple of years ago down the west coast of Italy, seeing up to 9 knots throughout about 8 hours of fresh wind sailing. Paxos to Preveza on a beautiful day, Force 1 at the start, 20+ knots at the finish.

At the other end of the scale, sailing along the southern Irish coast in about a force 3, having a great time when everybody else, kiteless, was motoring.

Not worth the hassle for an hour, but well worth it for longer. We leave the sheets and guys permanently on the guard wires for easier use, and hope for winds from astern.

 

[geem]

Used my spinnaker on our last boat a huge amount. Wouldn't be without one. We used to have a cruising shute but boat was no faster with the shute than the genoa. Spinnaker is a different league for speed and will fly from apparent wind ahead of the beam to a dead run. This isn't possible with the cruising shute.

 

[geem]

We absolutely love the spinnaker. It's quite big, on a masthead rigged boat, but with experience and skill it has never been a problem. Most of my really memorable sails over the last 20 years have been under spinnaker. For us the secret is to have a manageable method of hoisting and dropping it, tailored for two people in cruising mode.

Using the racing methods doesn't work when short-handed, for example dropping it down the companionway is labour
intensive, both for getting it there and for repacking afterwards. We drop it behind the mainsail back into the turtle, without disconnecting sheets and guys. Takes longer but I can do virtually all of it myself, with some assistance from Jill on the helm.

I agree entirely. We have a simplified rigging arrangement. My wife does the rigging on foredeck. I raise the spinnaker/snuffer from cockpit. Had spinnaker up for 36 hours solid once across the Atlantic with just wife and I onboard.
Great fun

 

[Seajet]

Used my spinnaker on our last boat a huge amount. Wouldn't be without one. We used to have a cruising shute but boat was no faster with the shute than the genoa. Spinnaker is a different league for speed and will fly from apparent wind ahead of the beam to a dead run. This isn't possible with the cruising shute.

geem,

a well cut tri radial cruising chute will point up to a fine reach, it's also much more user friendly than a traditional spinnaker, especially for a small - non racing - crew.

My spinnaker has been in the locker for years.

For a downwind cruising boost I found the old spinnaker from an International 14 dinghy was useful - on a 22' boat - but I rate the tri radial chute much higher as a drama free cruising sail.

 

[lw395]

Wotayottie,

I thought this thread was about spinnakers ?

As for dropping spin's in the lee of genoas, that's just for easy handling, especially if there isn't a team of gorillas in the crew.

Having the genoa unrolled can help prevent the kite wrapping around the forestay while going up or down, so I sometimes do that, particularly if the wind has gone light and shifty or the boat is flopping about in sloppy waves. But in the light stuff, I'd probably bring it down inside the genoa onto the foredeck, into the bag or forehatch.

 

[lw395]

It depends how far you are going and on the wind strength. In fresher winds we have enjoyed some memorable long downwind legs, flying the kite for 8 - 10 hours. Port Ellen to Bangor, NI for example, done 20 years ago but still remembered, we averaged 10 knots over the ground. A couple of years ago down the west coast of Italy, seeing up to 9 knots throughout about 8 hours of fresh wind sailing. Paxos to Preveza on a beautiful day, Force 1 at the start, 20+ knots at the finish.

At the other end of the scale, sailing along the southern Irish coast in about a force 3, having a great time when everybody else, kiteless, was motoring.

Not worth the hassle for an hour, but well worth it for longer. We leave the sheets and guys permanently on the guard wires for easier use, and hope for winds from astern.

In light winds on many boats it will also bring the apparent wind forward enough to work very well on quite a broad reach. Sometimes the best technique seems to be to head up and build a bit of speed before bearing off, sail as low as possible until the speed drops, like beating in reverse, but more fun.

 

[stav]

Spinnaker best sail in the forecabin second only to the light genoa and No3 blade. I like the spinnaker (and prefer it to a cruising chute) as it can be set out on the pole and used to run dead down wind. A bit of effort to get up and down but well worth it, quite happy to use it single handed but it gets a bit of a flogging whilst I run around the boat and you must be sure nothing will come undone.