To The Spinnaker....or Not ...?

I am always really keen to help sailors out who are at the start of their respective learning curves, which may be the very first time on the helm or as crew, or when they 'step up' to something new which is enough a leap to actually start a whole new challenge and indeed learning curve.

One such quantum jump is moving up to using a spinnaker for what ever purposes. Now you will find books, blogs, CDroms and Youtube clips dedicated to the topic and the techniques, so rather than reinvent the wheel by telling you how a spinnaker pole is rigged or a gybe set is executed, I want to kind of support your decision to run a 'kite' and how your mental approach and expectations can be managed to make the whole process less painful than it can be for the gung ho who will end up breaking things, and worse, people.

Why Spinnaker ?

Well on the majority of boats designed to be rigged with a spinnaker as option, adding the biggest single sail on the boat adds correspondingly a major jump in off wind performance. In boats that plane, it transforms the whole experience to an exhilarating down hill thrill. In a one design fleet which uses spinnakers, then it is aljmost a prerequisite for good results. On an average 33 odd foot displacement (ie non planing) cruiser/racer and on many of the 40 to 45 foot "luxury caravans" as we call them, a spinnaker designed for the boat will add roughly 20% on the speed off wind as long as it will fill and before you meet winds over the design and your ability to ride with it!

An average cruiser racer stands to add 3 to 4 knots of performance in say 12 to 18 knots of wind. A Performance planing hull will be transformed to adding twice that.

Also for cruisers  as well as racers, adding a spinnaker gives you and the crew a whole new set of challenges which accompany the increase in performance. If you are into team work and team mangementing or wrangling, then spinnaker work especially on a traditional bell shaped symmetrical spinnaker with a articulating pole, is the asthmus of challenge and acheivement in just doing it right. Racing is actually just a test of sailing, most often on all points of sail depending on the layout of the race course. So spinnakers need not be the reserve of the racing fraternity.

The New Back to The Future....Bowsprits and Assymetrical Spinnakers

The advent of assymetrical spinnakers, or the reinvention of the 'gennaker', has made spinnaker handling very much easier for boats which can be adapted to them or are built on outset with a bowsprit or tack point for the new foresail. We really have come full circle here, because before the invention of the spinnaker pole, large , deep cut foresails were hoisted and flown from the bowsprits of square riggers, brigands and schooners and the larger racing yachts of yesteryear.

Technically speaking the term 'gennaker' only applies to a large foresail whose luff does not cross the mid line of the boat, and which may have a bolt rope sewn in its leading edge. An assymetric spinnaker will have a laterally curved luff which flies both sides of the midline.

I remember stepping on boatd a j125 for the weekend of offshore racing and while heading down the Solent. A  couple of crew jumped downstairs and we had to gybe for the shingles bank pretty darn quick.  We were able to pull off the whole exervcise on a 41 foot boat with three of us . That would be a really unpracitcal challenge on a standard poled 41 foot boat for any 'scratch' crew of three thrown together for the weekend for the first time. So assy's have really transformed spinnaker work. More on that later.

Making the Decision to Fly or not to Fly.....

On the opposite side of things why should you not buy and fly a spinnaker? Firstly it would be worth to find out if your boat is actually capable and suitable of carrying a spinnaker if you have no peer group of owners to refer to.
The internet or a call to the builder or designer will inform you of this.

Secondly, will a spinnaker really transform your performance? There  are some designs which really do no suit a spinnaker and those which get a very minimal advantage of running a spinnaker over for example poling out the genoa.

This also comes into the area of handicapping, where often there is either a rating sans spiinnaker, or your own class starts often called 'restriced sail class' or plainly what they are aimed at :'family class'. Relative to your team's ability and the boats 'hit' in having a heavier handicap then it can be worth staying on 'white sails'.

However many boats really do suit a spinnaker, and on longer races the extra speed can make the whole thing less of a marathon and mean you finish within the time limit or get to the bar while it is still open.

If you have ambitions to go faster and learn the spinnaker, given you have a team or can build a team to handle it, and further more you can have access to instruction, training or at least help from another owner or someone at the club, then you have the start to get going and give it a try.

Alternatively, you may have a boat for the family which you race occaisionally and have all the gear for rigging a spinnaker in the garage or loft, then it would be really worth getting help onboard to at least give it a try, especially if it is a simply assymentric set up, or if your family are all pretty sailing savvy and maybe need some new interest added to the sunday sandwich cruise. It may add more interest and excitement than you expect amongst your loyal crew.

