Tips for using a spinnaker with a crew of 2 please

[Danny Jo]

[ QUOTE ]
Would add that it's best not to furl the genoa, at least not entirely, when setting. Two reasons, firstly it provides a lovely lee to get the kite up in and secondly it eliminates the posibility of wrapping it round the forestay. Ditto when dropping.

[/ QUOTE ] I agree. Having plenty of spinnaker experience on smaller boats had made me complacent - until I had a megawrap on a run from Kintyre to Islay earlier this year. Once the wrap has occurred you no longer have the option of deploying the genoa. I had visions of having to go aloft with a knife in a nice rolling swell. Fortunately I had a cool-headed crew who wouldn't surrender until he had tried every combination of sheet and guy tension.

Big spinnakers are not toys.

 

[Danny Jo]

Re: Confused

Now I'm confused. Can someone explain the difference between a sheet and a guy on the spinnaker, or post a suitable link? I had been using "sheet" to mean the ropes attached to the two bottom corners of the spinnaker (i.e. the clew and the tack). Then there are three ropes attached to the spinnaker pole which I have been calling the uphaul, downhaul and guy.

 

[flaming]

Re: Confused

On a typical big boat set up the kite will have two ropes attached to the two clews. One of these will come into the boat at about the widest point of the boat, and is called the guy, and the other will come into the boat at the back of the boat and is called the sheet.

The Guy is used on the Windward side and is run through the end of the pole, which should be at the same angle as an extension of the boom.
The sheet is used on the leward side of the boat, exactly the same as a sheet on a genoa.

Hence the windward sheet is the lazy sheet, as it isn't doing anything and the leward guy is the lazy guy.

This set up allows you to gybe the kite with no load in any of the lines being dealt with by the foredeck crew. You do this by tensioning the lazy sheet and easing the guy to transfer the load. Then you can swap the pole across the boat and put the old lazy guy into the jaws. Then finally swap the old sheet for the new guy.

 

[Danny Jo]

Re: Confused

Brilliantly clear - thanks. Now I know why there are so many "sheets" in the foc'sle locker. And why I've had to resort to snuffing the spinnaker in order to jibe it. I can't wait to give it a go.