spinnaker re-cut

[dunkelly]

i know its sacrilegious but the wife and i are both now too immobile to use the spinnaker and wondered if anyone had ever successfully re-cut a spinnaker to make a more useful size symmetrical not needing poling or an asymmetrical of some sort . OR should we just sell it and put the fund towards a new asymmetrical . please dont all answer SELL it !

 

[Rafiki]

I think that you will find that each panel is cut to form the shape of a spinnaker and it would be impractical to cut it down to form something else. Indeed I understand that sailmakers these days measure up your boat for a sail then order from their supplier the fabric you desire which is provided to the sailmaker in laser cut panels, hence no waste etc, but virtually impossible to unpick and make something else with it.
So sell it, you may get half the price of a smaller asymmetrical etc

 

[dunkelly]

my spinnaker only has horizontal cuts and i was thinking just to take a section from the bottom of the sail stitch new clews and fly it a little lower , wondered if this would make it more managable ( think i have seen it before on a boat in the solent )

 

[yoda]

I'm not sure an asymmetrical requires much less mobility unless you go the full hog and fit a top down furler. That said I do like mine and easier to manage and trim short handed. Depends if you really need to sell the old one, I would just keep it for when you do sell.

Yoda

 

[[70521]]

I'd talk it over with a sailmaker, ideally the individual who made it.

 

[Cactus Sailing]

i know its sacrilegious but the wife and i are both now too immobile to use the spinnaker and wondered if anyone had ever successfully re-cut a spinnaker to make a more useful size symmetrical not needing poling or an asymmetrical of some sort . OR should we just sell it and put the fund towards a new asymmetrical . please dont all answer SELL it !

Buy yourself an atn tacker or better still make one (~£13) and use your spinnaker as an asymmetrical one, poleless simple flying!

Other videos on there of us sailing with our symmetrical poleless

Saves the faff of a pole but won’t get you true downwind though!

 

[dunkelly]

thanks , that would do it . had a snuffer on my old boat but not seen it used like that ,brilliant idea . No problems with the lateral loads on the forstay ?

 

[William_H]

I have cut down old spinnakers successfully not so much to use as an asymmetric but as a smaller symmetric on a pole for stronger winds or less skilled crew. What I did was fold the spin top to mid foot then pinned and run a line of sewing top to bottom along a line which came to the foot at a point to reduce the length of the foot. In other words cut out the middle in a big vee shape. If you think the spin has a huge camber (belly) then this line can curve inward to take camber out.
When the line of stitching is done on a domestic sewing machine you can haul it up horizontal by head and clews to check what you have left. You cna then either run another line of stitching further in to reduce size or camber or unpick the stitching and make it bigger. (less cut out.
Now this method does produce a symmetrical spin. I would think an assy would be cut much more like a jib. ie cut square along the foot and up the leach and on the bias at the luff. So perhaps you would need to completely dissmantle the spin and cut it like a jib. good luck ol'will

 

[lw395]

I think it would be a good start to define exactly what is wanted from the kite.
And what the problems are.
If the real issue is needing to move around the deck a lot sorting a complex pole system, maybe look at a simpler pole system which might be OK for running in lighter airs?

I don't think a kite is going to be easy to re-cut radically.

There is a small yacht on the Solent using an old dinghy asymmetric as a cruising chute. These are not terribly valuable once they are well past their racing peak, but still make a difference to a cruising boat.

 

[Cactus Sailing]

thanks , that would do it . had a snuffer on my old boat but not seen it used like that ,brilliant idea . No problems with the lateral loads on the forstay ?

Not had any problems, flew it in ~18knots passing St Albans head recently, bit much sail up for me singlehanded after that. I do have a strong hold for the downhaul at the bottom of the forstay so loads on the actual ATN (fender) are not that great in the grand scheme of things.

of course I don't know how your boat is rigged but it works for me and the spinnaker is often up on deck thanks to the simplicity.

 

[Laysula]

Do you have a boat that was built in large numbers or something that is a bit rare? It may be worth advertising for an exchange. Something that could benefit both parties.

 

[Mikedefieslife]

How well does a Symmetric fly with an an atn tacker? I would have thought it has a bit too much belly to serve well as an asymmetric the higher the wind angle becomes.

 

[lw395]

How well does a Symmetric fly with an an atn tacker? I would have thought it has a bit too much belly to serve well as an asymmetric the higher the wind angle becomes.

You can fly a symmetric kire from the bow without at tacker. With good steering and trimming, it will work both fairly deep and on a tightish reach in light air.
To deep reach with it, the game is to have some slack in the halyard/tackline so the kite can 'rotate' to windward of the yacht's centreline. There is power to be had, but it's easily collapsed by a windshift, wave or inattentive steering.
Closer reaching, the same is true, but because the sail doesn't tend to have a long enough leech, it's all a bit unstable. The tacker would have to be a long way up the rolled genoa to solve this.
Being a dinghy sailor, I'm happy to sail cruisers downwind steering to keep the kite filled. A lot of cruising sailors don't think the same.