Scarey Spinnaker Monsters?

Many middle aged yachties are franklly terrified of the idea of rigging a spinnaker,  having either seen a boat broaching in a bit of a blow, or having crewed in a good old rolly-poly off wind dead run on a smaller tonne design. The answer is still yes, spinnakers can be scary, but only if  you go out in too much wind for your level of experience, or that of your team as a unit. However the big old bag at the front need not be aan unweildy moster by any means. You just have to have a firm understanding of handling, characteristics of the set up with your boat, limits of your crew and last but most, your wind sense- where the wind is coming from, how strong it is in the gusts, what it may do next....

What Mind Set do You Need to Start Using a Spinnaker Set Up?

As a skipper you need to be confident with your boat on all points of sail and preferably in winds much higher than you intend to fly a spinnaker in. If you have sailed the boat say in a force eight down wind on main and jib/genoa then that would be a very good level of experience to fly a spinnaker in upto force 3 or 4 quite soon into your learning curve, and aim to be competent in force 5.

The manoerves you should have mastered to a large degree on 'white sails' prior to tackling a spinnaker are > falling off, reaching, broad reaching, running, sailing a little by the lee, gybing and hardening up. It is pretty essential that you have experienced a broach, because you will know how safe your boat is when heeled excessively and screwing up into the wind.

Another appraoch to starting to learn spinnaker work for a yacht would be to learn it on a dinghy. Here you may want to take your wife or 'first officer' on a course at a cluib or sailing school which has dinghies or small keel boats which run preferably a standard, symmetrical spinnaker ( once learned it is much easier to learn assy than the other way around) Alternatively if no course or immediadte buddy want to do this, then crewing on a small keel boat would be ideal to learn spinnaker work from the sharp end. Nearly all the sailing coasts I can think of have some lower performance, traditional small day keel boats which are safe and very manageable for you to hop onto learn spinnaker. Our local classic day keel boats, have a real handkercheif of a spinnaker and in fact I only enjpoying sailing them n at least force five, otherwise they pose no challenge to me. But they were designed as a training boat for larger Metre designs, and allow crew to learn spinnaker work on what is almost a scale model of the sail on a small boat. Very easy learning, a lot of hands on with a boat sailed by two or three.

Team Up To Speed

Having had experience yourself, then you want to get it all rigged up right on your own boat, which may have some hidden costs in getting things fitted and buying sheets and so on. But it is usually pretty painless for any boat intended to fly a kite. More pain comes in whipping your crew into shape, and that is actually the wrong way of thinking about it. They are are ground zero on the learning curve perhaps.

Firstly, I suggest going out for a training eve or afternoon, wiithout a spinnaker, but using the pole (orr if you have a special whisker pole for the job) to push out the genoa if there is a practical way to do this. Pick a roughly triangular course, of maybe half a nautical mile top to bottom, and then firstly sail around this and talk them through the falling off at the windward bouy or point, reading a bit, running deeper, gybing and sailing on a broad reach or DDW and even a little by the lee to show what is happening. After this get them one by one to helm the course going through the basic thrree or falling off, gybing and hardneing up. THis will inform them all about points of sail and the principles of what is happening to the boat without the distraction of the additional strings and foredeck work of the spinnaker.

If you are a bit savvy, you can rig the pole alone, with a sheet running round tthe forestay, so you sail in a light wind with the jib down and the pole just there alone for practice wihtout the spinnaker being up. Simulate the hoist, the fall off, hardening up to a reach, falling off again and gybing with just the pole. This very much demsytifies much of the work, because the only additional controls are the spinnaker halyard and the loaded sheet when you do set up with a kite.

Set A Wind And Wave Limit

As hinted at above, you really want to set an upper limit for windspeed in sailing a spinnaker, at what ever level you sail. This should be the peak wind speed in the gusts, usually wind for the day is quoted as average  incidentally. A good limit for an absolute beginner would be ten knots gusting 12. In fact you want to set a minimum limit, of say 5 knots of wind, because below that the lulls will collapse the spinnaker creating a lot of frustration in the early days of learning it. As your experience progresses you may find yourself and your crew competent to try winds of 20 knts average or more, all this takes is some more focus and muscle work to get things working smoothly and safely, coupled to a dose of common sense and discretion-before-valour.

