Snatch blocks 60sn1/21/2024 Rig Tuning, Part 3-6 Steps to a Great Tune Rig Tuning, Part 2-Understanding Rake and Bend Setting and Striking a Spinnaker Made Easy and Safe.Keeping The Boom Under Control-Boom Brakes Q&A: Staysail Stay: Roller Furling And Fixed Vs Hanks And RemovableĪmidships “Preventers”-A Bad Idea That Can Kill Swept-Back Spreaders-We Just Don’t Get It! Making Life Easier-Roller Reefing/Furling In-Mast, In-Boom, or Slab Reefing -Performance, Cost and Safety In-Mast, In-Boom, or Slab Reefing-Convenience and Reliability Mainsail Handling Made Easy with Lazyjacksġ2 Reasons The Cutter Is A Great Offshore Voyaging Rig Reefing From The Cockpit 2.0-Thinking Things Through Hoisting the Mainsail Made Easy-Simplicity in Action Previous: Downwind Sailing-Poling Out The Jib Here is one simple hack that Phyllis and I came up with on our 56-foot McCurdy and Rhodes cutter years ago that makes setting and striking a spinnaker with a sock easy and safe, even with just the two of us aboard. A Simple Hack That Makes it Easyīut it does not have to be that way. After all, if this can happen to Andy Schell, one of the most experienced and smartest offshore sailors out there. So now I have convinced you never to even consider an asymmetric spinnaker. I couldn’t see what was still attached from back at the helm, and to make a long story short, when we tried to lower the halyard, the sail wound up in the drink, ripped, then pulled the halyard and the tack line over the side with it.Īndy Schell on his blog (requires membership in The Quarterdeck to read full post). Kevin, who was on the sock downline, immediately let it fly - just like I told him to, to avoid rope burn - and the sail filled again, this time with the tack line super eased, but crucially still attached, so the sail was flying well to leeward and very high, completely out of control. Here's what happened in Andy's words:Īfter a perfect start, as the sock was about halfway down the collapsed sail, the boat rolled to windward and the sail filled with wind again. Our friend Andy Schell and his crew just totalled a brand new and expensive branded spinnaker while striking it offshore on his Swan 59 IceBear. Well, kind of, but even with a sock screwups happen, and not just to newbies. Whatever you call it, an asymmetric spinnaker screwup can both total a very expensive sail and put the crew at risk, and the chances of that happening go up a bunch when we are shorthanded.Įnter the spinnaker sock that makes hoisting and striking easy and safe.right? The difference is they make disaster sound cool by swaggering around-swagger is part of basic race crew training-while saying shit like "yeah, we went shrimping". There are only two of us on the boat, the sail is huge and only attached at three points, and one mistake will see the whole thing in the water. Just tack the asymmetric down at the bow, tie on a sheet, clip on a halyard, hoist, and blast off downwind fast and stable while everyone else is rolling their guts out and probably motoring. Some of the most fun and satisfying sailing we can do is under spinnaker, particularly since the invention of the asymmetric spinnaker freed us cruisers from the complications of poles, downhauls, topping lifts, lazy guys and all the rest of the paraphernalia associated with traditional symmetrical spinnakers. Without a spinnaker in this breeze we would have been motoring and the dolphins would not have stayed as long as they did. Bound for Bermuda under spinnaker with dolphins playing around the bow.
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