Wrapped Spinnaker around the Forestay!

[sankukai]

We were 2d in our class yesterday during the Spring Series, as we approach the last mark before the finish line, we tacked and decided to hoist the spinnaker to go downwind. Guess what, the hoist went terribly wrong, the spinnaker wrapped itself around the forestay, and the guy sheet came loose as well, it took us 20min to take it down! Needless to say we lost that race. Very frustrating! My question is, if you see a spinnaker getting wrapped, what would you do to help it set?

 

[Iain C]

Don't drop the headsail until the kite's up...stops it getting in a mess.

 

[TangaraToo]

Keping some tension on the sheets during hoist will often prevent the wrap.

 

[sailorman]

pole downhaul & sheet in

 

[CC@GTY]

If you've already got it up and it's wrapped then you might consider doing a swift 360 to use the changing apparent wind direction to help unwrap. It would be less than 20 mins....and of course if you owe a 360 for the dodgy overlap call at the last mark then 2 birds, one stone and all that..!

 

[sankukai]

thank you for all those very good answers, helmsman tried to unwrap the spinnaker doing a swift 360 to no avail. It took 2 of us to take it down by tugging one of the clue. We were lucky, otherwise one of us would had the pleasure of going up the mast.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

You were a bit brave with the spinny - we had 24 to 35kn yesterday so it was all white sails. And we won doing that.

TBH, you need to have both a realistic idea of your crew capabilities and of the nature of the course - we have won more races by not flying the spinny when others have done what you did, than we have won races by flying the thing. Particularly on short legs round a laid course. Now OK we are not hot solent racers but we are competent. Problem is that a symmetrical spinny is a clear risk on both hoist and drop so you have to take a view of risk and reward however slick you are. Boats get hung up on the macho bit, think they loose sailing cred by not flying it.

Caution is a sensible policy - I cannot remember us ever getting a wrap with the spinny and we've flown it many many times. Given it a wash on the drop a few times I must admit.


P.S. Its a clew by the way. Clue is what the rest of the fleet reckoned you didnt have when they saw the wrap.

 

[sailorman]

thank you for all those very good answers, helmsman tried to unwrap the spinnaker doing a swift 360 to no avail. It took 2 of us to take it down by tugging one of the clue. We were lucky, otherwise one of us would had the pleasure of going up the mast.

what boat

 

[sankukai]

You were a bit brave with the spinny - we had 24 to 35kn yesterday so it was all white sails. And we won doing that.

TBH, you need to have both a realistic idea of your crew capabilities and of the nature of the course - we have won more races by not flying the spinny when others have done what you did, than we have won races by flying the thing. Particularly on short legs round a laid course. Now OK we are not hot solent racers but we are competent. Problem is that a symmetrical spinny is a clear risk on both hoist and drop so you have to take a view of risk and reward however slick you are. Boats get hung up on the macho bit, think they loose sailing cred by not flying it.

Caution is a sensible policy - I cannot remember us ever getting a wrap with the spinny and we've flown it many many times. Given it a wash on the drop a few times I must admit.


P.S. Its a clew by the way. Clue is what the rest of the fleet reckoned you didnt have when they saw the wrap.

we had trained hard on Saturday and were doing near perfect hoists & drops (forward hatch, letterbox drop). The skipper wanted to push us on last leg to keep us in 2d, we could have let it rest and finish easily 3d. I am glad you guys had a good race, it was certainly tough going with this weather!

 

[lustyd]

On the bright side at least you had the whole thing wrapped. We wrapped the top half of one while passing the Mull of Galloway en route to Isle of Man the other year. The lower half went in the water and by the time we got it out the top half was trapped with halyards inside which left us with main only all the way to IOM until the spinnaker ballooned out creating an in controllable headsail It was exciting though!

 

[Daydream believer]

Put a couple of light "u" eyes pop riveted to the front of the mast about 60 & 75% of hoist of jib
Put a couple of rings round the forestay
Tie 5 or 6 mm cord from the rings to the eyes so that when the jib goes up the lines go against the mast but do note quite stop the hoist of the jib
When you drop the jib the rings drop down the forestay but if the line length & eye position is right they will stop roughly horozontal or tilting down a bit. You have to position the eyes correctly & get the line length right
They then stop the spinnaker wrap

 

[Bosun Higgs]

only works if you're hoisting and dropping. not if you're furling

 

[interloper]

Getting a spinnaker wrapped around a forestay is no big deal. We once got a spinnaker sheet wrapped around a buoy. That was exciting.

 

[onesea]

Don't drop the headsail until the kite's up...stops it getting in a mess.

+1 I have always found hoisting and lowering "behind" a head sail makes the whole job easier...

 

[Daydream believer]

only works if you're hoisting and dropping. not if you're furling

Would a dedicated racing boat furl?

 

[sankukai]

what boat

we are sailing on Jaguar

 

[awol]

My question is, if you see a spinnaker getting wrapped, what would you do to help it set?

The obvious answer, as skipper, is to shout helpful suggestions to the foredeck including colourful descriptions of their family background, sexual orientation, IQ level and lack of adroitness.

Guaranteed to sort the problem if only by ensuring the perpetrators don't come back next week!

 

[sankukai]

The obvious answer, as skipper, is to shout helpful suggestions to the foredeck including colourful descriptions of their family background, sexual orientation, IQ level and lack of adroitness.

Guaranteed to sort the problem if only by ensuring the perpetrators don't come back next week!

LOL exactly what happened, not sure it helped very much but the skipper was certainly feeling much better afterwards.

 

[Bosun Higgs]

Would a dedicated racing boat furl?

We dont all sail "dedicated racing boats". Indeed in our club racing I reckon the racing boats are outnumbered at least 10 to 1 by the cruisers and cruiser racers.

 

[deeb]

Kite wrapping around forestay is ALWAYS caused by running too deep, don't sail lower than 155TWA until you have the thing trimmed just so. This is known as mincing around downwind, and best avoided. Makes little difference if jib is up or not to the tendency of the kite to wrap.

To unwrap a kite try this: tie the clews together with a sail tie (be careful it doesn't fill at this point), and twist, and twist and twist until you have the whole thing in a long rolled furl (could take 70+ turns). At this point you have rendered the thing absolutely safe and it'll drop easy (or you could leave it up there)