Plan Your Moves Ahead And Do Things Early Rather than Later

Much of good spinnaker work is planning ahead and especially not letting the wind get control of you. A rising wind filling in from behind you is a good point to consider an early 'douse' ie taking down the spinnaker. You should think carefully about where you gybe and where you will end up on the new angle in respect of other rights of way boats, waterway users and hazards like rocks. When coming into a leeward mark in a race, or turning round a headland if cruising, it usually pays to start getting the spinnaker down early and to get  the 'white' sails  well set up for hardening the boat up onto a higher point of sail. In a race this can mean dropping at about 5 boat lengths from the mark in light to medium winds before you reach the 3 boat zone. When cruising you may want to drop 10 minutes before rounding, getting a well earned cup of tea in the crew while the boat is still running and not heeled. It pays to have all the spinnaker work done, and even have it properly packed, before your crew are needed on the windward rail or doing other trimming jobs for the beat to winward say, or for coming into port, or for example if a squall line is bearing down on the boat from behind.

Doing things early is not just for new beginners. Many an old sea-dog will read the state of the sea, the positioning of other boats around them and the morale of the crew and call an early gybe or drop in order to just have a little more breathing room for that particular situation. Many racing boats try to hold their kits very long and into the 3 boat triangle in order to

Steer At the Pace of the Team, Don't Try to Rush Spinnaker Work!!

A golden rule of good spinnaker work is that the helm works the boat through manoevres at the speed the crew can handle their spinnaker jobs,  and makes allowances for people taking their time or making small mistakes. The helm must be aware not only of the course, the boats near them and the wind gusts, but also exactly how it is going with each manipulation of the spinnaker.

Also they I should have said, really learn to communicate what is going on to the crew/ ie your next move or what the waves are doing or what is going wrong with the spinnaker work....even if that is just a 5 degree course change. In a way the helm becomes the conductor of the orchestra but with the orchestra dictating the tempo!

A bit like pilots on aircraft, many good crews and helms have check lists, either written or well engrained on their brains and they call these out. A typical example, just before or after the spinnaker is down, I like to call out loud, is " Main Halyard , Cunningham, Outhaul,. Kicker" for setting up the mainsail for the beat, and there are many more sets you can come upon which are useful in both remembering small things, and importantly, the sequence they should happen in.

As you push yourself a little more with higher wind and  sea-states with bigger waves, taking care not to go too large a step at time, then you and your crew will learn how to cope with heavier loading on the running lines, while the boat both rolls more and is more prone to broaching. The crew themselbves become more aware of what is going on and can help inform the helm of iussues, or big gusts filling in, of other boats with righ of way and of good gybe angles.

A-Sails Again.....

Assymetrics have really revolutionised sailing in the last twenty years. The assy' spiinakker with a retractable bow sprit, removes a large amount of the stress involved with a standard, articulated pole for a symmetrical kite. However they have their own challenges, especially when the sail area gets large proportionally for the boat which makes handling them less simple that first meets the eye. Also they angles sailed downwind take more experience and thinking rhrough to get right, which is a challenge many sailors like a alot actually. Many cruisers and a good many older racing yachts have been converted to using assymetric spinnakers by the addition of a bowsprit or simply a tack line on set up on the bow, and essentially this can render the spinnaker now as easy to handle as a white foresail.

These days you could quite happily spend an entire professional career as a racing sailor having never saild an 'old fashioned' symmetrical kite.. For the club racing crew it is always worth getting experiene though in both types of set up in my opionion, because they both have their stregnths, weaknesses and interesing points while you also never know who you might sail with or what boat you may buy later on.

The down side of assymetrics being only that your boat may be a class of boats which does not allow for racing with an assymetric in class, or for some boats where a bowsprit and powerful assy sail would unbalance the boat and render leehelm, a tendency for the boat to fall off under loading on the sail. Assymetric spinnaker sails are otherwise well worth considering in being able to reduce the complexity of using a spinnaker while increasing the performance of your boat.

Summary

Spinnaker sailing is enourmously rewarding in terms of helming and the team dynamic. It invariably adds excitement and challenge which concentrate the mind and give the crew much to do on what otherwise would be a pedestrian affair off wind (tasars and many catamarans exempted!) Keeping within a safe envelope of wind stregnth and manoevre speed is the key, but gently pushing it a bit every so often to keep you and the crew's learning curve moving forward is to be recommended. But spinnaker work is always a steep learning curve, to which adding more wind just makes it the more near vertical as it can get, so be prepared for set backs and rethinking how you organise things and what you expect of your crew and how you communicate with them when deploying and getting the most out of a spinnaker.