YM exam spinnaker scenario

[tcm]

i hear of another YM examination test legend.

The candidate is bowling along in charter/test boat with the spinnaker up. The instructor says "right, i want you to get rid of the spinnaker as fast as possible - as though a real emergency." Just to be sure, the candidate questions if he wants it down quickly, or very very quickly like immediately. The examiner confirms he wants it down this very instant if poss.

So, the candidate shoots a suitable flare straight into the spinnaker which doesn't catch fire but instantly dissolves into a gooey mush and within a second or two there is no spinnaker.

Is this total rubbish? In any case - would it work?

 

[BrendanS]

sounds good to me. Nigel will probably confirm it.

 

[tome]

A normal spinnaker would go up in flames, but you can get a fire-retardent version. They are only available in grey. If you come across a grey spinnnaker anywhere, I should try it.

 

[ChrisE]

Isn't there a chap on Sydney - Hobart race who regularly takes the storm spinnaker down, when it gets a much, with a blast from his shot gun?

 

[jimi]

First time I tried it I missed and hit a nearby Bavaria instead, the result was quite spectacular, have you ever seen a toasted marshmallow .. it was a bit like that. My second attempt was slightly more succesful but the parachute just clipped the pole, doubled back an set the main ablaze, that was OK cos it was inmast reefing and had jammed and we had beeing trying to fix it, instant problem resolution. Third attempt success. I think I passed but the examiner, I beleive was caught short, cos he disappeared walking funny and we never saw him again. Its their age you know!

 

[StugeronSteve]

[ QUOTE ]
They are only available in grey. If you come across a grey spinnnaker anywhere, I should try it.

[/ QUOTE ] Is that grey with a greenish tint, or purest grey?

 

[twisterkai]

Christ, not that again!!

 

[FullCircle]

The was a single handed round the world in the early nineties that finished in the Solent. There was a frenchman (cant remember name) who was flying the Yellow spinnaker with the lager Bear , something brau I think) who had it jammesd and didnt have the sea room to sort it. He put a flare through the kite..... Dont think the sponsors took kindly, but then again, any publicity is good publicity

 

[david_e]

Total rubbish imho - by the time he has got the flare from it's case, put someone on the helm, got into a position to shoot it - he could have cut the halyard and then the sheet and guy with handily placed Gerber Knife (free with YW subscription) and left it floating in the water to come back and get it back at leisure.

Anyway, why can't the examiner be there when they come down without warning and it looks like a pro-quick drop

 

[bobupanddown]

If I was doing the YM exam I'd make sure I never got the spinner out in the first place! Must be a sure way to cock up the test

 

[RupertW]

My examiner said that a Coastal Skipper has to be able to sail competently but a YM should sail "with flair".

I think that being comforatble getting a spinny up in the right conditions would give you so many brownie points that you'd get away with any unexpected problems in other parts of the test.

 

[jimi]

Usually its not getting the spinnaker up thats the problem .. its unravelling it fom the forestay ;-)

 

[RupertW]

You've been watching me, then

 

[graham]

I would of thought that such a dangerous practice would result in an immediate fail. Sounds like a shaggy dog story to me. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Even though I am not a Yorkshireman I would still be to tight to trash a good sail just to impress a YM examiner /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[benjenbav]

I think the correct response would be, "Feck off, we're doing fine as we are"

 

[Stevie_T]

As an ex instructor, I have never heard of anyone requiring to use a spinnaker during YM exam. IMO it would be very unfair for an examiner to ask a candidate to fly one, and any candidate flying one voluntarily during an exam would be flirting with failure anyway. Prep courses never use spinnakers (to the best of my knowledge) anyway and if there was one on the boat I would remove it before the exam anyway.
So I would say, that if this scenario ever arose during an exam, it was probably hypothetical.

 

[flaming]

Examiner I had siad he once asked a candisate to fly the kite because he was a clear pass and the examiner was getting bored of watching him doing everything perfectly.

 

[webcraft]

Interestingly . . .

We flew one during my YM exam altho' I said it wasn't something I had done much . . . we got it up fine and it turned into a bit of a teaching exercise after that, being shown different gybing techniques etc. . .

But we were on a sunny morning run back to the marina, so I think I had already passed at that point.

- Nick

 

[Stevie_T]

Actually yes thats a scenario I hadn't considered. Im sure in both cases the candidate would have already passed

 

[Kantara]

My exam involved a dead run with whisker pole and boom preventer rigged when the examiner did the man overboard trick. Fortunately there were two of us being tested and we prepared for it by my lying sunbathing (at dusk in September in the Sound of Mull !!!) on the foredeck so that I was able to leap up and disconnect everything before the fenders bobbed up again. All those years as foredeck hand on a Dragon obviously paid off although I never did it so efficiently before. My co-examinee rounded it off by doing a very impressive pick-up under sail.
I was not so lucky an hour later when the wind picked up and I was below doing a Standard Ports calculation. I managed to sail right over him but he must have been impressed by my foredeck work because he passed me.
Not sure if a flare would have had the same result.