How to Rig and Fly a Spinnaker

[GreenLake]

Just finished rigging the boat for the season; I know, a bit late but nothing this year has been as forecast.

Now, I ended up with a longer stretchable part on the uphaul. Thinking that 42" might work. When not in use, I store the UH along the mast (the shackle gets clipped to the mast ring). Total unstretched length is just slightly less than the distance from upper eye-strap to the mast ring, so there's slight(!) tension on the UH when not in use. I've marked this with a note in my original post discussing the geometry.

[tomodda]

Greenlake: Thanks for the tips! Question, where exactly are you attaching the uphaul along the mast? At the spreaders, or?

Tom

[RobH912]

Still following this thread

[GreenLake]

Thanks for following, Rob. Tom, there is an eye-strap 60" above the mast ring. All my measurements assume that location for the UH. The DH position I have is too far back; I may get around to adding yet another fairlead a bit further forward. Will see, but probably not at the forward edge of the cuddy, because I want to be able to rig everything while standing in the cockpit (and the current position, while too close to the mast, is not that terrible - mostly works - so I figure I'm not that far off).

[GreenLake]

Just in case we never mentioned that in any of the posts so far:

The standard location of the mast ring is 58" above the bottom of a keel-stepped DS1 mast. (Note chapter 3 of the DSA class bylaws defines the legal positions, two of them IIRC). Look at the main DSA site for that info.

A maximum of two fittings may be attached to the mast for securing a spinnaker pole and/or whisker pole. The fittings shall be fixed in position no more than 48 inches and no less than 24 inches above Mast Datum. No portion of such fitting shall protrude more than 2 inches from the front of the mast.

The topping lift for the spinnaker (uphaul) is fitted to an eye that is at spreader level on my mast. I assume that would be standard. It does not seem to be regulated.

[GreenLake]

A number of years I built a spinnaker pole made cheaply from bamboo, as described earlier in this thread. Here's a bit of an update. The pole is still going strong (with picture). It's been generally trouble free and I can't imagine ever wanting to switch this for a heavier and more expensive aluminum one.

That said, I did bang the pole against the forestay while sailing at the upper end of the wind range where I still fly the spinnaker and while on a broad reach - always the most challenging point of sail for a symmetric spinnaker.

This jarred loose one of the end fittings to where it could be wiggled a bit. So I re-seated it with a bit of Marine Tex and at the same time gave the end of the pole another wrap of fiberglass to strengthen it against that kind of wrenching, sideways load on the fitting.

Treating your pole like that isn't recommended, but it's good to see that it held up so well that I could still finish the sail that day.

PS: for reference, here is the post with the description of how I put it together.

[GreenLake]

Here's a series of steps I wrote down for the benefit of a new crew member. It's still tentative and I'll be updating this post in place if I learn of a better way.

Raising the Spinnaker

1. Raise the CB
2. Uncleat the downhaul
3. Hand sheet and lazy sheet to the helm
4. Helm passes pole forward
5. Connect the pole to the sheet (claw opening down)
6. Connect the up/downhaul to the middle of the pole
7. Connect the pole to the ring
8. Hoist and cleat halyard (see notes)
9. Adjust downhaul and cleat
10. Get sheet and lazy sheet from the helm
11. Trim and sail

Notes:

• My downhaul doesn't pull the pole forward, so I tend to prefer connecting the pole not to the sheet, but to the loop of the bowline with which the lazy sheet is attached to the sail. Downside is that I need to pull the tack of the spinnaker around before I can connect the pole.
• In light winds, I tend to hoist first, then trim so the sail fills, then pull the tack around to connect the pole.
• In my setup, both up and downhaul are attached to the same shackle, so there's only one connection. The uphaul (topping lift) is a bungee, so only the downhaul (foreguy) needs to be adjusted and cleated.

[GreenLake]

Here's a series of steps I wrote down for the benefit of a new crew member. It's still tentative and I'll be updating this post in place if I learn of a better way.

Stowing the Spinnaker

1. Hand sheet and lazy sheet to the helm
2. Hand tail of halyard to the helm
3. Disconnect the pole from the mast
4. Disconnect the pole from up/downhaul and attach latter to the mast ring
5. Disconnect the pole from the lazy sheet
6. Hand the pole to the helm for stowing
7. Tighten and cleat tail of downhaul
8. Reach in front of the shroud to grab either sheet or sail
9. Gather up foot of the sail
10. Helm releases halyard (controlled)
11. Pull spinnaker in and push into an open bucket (placed in the cockpit, but outboard of the jib sheet)
12. Cleat halyard
13. Get lazy sheet and sheet from helm and secure
14. Lower the CB

Notes:

• If pressed for time, pole can be disconnected from sail and mast and left hanging from the downhaul
• The pole has a tripline to release the sheet from the claw, but often it's easiest to just pull the pole in and disconnect directly (and in the same motion, continue to pass the pole aft for stowage)
• On a DS1, the natural place to store the pole is below the coaming.