Hi Uogecko,

I have just gone through the braking in of a new spinnaker on the infussion, I have listed the ways of making it easier to retrive and set.

As the previous posts it will take a few weeks for the spinnker to soften up and break in, especialy the tack,head and clew which all have stengthening materials sewn in, it will become easier, I know this doesnt help but the spinnaker will soften.

not sure on your set up do you have the black bag or the race kit sail type material?

1 - you must get the top retrival line right, if you tie a knot at the retrival point, quite often it ends up pulling into the ring, the best thing is to put the smallest ball you have as a stopper, and as said above make sure you have 6 inches between the 3rd point and the ring. This will be 80% of your problems solved.

2 - soften the tack,head clew, points at home by rolling and squashing them. This is optional as thye will eventually sofen with use.

3 - every time you sail coat the hoop and spray into the shute with lubricant, we use a sticky silicone that doesnt dry, we used teflon before but as its not sticy it found its way back to the tramp!

4 - every time you sail coat the spinnaker with same coating, especialy in the area the last two retrival pulls

5 - if you dont have the silicone impregnated spinnker, then you can use sailcoat or similar to coat the whole spinnaker as above post(1 pint will be enough)best way of doing this is to hang the spinnaker up horizontal and use a mop to paint on the coating.

6 - Do you have the race shute? the white sail material? if not put it on your list!

7 - Taper tack line, halyard and sheets!

8 - Dont sit/stand on the sheets especialy the tackline!

As you use the spinnaker it will get easier, I had the same issue and contacted NACRA Europe, a month later the spinnkaer has eased up.

enjoy your new cat!