VX40s raise and lower their screacher in between downwinds to reduce windage. It is a lot slower to raise/lower and unfurl/furl than it is to set and drop in a chute.
At the top and bottom mark, you olny want to come in once to deal with the kite. Not furl and drop it later.... You should be on the wire and concentrating on your upwind.
Also, dropping a furled screacher is normally the job of more than one person. One drops the halyard whilst the other gathers the kite. Boats that do this tend to have netting in front of the front beam to give the crew access. You also need somewhere to lash the screacher down. So, a screacher that needs to be dropped is a no go for a small OTB craft. Keeping it up = far to much windage and weight aloft.
Keep it up. It is not so much more windage as many think. A midpole snuffer adds drag as well. It is more weight up, but overall less weight than a snuffer. Unfurling is much faster than hoisting and furling is faster than dropping, espicially in big waves. I say this because my boat is fitted with a hooter, and I sail the boat with and without the hooter, so I can tell. I am not saying it is faster, but it is certainly not so worse not to try it (if furling is possible with the mid girth rule shaped sails).
After pitchpole/capsize you have to pull a line, pretty much as with a spi, but again it is faster. Righting requires for my 70kg to drop the wet sail and hoist once it is up. I think that with 80kg it would be a problem at all.
Hopefully I can once sail against a comparable boat to see how much of difference between spi and hooter is.
Cheers,
Klaus
